Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #188942 in Books
• Published on: 1989-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 307 pages

From Library Journal
The 20th anniversary of the first manned lunar landing in 1969 is sure to spawn a series of commemorative books. This is one of them. Another is Charles Murray & Catherine Cox's Apollo ( LJ 6/15/89).-- Ed. The format used is that of an oral interview; each is preceded by a pedestrian photo of the astronaut and an equally pedestrian biographical sketch. What follows is a verbatim text of the interviewer's questions and the subject's responses. Occasionally, there are interesting insights, but overall this contains the sort of information available in earlier astronaut memoirs such as Men From Earth by Buzz Aldrin with Malcolm McConnell ( LJ 6/15/89) and Michael Collins's Liftoff ( LJ 8/88).
- Roger Bilstein, Univ. of Houston-Clear Lake
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

first real look at moonwalkers, and their lives
this was, to my knowledge, the first book done on all 12 moonwalkers,/together, and which tells about the men, their respective missions,and rest of lives,upto late 1980's!what they achieved as astronauts,men, and how they ended upin later life! interesting!

TELLS ABOUT ALL MOONWLKERS
This book tells the reader a little about all 12 men that walked on the Moon, and their reflections of their experience, their lives a little, and how Project Apollo and being an astronaut changed their lives forever! Could read 1000 books like this one, and never get tired of it

Even more interesting 17 years later
The book was written to go with the 20th anniversary of the first landing, and has interviews with 11 of the 12 moonwalkers. Neil Armstrong did not participate, so the authors included excerpts from the public record on Armstrong. Obviously, no book like this can be written today, as some have died. The authors are fortunate to have done this project then, as Jim Irwin was gone before the 25th.

I strongly recommend serious Apollo fans include this in their reading list. Most likely, though, you'll never be able to, as my guess is the book did not sell well and has mostly disappeared. Grab it if you see a copy. The casual space reader would be better served by others in the excellent collection of narratives and autobiographies.

The timing of the book makes for good copy years later. The American glow from the moon landings was long gone, with no follow-up toward permanent work toward the moon. The shuttle had its history of delays, and the Challenger disaster a couple years earlier had prompted re-examination of the role of space and NASA's priorities. The space station was still in the future, and the Soviets were actively working toward a permanent presence in space. Mars looked like a feasible goal that might prompt a serious commitment by now.

The astronauts talk about all of those topics and more, with excellent perspective and their own biases. Their predictions vary widely. There is no mindless optimism - these are serious guys concerned about the future. Many of them offer suggestions for revitalizing the space program and/or what its priorities should be.

The section for each astronaut has some basic bio information and a summary of his role in the space program and what happened in the years since. The bio material about who got what flights reminds the reader of the twists and turns that deviated from the projected crews (e.g., Bean owes his flight to the death of CC Williams). Then it's straight Q&A. Thus, the typical narrative content and weaving of a story is not here, which is what makes this different. What comes through for each astronaut is often what you might have expected. However, there is often a telling detail that I hadn't heard elsewhere.

One point several agreed on is that landing the LM was a lot simpler than night landings on a carrier.

Buzz Aldrin talks about his struggles after returning to earth, his relationship with his father, and re-hashes the decision of who went first. Jim Irwin talks mainly about religious aspects, as does Edgar Mitchell, along with his psychic work that became his focus post-Apollo.

Shepard declines again to say whether he would have overridden the abort on Apollo 14. Mitchell says they would have. Shepard said "The Right Stuff" movie was OK, but "did a disservice to a lot of people" in how they were portrayed. Conrad agrees ("it was terrible"), while liking the book a lot. The thought of Conrad and Tom Wolfe together makes me smile.

Aldrin says he wouldn't trade being on the first (short) mission for one of the last missions with the additional time on the moon, and debunks the story that he gave his second wife a piece of the moon.

Conrad sadly recalls the winding down of his career in NASA ("I would have had a very tough time staying there, living under the damn ground rules by which those guys had to build the Shuttle").

Mitchell's section is the longest and most philosophical, getting into man as a non-linear computer and what happens when a person dies.

Bean recounts the funny story that's in "From the Earth to the Moon" where Conrad says, "Look, I don't want anybody having to take a crap on the moon....". I liked Bean's comments about the crew as a team, and the whole space program as a team. He always comes across as a good guy. Bean also did the illustrations for the book.

Irwin talked a bit about the medical issues on the moon and his problems since then, all the sadder given his early death. Regarding the white "Genesis Rock": "the green rock that we brought back has an approximate age of about a half a billion years older than the white rock. So, really, the green rock should have been called the Genrics Rock, rather than the white one."

Schmitt on the Challenger: "Christa McAuliffe knew exactly what she was doing. She knew what the risks were. The first teacher that went west in covered wagons probably didn't make it either. NASA just didn't know how to handle it."

Scott gets asked a question I had never thought of before this book. What should happen to the landing sites when we go back some day? His interview has an excellent mix of about 90 questions.

In 1989, John Young thought he might get another shuttle flight or two. Never happened. Young also said the best book by an astronaut up to that time was "The Quiet Sun" by Ed Gibson.

Charlie Duke covers his religious conversion and work with Jim Irwin, et al. He and Young claim to have the land speed record on the moon in their excursions with the Rover.

Always-interesting Gene Cernan shines here, too. "100, 200, 300 years from now if you look back at the time it takes between when we first went and when we go back to the moon, even if it's fifty years, it's going to be just a blip in history. So, I'm not bitter because I know it's going to happen."

On a minor note, the book has too many typos for my taste.

P.S. My copy of the book is signed by Shepard, Bean, Cernan and author MacKinnon.