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(This is True author Randy Cassingham delivered Jerry's eulogy. The full text is here.) From This is True for 24 October 1999 Suggestions for further reading:
 By: Ken AbrahamBuzz Aldrin List Price: $27.00 Amazon Price: $9.99 Editorial Review: Forty years ago, Buzz Aldrin became the second human, minutes after Neil Armstrong, to set foot on a celestial body other than the Earth. The event remains one of mankind?s greatest achievements and was witnessed by the largest worldwide television audience in history. In the years since, millions more have had their Earth-centric perspective unalterably changed by the iconic photograph of Aldrin standing on the surface of the moon, the blackness of space behind him and his fellow explorer and the Eagle reflected in his visor. Describing the alien world he was walking upon, he uttered the words ?magnificent desolation.? And as the astronauts later sat in the Eagle, waiting to begin their journey back home, knowing that they were doomed unless every system and part on board worked flawlessly, it was Aldrin who responded to Mission Control?s clearance to take off with the quip, ?Roger. Understand. We?re number one on the runway.? The flight of Apollo 11 made Aldrin one of the most famous persons on our planet, yet few people know the rest of this true American hero?s story. In Magnificent Desolation, Aldrin not only gives us a harrowing first-person account of the lunar landing that came within seconds of failure and the ultimate insider?s view of life as one of the superstars of America?s space program, he also opens up with remarkable candor about his more personal trials?and eventual triumphs?back on Earth. From the glory of being part of the mission that fulfilled President Kennedy?s challenge to reach the moon before the decade was out, Aldrin returned home to an Air Force career stripped of purpose or direction, other than as a public relations tool that NASA put to relentless use in a seemingly nonstop world tour. The twin demons of depression and alcoholism emerged?the first of which Aldrin confronted early and publicly, and the second of which he met with denial until it nearly killed him. He burned through two marriages, his Air Force career came to an inglorious end, and he found himself selling cars for a living when he wasn?t drunkenly wrecking them. Redemption came when he finally embraced sobriety, gained the love of a woman, Lois, who would become the great joy of his life, and dedicated himself to being a tireless advocate for the future of space exploration?not only as a scientific endeavor but also as a thriving commercial enterprise. These days Buzz Aldrin is enjoying life with an enthusiasm that reminds us how far it is possible for a person to travel, literally and figuratively. As an adventure story, a searing memoir of self-destruction and self-renewal, and as a visionary rallying cry to once again set our course for Mars and beyond, Magnificent Desolation is the thoroughly human story of a genuine hero. From the Hardcover edition.  By: Paul A. LaViolette Ph.D. List Price: $24.00 Amazon Price: $16.32 Editorial Review: A complete investigation of the development and suppression of antigravity and field propulsion technologies ? Reveals advanced aerospace technologies capable of controlling gravity that could revolutionize air travel and energy production ? Reviews numerous field propulsion devices that have thrust-to-power ratios thousands of times greater than a jet engine ? Shows how NASA participates in a cover-up to block adoption of advanced technologies under military development In Secrets of Antigravity Propulsion, physicist Paul LaViolette reveals the secret history of antigravity experimentation--from Nikola Tesla and T. Townsend Brown to the B-2 Advanced Technology Bomber. He discloses the existence of advanced gravity-control technologies, under secret military development for decades, that could revolutionize air travel and energy production. Included among the secret projects he reveals is the research of Project Skyvault to develop an aerospace propulsion system using intense beams of microwave energy similar to that used by the strange crafts seen flying over Area 51. Using subquantum kinetics--the science behind antigravity technology--LaViolette reviews numerous field-propulsion devices and technologies that have thrust-to-power ratios thousands of times greater than that of a jet engine and whose effects are not explained by conventional physics and relativity theory. He then presents controversial evidence about the NASA cover-up in adopting these advanced technologies. He also details ongoing Russian research to duplicate John Searl?s self-propelled levitating disc and shows how the results of the Podkletnov gravity beam experiment could be harnessed to produce an interstellar spacecraft.  By: Craig Nelson List Price: $27.95 Amazon Price: $18.45 Editorial Review: A richly detailed and dramatic account of one of the greatest achievements of humankind At 9:32 A.M. on July 16, 1969, the Apollo 11 rocket launched in the presence of more than a million spectators who had gathered to witness a truly historic event. It carried Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Mike Collins to the last frontier of human imagination: the moon. Rocket Men is the thrilling story of the moon mission, and it restores the mystery and majesty to an event that may have become too familiar for most people to realize what a stunning achievement it represented in planning, technology, and execution. Through interviews, twenty-three thousand pages of NASA oral histories, and declassified CIA documents on the space race, Craig Nelson re-creates a vivid and detailed account of the Apollo 11 mission. From the quotidian to the scientific to the magical, readers are taken right into the cockpit with Aldrin and Armstrong and behind the scenes at Mission Control. Rocket Men is the story of a twentieth-century pilgrimage; a voyage into the unknown motivated by politics, faith, science, and wonder that changed the course of history.  By: Andrew Chaikin List Price: $29.95 Amazon Price: $19.77 Editorial Review: The epic of the Apollo missions told in the astronauts? own words and gorgeously illustrated with their photographs Andrew Chaikin?s A Man on the Moon is considered the definitive history of the Apollo moon missions?arguably the pinnacle of human experience. Now, using never-before-published quotes taken from his in-depth interviews with twenty-three of the twenty-four Apollo lunar astronauts, Chaikin and his collaborator, Victoria Kohl, have created an extraordinary account of the lunar missions. In Voices from the Moon the astronauts vividly recount their experiences in intimate detail; their distinct personalities and remarkably varied perspectives emerge from their candid and deeply personal reflections. Carefully assembled into a narrative that reflects the entire arc of the lunar journey, Voices from the Moon captures the magnificence of the Apollo program like no other book. Paired with their own words are 160 images taken from NASA?s new high-resolution scans of the photos the astronauts took during the missions. Many of the photos, which are reproduced with stunning and unprecedented detail, have rarely?if ever?been seen by the general public. Voices from the Moon is an utterly unique chronicle of these defining moments in human history.  By: Stephen HawkingLucy HawkingGarry Parsons List Price: $18.99 Amazon Price: $9.99 Editorial Review: George's best friend, Annie, needs help. Her scientist father, Eric, is working on a space project -- and it's all going wrong. A robot has landed on Mars but is behaving very oddly. And now Annie has discovered something weird on her dad's supercomputer.Is it a message from an alien? Could there be life out there? How do you find a planet in outer space? And if you could talk to aliens, what would you say?An action-packed roller-coaster ride into a dramatic treasure hunt across the cosmos, this terrific adventure is FILLED with the LATEST scientific knowledge about our Universe, including special essays from some of the top scientists in the world! |
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