|
From This is True for 12 July 1998 Suggestions for further reading:
 By: Craig Nelson List Price: $27.95 Amazon Price: $15.37 Editorial Review: A richly detailed and dramatic account of one of the greatest achievements of humankindAt 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: Andrew Chaikin List Price: $23.99 Amazon Price: $16.31 Editorial Review: July 20, 1969, marked one of the climactic moments in our history?the day Apollo 11 landed on the moon. But it is only one piece of a magnificent story. Mission Control, This Is Apollo, by the acclaimed Andrew Chaikin (author of A Man on the Moon, basis of the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon), recounts space history from the Mercury missions through Apollo 17 and beyond. It is illustrated with stunning full-color paintings by astronaut Alan Bean, who walked on the moon with Pete Conrad on Apollo 12 and has devoted his post-NASA life to creating art. Handsome, informative, and dramatic, this is no textbook?it is the tale of humankind?s greatest adventure in the last frontier: space.  By: David A. Mindell List Price: $29.95 Amazon Price: $19.77 Editorial Review: As Apollo 11's Lunar Module descended toward the moon under automatic control, a program alarm in the guidance computer?s software nearly caused a mission abort. Neil Armstrong responded by switching off the automatic mode and taking direct control. He stopped monitoring the computer and began flying the spacecraft, relying on skill to land it and earning praise for a triumph of human over machine. In Digital Apollo, engineer-historian David Mindell takes this famous moment as a starting point for an exploration of the relationship between humans and computers in the Apollo program. In each of the six Apollo landings, the astronaut in command seized control from the computer and landed with his hand on the stick. Mindell recounts the story of astronauts' desire to control their spacecraft in parallel with the history of the Apollo Guidance Computer. From the early days of aviation through the birth of spaceflight, test pilots and astronauts sought to be more than "spam in a can" despite the automatic controls, digital computers, and software developed by engineers. Digital Apollo examines the design and execution of each of the six Apollo moon landings, drawing on transcripts and data telemetry from the flights, astronaut interviews, and NASA's extensive archives. Mindell's exploration of how human pilots and automated systems worked together to achieve the ultimate in flight?a lunar landing?traces and reframes the debate over the future of humans and automation in space. The results have implications for any venture in which human roles seem threatened by automated systems, whether it is the work at our desktops or the future of exploration.  By: Dennis R. JenkinsJorge R. Frank List Price: $16.95 Amazon Price: $11.53 Editorial Review: 20:17:40 UTC, 20 July 1969. Contrary to popular belief, few people remember the first words actually spoken from the Moon. The first words were procedural, hardly memorable: "Contact light; Okay, engine stop; ACA out of detent," etc. Then, in words intended for public consumption, spoken to a worldwide audience so enthralled with the mission that tens of millions were listening and watching, live, in fuzzy black and white by Neil Armstrong: "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." It was a culmination of a dream that dated back millennia, although the landing could trace its specific origin to a speech by the President of the United States, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, on 25 May 1961: ". . . I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. . . " Landing Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the Moon had cost the lives of three astronauts in the Apollo 1 fire, as well as something approaching $125 billion (in 2009 dollars) of American treasure. It stands as the landmark technical achievement in the 6,000-year recorded history of the human race. This photo scrapbook shows images some famous, others unknown that chronicle the epic journey of Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, and Michael Collins aboard Apollo 11, 40 years ago. |
About the HUs
About This is True
Prev: "Dick and Jane" author A. Sterl Artley Next: Lassie's dad Hugh Reilly | |