Reaching for the Moon

by Roger D. Launius

  Bilstein, Roger E. Stages to Saturn: A Technological History of the Apollo/Saturn Launch Vehicles. Washington, DC: NASA SP-4206, 1980, rpt. ed. 1996. This thorough and well-written book gives a detailed but highly readable account of the enormously complex process whereby NASA and especially the Marshall Space Flight Center under the direction of Wernher von Braun developed the launch vehicles used in the Apollo program ultimately to send twelve humans to the Moon. Based on exhaustive research and equipped with extensive bibliographic references, this book comes as close to being a definitive history of the Saturn rocket program as is likely ever to appear. Reprinted in 2002 by University Press of Florida.

  Borman, Frank, with Robert J. Serling. Countdown: An Autobiography. New York: William Morrow, Silver Arrow, 1988. Written to appear on the twentieth anniversary of the first lunar landing, this autobiography spans much more than the Apollo program. It recounts Borman’s life in aeronautics, first as a military flier, then as a test pilot, and finally as president of Eastern Airlines.

  Brooks, Courtney G., James M. Grimwood, and Loyd S. Swenson, Jr. Chariots for Apollo: A History of Manned Lunar Spacecraft. Washington, DC: NASA SP-4205, 1979. Based on exhaustive documentary and secondary research as well as 341 interviews, this well-written volume covers the design, development, testing, evaluation, and operational use of the Apollo spacecraft through July 1969.

  Burgess, Colin, ed. Footprints in the Dust: The Epic Voyages of Apollo, 1969–1975. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2010. This book covers the flights of the Apollo program from Apollo 11 through the Apollo-Soyuz mission in 1975.

  Burgess, Colin, and Kate Doolan, with Bert Viz. Fallen Astronauts: Heroes Who Died Reaching for the Moon. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2017. This book tells the stories of the astronauts who died while employed by NASA.

  Burrows, William E. This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age. New York: Random House, 1998. A comprehensive history of spaceflight, which tries to do too much but succeeds in explaining the political, technical, scientific, economic, and cultural history of humanity’s recent adventure in space.

  Cadbury, Deborah. Space Race: The Epic Battle between America and the Soviet Union for the Dominion of Space. New York: Harper Perennial, 2007. A journalistic account of the race to the Moon.

  CBS News. 10:56:20 PM EDT, 7/20/69: The Historic Conquest of the Moon as Reported to the American People. New York: Columbia Broadcasting System, 1970. As the title suggests, this is an attempt to capture in print and pictures the reporting on humankind’s first landing on the Moon during Apollo 11. More useful in capturing the immediacy of the moment than in providing an historical assessment of the event and its significance.

  Cernan, Eugene, with Donald A. Davis. The Last Man on the Moon: Astronaut Eugene Cernan and America’s Race in Space. New York: St. Martin’s, 1999. Gene Cernan, the last person to walk on the Moon, presents this memoir that starts with his childhood days outside Chicago, through college life at Purdue and his early career as a naval aviator, culminating with his career as an astronaut with his flight to the Moon on Apollo 17.

  Chaikin, Andrew. A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts. New York: Viking, 1994. One of the best books on Apollo, this work emphasizes the exploration of the Moon by the astronauts between 1968 and 1972.

  Chapman, Richard L. Project Management in NASA: The System and the Men. Washington, DC: NASA SP-324, 1973. Based on almost 150 interviews and contributions by NASA officials, this volume provides a useful look at NASA’s project management system that contributed significantly to the success of the Apollo program.

  Collins, Michael. Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut’s Journeys. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1974. This is the first candid book about life as an astronaut, written by the member of the Apollo 11 crew who remained in orbit around the Moon. The author comments on other astronauts, describes the seemingly endless preparations for flights to the Moon, and assesses the results.

  Compton, W. David, and Charles D. Benson. Living and Working in Space: A History of Skylab. Washington, DC: NASA SP-4208, 1983. The official NASA history of Skylab, an orbital workshop placed in orbit in the early 1970s.

  ———. Where No Man Has Gone Before: A History of Apollo Lunar Exploration Missions. Washington, DC: NASA SP-4214, 1989. This clearly written account traces the scientific aspects of the Apollo program.

  Cortright, Edgar M., ed. Apollo Expeditions to the Moon. Washington, DC: NASA SP-350, 1975. This large-format volume, with numerous illustrations in both color and black and white, contains essays by numerous luminaries ranging from NASA Administrator James E. Webb to astronauts Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin.

  Ezell, Edward Clinton, and Linda Neuman Ezell. The Partnership: A History of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. Washington, DC: NASA SP-4209, 1978. An outstanding detailed study of the effort by the United States and the Soviet Union in the mid-1970s to conduct a joint human spaceflight.

  Fowler, Eugene. One Small Step: Project Apollo and the Legacy of the Space Age. New York: Smithmark, 1999. This is a large-format “coffee table” history. Rather than focus just on the Apollo program itself, the book splits its contents almost evenly between the history of Apollo and the cultural impact of the space age.

  Fries, Sylvia D. NASA Engineers and the Age of Apollo. Washington, DC: NASA SP-4104, 1992. This book is a sociocultural analysis of a selection of engineers at NASA who worked on Project Apollo. The author makes extensive use of oral history, providing both a significant appraisal of NASA during its “golden age” and important documentary material for future explorations.

  Goldstein, Stanley H. Reaching for the Stars: The Story of Astronaut Training and the Lunar Landing. New York: Praeger, 1987. This is a detailed account of the development and management of the astronaut training program for Project Apollo.

  Gray, Mike. Angle of Attack: Harrison Storms and the Race to the Moon. New York: Norton, 1992. This is a lively journalistic account of the career of Harrison Storms, president of the Aerospace Division of North American Aviation, which built the Apollo capsule. Because of the Apollo 204 fire that killed three astronauts in January 1967, Storms and North American Aviation got sucked into a controversy over accountability and responsibility. In the aftermath Storms was removed from oversight of the project. The most important aspect of this book is its discussion of the Apollo fire and responsibility for it from the perspective of industry. It lays the blame at NASA’s feet and argues that Storms and North American were mere scapegoats.

  Hall, Eldon C. Journey to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Guidance Computer. Reston, VA: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 1996. A detailed history of the development of the pioneering guidance computer built for the Apollo lunar module by MIT’s Draper Laboratory. The author was a senior participant in this effort.

  Hallion, Richard P., and Tom D. Crouch, eds. Apollo: Ten Years since Tranquility Base. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1979. This is a collection of essays developed for the National Air and Space Museum, commemorating the tenth anniversary of the first landing on the Moon, July 20, 1969. It consists of sixteen essays mostly written directly for the National Air and Space Museum by a variety of experts.

  Hansen, James R. First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2005. This is the standard biography of Armstrong.

  Hardesty, Von, and Gene Eisman. Epic Rivalry: The Inside Story of the Soviet and American Space Race. Washington, DC: National Geographic, 2007. A solid attempt to tell the story of the space race, written at the fiftieth anniversary of Sputnik.

  Harford, James J. Korolev: How One Man Masterminded the Soviet Drive to Beat America to the Moon. New York: John Wiley, 1997. The first English-language biography of the Soviet “chief designer,” who directed the projects that were so successful in the late 1950s and early 1960s in energizing the Cold War rivalry for space supremacy.

  Harland, David M. Exploring the Moon: The Apollo Expedit
ions. Chichester, England: Wiley-Praxis, 1999. This work focuses on the exploration and science missions carried out by Apollo astronauts while on the lunar surface.

  Johnson, Stephen B. The Secret of Apollo: Systems Management in American and European Space Programs. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002. This book skilfully interweaves technical details and fascinating personalities to tell the history of systems management in the United States and Europe. It is a very important work that uses Apollo as a key example.

  Kauffman, James L. Selling Outer Space: Kennedy, the Media, and Funding for Project Apollo, 1961–1963. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1994. A straightforward history, but one that is quite helpful, of the public image-building efforts of NASA and the relation of that image to public policy.

  Kelly, Thomas J. Moon Lander: How We Developed the Lunar Module. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2001. An outstanding memoir of the building of the lunar module, written by the Grumman engineer who led the effort.

  Kluger, Jeffrey. Apollo 8: The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon. New York: Henry Holt, 2017. A retelling of the Apollo 8 mission through the eyes of the crew of the mission.

  Kraft, Christopher C., with James L. Schefter. Flight: My Life in Mission Control. New York: E. P. Dutton, 2001. Full of anecdotes, this memoir of Mission Control in Houston is most entertaining.

  Kranz, Gene. Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000. A good memoir of Mission Control.

  Lambright, W. Henry. Powering Apollo: James E. Webb of NASA. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995. This is an excellent biography of James E. Webb, who served as NASA administrator between 1961 and 1968, the critical period in which Project Apollo was under way. During his tenure NASA developed the modern techniques necessary to coordinate and direct the most complex technological enterprise in human history, the sending of human beings to the Moon and bringing them safely back to Earth.

  Launius, Roger D. Apollo: A Retrospective Analysis. Washington, DC: NASA SP-2004-4503, 1994, 2nd ed. 2004. A short study of Apollo’s history with key documents.

  ———. NASA: A History of the U.S. Civil Space Program. Melbourne, FL: Krieger, 1994, rev. ed. 2001. A short book in the Anvil Series, this history of U.S. civilian space efforts consists half of narrative and half of documents. It contains three chapters on the Apollo program, but while coverage consists more of overview than detailed analysis, the approach is broadly analytical and provides the most recent general treatment of its topic.

  Levine, Arnold S. Managing NASA in the Apollo Era. Washington, DC: NASA SP-4102, 1982. A narrative account of NASA from its origins through 1969, this book analyzes key administrative decisions, contracting, personnel, the budgetary process, headquarters organization, relations with the Department of Defense, and long-range planning.

  Liebergot, Sy, and David M. Harland. Apollo EECOM: The Journey of a Lifetime. Burlington, ON: Apogee, 2003. The autobiography of one of the key members of Mission Control in Houston during the Apollo program.

  Light, Michael. Full Moon. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999. In this book Michael Light has woven 129 of these stunningly clear images into a single composite voyage, a narrative of breathtaking immediacy and authenticity.

  Lindsay, Hamish. Tracking Apollo to the Moon. New York: Springer Verlag, 2001. A history of the Apollo program from the perspective of an Australian involved in the tracking of the spacecraft that went to the Moon.

  Logsdon, John M., gen. ed. Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civil Space Program. 6 vols. Washington, DC: NASA Special Publication-4407, 1995–2004. An essential reference work, these volumes print more than 700 key documents in space policy and its development throughout the twentieth century.

  ———. John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. This study, based on extensive research in primary documents and archival interviews with key members of the Kennedy administration, is the definitive examination of John Kennedy’s role in sending Americans to the Moon. Among other revelations, the author finds that after the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, JFK pursued an effort to turn Apollo into a cooperative program with the Soviet Union.

  Lovell, Jim, and Jeffrey Kluger. Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1994. After the 1995 film Apollo 13, no astronaut had more fame than Jim Lovell, commander of the ill-fated mission to the Moon in 1970. This book is his recollection of the mission and the record on which the theatrical release was based.

  Mackenzie, Dana, The Big Splat, or How Our Moon Came to Be. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley, 2003. A fine discussion of how the science of Apollo led to a new interpretation of the origins of the Moon.

  Maher, Neil M. Apollo in the Age of Aquarius. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2017. A major reinterpretation of the Apollo program and its relationship to the counterculture of the 1960s.

  Mailer, Norman. Of a Fire on the Moon. Boston: Little, Brown, 1970. One of the foremost contemporary American writers, Mailer was commissioned to write about the first lunar landing. The book reflects Mailer’s 1960s countercultural mindset in meeting its antithesis, a NASA steeped in middle-class values and reverence for the American flag and culture.

  Makemson, Harlen. Media, NASA, and America’s Quest for the Moon. New York: Peter Lang, 2009. A study of media’s reporting on the lunar program.

  McCurdy, Howard E. Inside NASA: High-Technology and Organization Change in the U.S. Space Program. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993. A major study showing change to the organizational culture from the Apollo era to the present.

  ———. Space and the American Imagination. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997. A pathbreaking study of the relationship between space and American culture.

  McDougall, Walter A. . . . the Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age. New York: Basic, 1985. This Pulitzer Prize–winning book analyzes the race to the Moon in the 1960s. The author, then teaching at the University of California, Berkeley, argues that Apollo prompted the space program to stress engineering over science, competition over cooperation, civilian over military management, and international prestige over practical applications. While he recognizes Apollo as a “magnificent achievement,” he concludes that it was also enormously costly. Emphasizing the effect of space upon American society, this history focuses on the role of the state as a promoter of technological progress.

  Mindell, David. Digital Apollo: Human and Machine in Spaceflight. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2011. An important study of the development of the Apollo guidance computer.

  Mitchell, Edgar D., with Dwight Williams. The Way of the Explorer: An Apollo Astronaut’s Journey through the Material and Mystical Worlds. New York: G. P. Putnam, 1996. A member of the Apollo 14 crew, Mitchell presents a smooth blend of autobiography and exegesis, commenting at length on the experiments in extrasensory perception he conducted on the flight and on his spiritual journey since returning to Earth.

  Mitchell, Edgar, and Ellen Mahoney, Earthrise: My Adventures as an Apollo 14 Astronaut. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2014. This is the inspiring and fascinating biography of the sixth man to walk on the Moon. Of the nearly seven billion people who live on Earth, only twelve have walked on the Moon, and Edgar Mitchell was one of them. Earthrise is a vibrant memoir for young adults featuring the life story of this internationally known Apollo 14 astronaut. The book focuses on Mitchell’s amazing journey to the Moon in 1971 and highlights the many steps he took to get there. In engaging and suspenseful prose, he details his historic flight to the Moon, describing everything from the very practical (eating, sleeping, and going to the bathroom in space) to the metaphysical (experiencing a life-changing connectedness to the universe).

  Monchaux, Nicholas de. Spacesuit: Fashioning Apollo. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2011. This scintillating and innovative book explores layers of the space suit to
tell the human story of its construction and use, as well as the stories of those who made and used it.

  Montgomery, Scott L. The Moon and the Western Imagination. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1999. The author has produced a richly detailed analysis of how the Moon has been visualized in Western culture through the ages, revealing the faces it has presented to philosophers, writers, artists, and scientists for nearly three millennia.

  Murray, Charles A., and Catherine Bly Cox. Apollo: The Race to the Moon. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989. Rpt. ed., Burkittsville, MD: South Mountain, 2004. Perhaps the best general account of the lunar program, this history uses interviews and documents to reconstruct the stories of the people who participated in Apollo.

  Neufeld, Michael J. Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007. This is the standard work on the life of the rocket pioneer and the godfather of the Saturn V rocket that took astronauts to the Moon.

  Oberg, James E. Red Star in Orbit. New York: Random House, 1981. Written by one of the premier Soviet space watchers, this history of the Soviet space program is among the best published in English before the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989. Based mostly on Western sources, it describes what was then known of the Soviet Union’s efforts to land a cosmonaut on the Moon before the U.S. Apollo landing in 1969.

  Oliver, Kendrick. To Touch the Face of God: The Sacred, the Profane, and the American Space Program, 1957–1975. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012. This is an underappreciated aspect of the ideology of human spaceflight. While historians have expended great effort to understand the influence of the Cold War in explaining the United States’ embarkation in the difficult task of exploring space with humans, we have done little more than tangentially recognize that there seems to be something more to the support for human spaceflight than just practicality and realpolitik.