Reaching for the Moon
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Oreskes, Naomi, and John Krige, eds. Science and Technology in the Global Cold War. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2014. An important collection of essays, especially Asif A. Siddiqi’s “Fighting Each Other: The N-1, Soviet Big Science, and the Cold War at Home.”
Orloff, Richard G., compiler. Apollo by the Numbers: A Statistical Reference. Washington, DC: NASA SP-2000-4029, 2000. An excellent statistical reference.
Paul, Richard, and Steven Moss. We Could Not Fail: The First African Americans in the Space Program. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2015. A major reinterpretation of the place of African-American engineers and scientists in the Apollo program.
Pellegrino, Charles R., and Joshua Stoff. Chariots for Apollo: The Making of the Lunar Module. New York: Atheneum, 1985. A popular though not always accurate discussion of the development of the lunar module by the Grumman Aerospace Corporation.
Poole, Robert. Earthrise: How Man First Saw the Earth. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008. A pathbreaking book on the Apollo 8 mission and the “Earthrise” photograph that captured the global imagination.
Reynolds, David West. Apollo: The Epic Journey to the Moon, 1963–1972. New York: Zenith, 2013, rpt. Featuring a wealth of rare photographs, artwork, and cutaway illustrations, the book recaptures the excitement of the United States’ journey to the Moon.
Schirra, Wally, and Richard N. Billings. Schirra’s Space. Annapolis: Naval Institute Press, 1995. Wally Schirra was the only one of the original seven NASA astronauts to command a spacecraft in all three pioneering space programs—Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo.
Scott, David Meerman, and Richard Jurek. Marketing the Moon: The Selling of the Apollo Lunar Program. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2014. An illustrated work on the sophisticated efforts by NASA and its many contractors to market the facts about space travel—through press releases, bylined articles, lavishly detailed background materials, and fully produced radio and television features—rather than push an agenda.
Shayler, David J. Apollo: The Lost and Forgotten Missions. Chichester, England: Springer-Praxis, 2002. A discussion of planning for the aborted Apollo 18, 19, and 20 missions.
Shepard, Alan, and Deke Slayton. Moonshot: The Inside Story of America’s Race to the Moon. New York: Turner, 1994. Based on the recollections of two of the original Mercury Seven astronauts chosen in 1959, this book is a disappointing general history of human space exploration by NASA from the first flight in 1961 through the last Apollo landing in 1972.
Siddiqi, Asif A. Challenge to Apollo: The Soviet Union and the Space Race, 1945–1974. Washington, DC: NASA SP-2000-4408, 2000. The Soviet side of the race to the Moon. Reprinted as a two-volume paperback by University Press of Florida in 2003.
———. The Red Rockets’ Glare: Spaceflight and the Soviet Imagination, 1857–1957. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010. A seminal study of the origins of the Soviet space program.
Slayton, Donald K., and Michael Cassutt. Deke! U.S. Manned Space, From Mercury to the Shuttle. New York: Forge, 1995. This is the autobiography of one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts, selected in April 1959 to fly in space. Deke Slayton served as a NASA astronaut during Projects Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, and the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP), and while he was originally scheduled to pilot the Mercury-Atlas 7 mission, he was relieved of this assignment due to a mild occasional irregular heart palpitation discovered in August 1959. His only spaceflight took place in July 1975 as a crewmember aboard the ASTP mission.
Smith, Andrew. Moondust: In Search of the Men Who Fell to Earth. New York: Fourth Estate, 2005. The author interviewed all the remaining Apollo astronauts, seeking to learn how their lives had changed because of the experience. This book is a remarkable statement of the lives of this elite group of Americans. Some remain household names, such as Neil Armstrong, who has carried his celebrity experience with both dignity and honor. Many are unknown to all except the space community. Some are garrulous and easy to talk to, others are aloof and guarded. Smith found that all were fundamentally changed by the Apollo experience.
Stafford, Thomas P., and Michael Cassutt. We Have Capture: Tom Stafford and the Space Race. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2002. This is a fine book that is sure to benefit all readers interested in America’s adventure in space. Tom Stafford is one of America’s most significant astronauts, although he is less well known than some of the others. Stafford made four spaceflights—Gemini 6, Gemini 9, Apollo 10, and Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP)—but he was especially significant for his efforts since the 1970s as the unofficial ambassador to the Soviet Union for space, and for his key roles in defining space policy in the United States.
Steven-Boniecki, Dwight. Live TV from the Moon. Burlington, ON: Apogee, 2010. The book covers the earliest known proposals of television coverage on lunar missions and the constant battle internal politics placed upon the inclusion of the TV system on Apollo missions. Closely related subjects such as the slow scan conversion and later color conversion are discussed, and overviews are included for each piloted Apollo mission and the role TV played in covering the flight.
Sullivan, Scott P. Virtual Apollo: A Pictorial Essay of the Engineering and Construction of the Apollo Command and Service Modules. Burlington, ON: Apogee, 2003. A collection of exceptionally accurate drawings of Apollo hardware.
Swanson, Glen E., ed. “Before This Decade Is Out . . .”: Reflections on the Apollo Program. Washington, DC: NASA Special Publication-4223, 1999. A collection of oral histories with some of the key individuals associated with Project Apollo, including George Mueller, Gene Kranz, James Webb, and Wernher von Braun. Rpt. 2002 by University Press of Florida.
Thomas, Andrew R., and Paul N. Thomarios. The Final Journey of the Saturn V. Akron, OH: University of Akron Press, August 2011. The Saturn V can be considered one of humankind’s greatest achievements. Unfortunately, the demise of the Apollo program left the unused Saturn launch vehicles to rot outside, where they became home to flora and fauna. Hoping not only to resurrect the physical rocket, but also to bring the complete Moon adventure back to life, the Smithsonian Institution and other prominent partners laid out plans to create a total “mission experience” destination at Kennedy Space Center. A key component of the plan was the complete restoration of the Saturn V by Paul Thomarios.
Tribbe, Matthew D. No Requiem for the Space Age: The Apollo Moon Landings and American Culture. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014. Offers a portrait of a nation questioning its values and capabilities with Apollo as the center of this debate.
Turnill, Reginald. The Moonlandings: An Eyewitness Account. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Longtime BBC aerospace reporter Turnill gives a comprehensive overview of the Apollo program, including its origins in America’s post-Sputnik panic, the preliminary Mercury and Gemini programs, the drama of the Apollo 11 landing and the Apollo 13 near-disaster, as well as the program’s demise amid waning public interest, rising costs, and a general sense that the Moon launches had accomplished all they could accomplish.
Webb, James E. Space Age Management: The Large-Scale Approach. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1969. Based on a series of lectures, this book by the former NASA administrator tried to apply the concepts of large-scale technological management employed in Apollo to the other problems of society.
Wendt, Guenter, and Russell Still. The Unbroken Chain. Burlington, ON: Apogee, 2001. Memoirs are in vogue for the Apollo pioneers. Guenter Wendt was the legendary “pad leader” for all the human space launches from the first Mercury mission in 1961 through the last Apollo flights.
Westwood, Lisa, Beth Laura O’Leary, and Milford Wayne Donaldson. The Final Mission: Preserving NASA’s Apollo Sites. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2017. A discussion of the historic sites of the Apollo program and how they might be preserved.
Wilford, John Noble. We Reach the Moon: The New York Times Story of Man’s Greatest Adventure. New York: Bantam, 1969. One of the earliest of the journalistic accounts to appea
r at the time of Apollo 11; a key feature of this general, undistinguished history is a sixty-four-page color insert with photographs of the mission. It was prepared by the science writer of the New York Times using his past articles.
Wilhelms, Don E. To a Rocky Moon: A Geologist’s History of Lunar Exploration. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1993. This detailed account of lunar exploration and science strikes a balance between personal memoir and history. As history it provides an exhaustive and contextual account of lunar geology during the 1960s and 1970s, and a less comprehensive detailed but informative account for the rest of the century. As memoir it provides an engaging story of the scientific exploration of the Moon as seen by one of the field’s more important behind-the-scenes scientists.
Worden, Al, and French Francis. Falling to Earth: An Apollo 15 Astronaut’s Journey to the Moon, New York: Smithsonian Books, July 2011. As command module pilot for the Apollo 15 mission to the Moon in 1971, Al Worden flew on what is widely regarded as the greatest exploration mission that humans have ever attempted.
Young, John W., with James R. Hansen. Forever Young: A Life of Adventure in Air and Space. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2012. An astronaut’s personal experiences in Gemini, Apollo, and beyond.
Zimmerman, Robert. Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8. New York: Four Walls Eight Windows, 1998. A detailed account of the December 1968 circumlunar mission to the Moon of Frank Borman, Bill Anders, and Jim Lovell.
Film and Video Works
America in Space: The First 40 Years. 1996. Finley-Holiday Film Corp. 51-minute video general history of space exploration by the United States.
Apollo 11: A Night to Remember. 2009. Acorn Media. Paul Vanezis, director. 118-minute DVD. Using rare archival footage from the BBC, this two-hour documentary compiles the sights, sounds, and electrifying drama of humanity’s first footsteps on the Moon. Astronomer Sir Patrick Moore and veteran newsmen cover events as they happened from the launchpad in Cape Kennedy, Mission Control in Houston, and the BBC desk in London.
Apollo Moon Landings: Out of This World. 1996. Finley-Holiday Film Corp. 56-minute video providing a general narrative of the Apollo program.
Apollo 17: Final Footprints on the Moon. 2012. Midnight Pulp Productions. 50-minute DVD and instant download. A tribute to three astronauts and the thousands of men and women behind them during the final days of NASA’s Apollo program.
Apollo 13. 1995. Feature film directed by Ron Howard and produced by Brian Grazer. Screenplay by William Broyles, Jr., and Al Reinert. One of the best feature films ever made about the U.S. space program, this work captures the dynamism and drama of the near-disastrous mission without sinking to hagiography or mendacity. Tom Hanks as astronaut Jim Lovell and Ed Harris as mission controller Gene Kranz stand out in a fine ensemble cast. Unlike most Hollywood productions, this work paid close attention to historical detail and captured the reality of the mission.
Apollo 13—Journey to the Moon, Mars, and Back. 2006. NOVA, Noel Buckner and Rob Whittlesey, directors. 270-minute DVD. Tells the gripping, true story of the catastrophic flight of Apollo 13 and the heroic struggle to bring the astronauts back alive. With firsthand accounts from the pilots, their families, and the people of Mission Control, it documents a thrilling struggle against time and odds and serves as a reminder that, in the words of James Lovell, “We do not realize what we have on Earth until we leave it.”
Apollo 13—NASA’s Historical Film. 1995. Finley-Holiday Film Corp. 60-minute video history of the mission originally produced by NASA not long after the flight but rereleased in VHS format for educational institutions.
Apollo 13: To the Edge and Back. 1994. WGBH Boston. Written, produced, and directed by Noel Buckner and Rob Whittlesey. 56-minute video history of the mission.
First Man. 2018. Feature film directed by Damien Chazelle. Screenplay by Josh Singer. Based on the book by James R. Hansen, this biopic of Neil A. Armstrong depicts the first Moon landing.
For All Mankind. 1989. 80-minute documentary film produced and directed by Al Reinert. Deals with the Apollo missions, and uses only actual visuals from the missions and the narratives of the astronauts on the missions.
History of Spaceflight: Reaching for the Stars. 1996. Finley-Holiday Film Corp. 60-minute video history of NASA hosted by Alan Shepard.
In the Shadow of the Moon. 2008. VELOCITY / THINKFILM. 110-minute DVD by David Sington. Film vividly communicates the daring and the danger, the pride and the passion, of this era in American history. Between 1968 and 1972, the world watched in awe each time an American spacecraft voyaged to the Moon. Only twelve American men walked upon its surface, and they remain the only human beings to have stood on another world. The film combines archival material from the original NASA film footage, much of it never before seen, with interviews with the surviving astronauts, including Jim Lovell (Apollo 8 and 13), Dave Scott (Apollo 9 and 15), John Young (Apollo 10 and 16), Gene Cernan (Apollo 10 and 17), Mike Collins (Apollo 11), Buzz Aldrin (Apollo 11), Alan Bean (Apollo 12), Edgar Mitchell (Apollo 14), Charlie Duke (Apollo 16) and Harrison Schmitt (Apollo 17). The astronauts emerge as eloquent, witty, emotional, and very human.
Man on the Moon with Walter Cronkite. 2009. 2-DVD set. CBS. Presents the 1969 Moon-landing telecast.
Mission to the Moon. 1986. Signature Productions. Directed by Christine Solinski. Written and produced by Blaine Baggett. 56-minute video on the Apollo program narrated by Martin Sheen.
Moonshot. 1994. TBS Productions. Produced and directed by Kirk Wolfinger. 200-minute dramatization, with archival footage, of the history of the human spaceflight program since the 1950s, hosted by Barry Corbin.
NASA: 50 Years of Space Exploration. 2006. Madacy. 1,026-minute DVD collection. These five DVDs present the most thrilling moments in U.S. space exploration, while also examining the heartbreaking events when tragedy struck the astronauts. Includes Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo, as well as Skylab, ASTP, Space Shuttle, and the space station through NASA’s fifty-year history.
One Giant Leap. 1994. Barraclough Carey Productions for Discovery Network. Directed by Steve Riggs. Produced by George Carey. Documentary on Project Apollo.
The Right Stuff. 1983. Feature film directed by Philip Kaufman and produced by Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff. Screenplay by Kaufman, based on the book by Tom Wolfe. A cast of relative unknowns at the time depicted the development of aeronautics and astronautics from 1947 through the Mercury program. Scott Glenn as Alan Shepard and Ed Harris as John Glenn captured the essence of being an astronaut. A box-office hit, the film also won four Academy Awards.
To the Moon and Beyond . . . 1994. SunWest Media Group. 56-minute video discusses Apollo program and recent history of space exploration.
When We Left Earth—The NASA Missions. 2007. Discovery Channel. 258-minute DVD. To celebrate fifty years of incredible achievements, the Discovery Channel partnered with NASA to reveal the epic struggles, tragedies, and triumphs of the human spaceflight program. Along with the candid interviews of the people who made it happen, hundreds of hours of never-before-seen film footage from the NASA archives—including sequences on board the actual spacecraft in flight—were carefully restored, edited, and compiled for this collection.
Index
A7L space suit, 165–166
Abbey, George W.S., 7
Abernathy, Ralph, 180–182
Adam, Project, 118
Aelita, or The Decline of Mars, 43
“Aerodynamic Problems of Guided Missiles,” 6
Aldrin, Buzz, 130, 132–134, 171
and Apollo 11 mission, 176–184
All in the Family, 200
Allen, Joseph P., 196
Altschul, Frank, 19–20
American Association for the Advancement of Science, 148
Anders, William A., 171, 173–176, 178
Apollo, Project, 6, 10
and Apollo 8 mission, 173–176
and Apollo 11 mission, 176–184
and Apollo 13 missi
on, 186–187
flights of, 170–193
funding for, 140–144
and idea of progress, 206–208
and impact on environmentalism, 194–196
interpretations of decision, 104–109
and Lunar Module, 164–165, 186
and mode decision, 151–154
and Moon landing decision, 89–112
nostalgia for, 209–214
organizational culture, 149–151
personnel mobilization, 144–146
prestige of, 204–206
and program management concept, 146–151
and Saturn V rocket, 10, 123, 146, 148–149, 155–159
and science return, 202–204
and spacecraft development, 159–160
and spacecraft fire, 161–164, 174
and space suits, 165–166
and technological excellence, 196–201
Apollo 4, 156
Apollo 5, 156
Apollo 6, 156
Apollo 7, 156, 171, 172–173
Apollo 8, 81, 146, 156, 167–168, 171, 173–176, 195
Apollo 9, 156, 171, 173
Apollo 10, 156, 171, 173
Apollo 11, 81, 156, 168, 171, 176–184
Apollo 12, 52, 57, 156, 171, 184–186
Apollo 13, 156, 171, 186–187, 198, 211–213
Apollo 14, 57, 156, 188, 200
Apollo 15, 81, 156, 188
Apollo 16, 156, 188
Apollo 17, 57, 156, 188
Apollo Lunar Experiments Package, 189
Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, 81, 156
Armstrong, Neil A., 130, 133–134, 171, 218
and Apollo 11 mission, 176–184
Aryabhata satellite, 135
Astronauts, 59–88