Download or read book Falling to Earth written by Al Worden and published by Smithsonian Institution. This book was released on 2012-07-24 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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. He spent six days orbiting the moon, including three days completely alone, the most isolated human in existence. During the return from the moon to earth he also conducted the first spacewalk in deep space, becoming the first human ever to see both the entire earth and moon simply by turning his head. The Apollo 15 flight capped an already-impressive career as an astronaut, including important work on the pioneering Apollo 9 and Apollo 12 missions, as well as the perilous flight of Apollo 13. Nine months after his return from the moon, Worden received a phone call telling him he was fired and ordering him out of his office by the end of the week. He refused to leave. What happened in those nine months, from being honored with parades and meetings with world leaders to being unceremoniously fired, has been a source of much speculation for four decades. Worden has never before told the full story around the dramatic events that shook NASA and ended his spaceflight career. Readers will learn them here for the first time, along with the exhilarating account of what it is like to journey to the moon and back. It's an unprecedentedly candid account of what it was like to be an Apollo astronaut, with all its glory but also its pitfalls.

Download or read book Across the Airless Wilds written by Earl Swift and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-07-06 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "THRILLING. ... Up-end[s] the Apollo narrative entirely." —The Times (London) A "brilliantly observed" (Newsweek) and "endlessly fascinating" (WSJ) rediscovery of the final Apollo moon landings, revealing why these extraordinary yet overshadowed missions—distinguished by the use of the revolutionary lunar roving vehicle—deserve to be celebrated as the pinnacle of human adventure and exploration. One of The Wall Street Journal's 10 Best Books of the Month 8:36 P.M. EST, December 12, 1972: Apollo 17 astronauts Gene Cernan and Jack Schmitt braked to a stop alongside Nansen Crater, keenly aware that they were far, far from home. They had flown nearly a quarter-million miles to the man in the moon’s left eye, landed at its edge, and then driven five miles in to this desolate, boulder-strewn landscape. As they gathered samples, they strode at the outermost edge of mankind’s travels. This place, this moment, marked the extreme of exploration for a species born to wander. A few feet away sat the machine that made the achievement possible: an electric go-cart that folded like a business letter, weighed less than eighty pounds in the moon’s reduced gravity, and muscled its way up mountains, around craters, and over undulating plains on America’s last three ventures to the lunar surface. In the decades since, the exploits of the astronauts on those final expeditions have dimmed in the shadow cast by the first moon landing. But Apollo 11 was but a prelude to what came later: while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin trod a sliver of flat lunar desert smaller than a football field, Apollos 15, 16, and 17 each commanded a mountainous area the size of Manhattan. All told, their crews traveled fifty-six miles, and brought deep science and a far more swashbuckling style of exploration to the moon. And they triumphed for one very American reason: they drove. In this fast-moving history of the rover and the adventures it ignited, Earl Swift puts the reader alongside the men who dreamed of driving on the moon and designed and built the vehicle, troubleshot its flaws, and drove it on the moon’s surface. Finally shining a deserved spotlight on these overlooked characters and the missions they created, Across the Airless Wilds is a celebration of human genius, perseverance, and daring.

Download or read book A Man on the Moon written by Andrew Chaikin and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2007-08-28 with total page 721 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The authoritative masterpiece" (L. A. Times) on the Apollo space program and NASA's journey to the moon This acclaimed portrait of heroism and ingenuity captures a watershed moment in human history. The astronauts themselves have called it the definitive account of their missions. On the night of July 20, 1969, our world changed forever when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon. Based on in-depth interviews with twenty-three of the twenty-four moon voyagers, as well as those who struggled to get the program moving, A Man on the Moon conveys every aspect of the Apollo missions with breathtaking immediacy and stunning detail. A Man on the Moon is also the basis for the acclaimed miniseries produced by Tom Hanks, From the Earth to the Moon, now airing and streaming again on HBO in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11.

Download or read book Apollo Remastered written by Andy Saunders and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2022-09-01 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: AN INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER Discover space as you've never seen it before, with these awe-inspiring, breathtakingly restored images of our first missions to the Moon 'The next best thing to being there' Charlie Duke, Apollo 16 astronaut 'One of the best records of Apollo history ever produced' David R. Scott, Apollo 15 Commander In a frozen vault in Houston sits the original NASA photographic film of the Apollo missions. For half a century, almost every image of the Moon landings publicly available was produced from a lower-quality copy of these originals. Now we can view them as never before. Expert image restorer Andy Saunders has taken newly available digital scans and, applying pain-staking care and cutting-edge enhancement techniques, he has created the highest quality Apollo photographs ever produced. Never-before-seen spacewalks and crystal-clear portraits of astronauts in their spacecraft, along with startling new visions of the Earth and the Moon, offer astounding new insight into one of our greatest endeavours. This is the definitive record of the Apollo missions and a mesmerizing, high definition journey into the unknown.

Download or read book Lunar Sourcebook written by Grant Heiken and published by CUP Archive. This book was released on 1991-04-26 with total page 796 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The only work to date to collect data gathered during the American and Soviet missions in an accessible and complete reference of current scientific and technical information about the Moon.

Download or read book Marketing the Moon written by David Meerman Scott and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2014-02-28 with total page 145 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the most successful public relations campaigns in history, featuring heroic astronauts, press-savvy rocket scientists, enthusiastic reporters, deep-pocketed defense contractors, and Tang. In July 1969, ninety-four percent of American televisions were tuned to coverage of Apollo 11's mission to the moon. How did space exploration, once the purview of rocket scientists, reach a larger audience than My Three Sons? Why did a government program whose standard operating procedure had been secrecy turn its greatest achievement into a communal experience? In Marketing the Moon, David Meerman Scott and Richard Jurek tell the story of one of the most successful marketing and public relations campaigns in history: the selling of the Apollo program. Primed by science fiction, magazine articles, and appearances by Wernher von Braun on the “Tomorrowland” segments of the Disneyland prime time television show, Americans were a receptive audience for NASA's pioneering “brand journalism.” Scott and Jurek describe 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. American astronauts, who signed exclusive agreements with Life magazine, became the heroic and patriotic faces of the program. And there was some judicious product placement: Hasselblad was the “first camera on the moon”; Sony cassette recorders and supplies of Tang were on board the capsule; and astronauts were equipped with the Exer-Genie personal exerciser. Everyone wanted a place on the bandwagon. Generously illustrated with vintage photographs, artwork, and advertisements, many never published before, Marketing the Moon shows that when Neil Armstrong took that giant leap for mankind, it was a triumph not just for American engineering and rocketry but for American marketing and public relations.

Download or read book Falling to Earth written by Al Worden and published by Smithsonian Books (DC). This book was released on 2011 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author describes his life, from his early years growing up on a farm to his years as an astronaut with NASA, including flying the Apollo 15 mission to the moon in 1971.

Download or read book On the Moon with Apollo 15 written by Gene Simmons and published by . This book was released on 1971 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Apollo 15 Preliminary Science Report written by Manned Spacecraft Center (U.S.) and published by . This book was released on 1972 with total page 588 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Apollo 15 mission was the first of the Apollo missions to utilize the full capability of a complex set of spacecraft and launch vehicles... provided results that furnish many new insights into lunar history and structure. Perhaps most important of all, this mission provided results that give a meaningful overall picture of the Moon. The scientific endeavors of the Apollo 15 mission can be divided into three distinct kinds of activities: (1) the orbital experiments, 12) the package of lunar-surface experiments, and (3) the surface sampling and observation."--p. xi.

Download or read book How Apollo Flew to the Moon written by W. David Woods and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2011-08-08 with total page 582 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stung by the pioneering space successes of the Soviet Union - in particular, Gagarin being the first man in space, the United States gathered the best of its engineers and set itself the goal of reaching the Moon within a decade. In an expanding 2nd edition of How Apollo Flew to the Moon, David Woods tells the exciting story of how the resulting Apollo flights were conducted by following a virtual flight to the Moon and its exploration of the surface. From launch to splashdown, he hitches a ride in the incredible spaceships that took men to another world, exploring each step of the journey and detailing the enormous range of disciplines, techniques, and procedures the Apollo crews had to master. While describing the tremendous technological accomplishment involved, he adds the human dimension by calling on the testimony of the people who were there at the time. He provides a wealth of fascinating and accessible material: the role of the powerful Saturn V, the reasoning behind trajectories, the day-to-day concerns of human and spacecraft health between two worlds, the exploration of the lunar surface and the sheer daring involved in traveling to the Moon and the mid-twentieth century. Given the tremendous success of the original edition of How Apollo Flew to the Moon, the second edition will have a new chapter on surface activities, inspired by reader's comment on Amazon.com. There will also be additional detail in the existing chapters to incorporate all the feedback from the original edition, and will include larger illustrations.

Download or read book How Apollo Flew to the Moon written by W. David Woods and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2008-02-13 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between 1968 and 1972, twenty four daring men journeyed from Earth to the Moon. This fascinating book traces what was a massive accomplishment right from the early launches through manned orbital spaceflights, detailing each step. Out of the battlefields of World War II came the gifted German engineers and designers who developed the V-2 rocket, which evolved into the powerful Saturn V booster that propelled men to the Moon. David Woods tells this exciting story, starting from America’s postwar astronautical research facilities. The techniques and procedures developed have been recognised as an example of human exploration at its greatest, demonstrating a peak of technological excellence.

Download or read book One Giant Leap written by Charles Fishman and published by Simon & Schuster. This book was released on 2020-09-22 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The New York Times bestselling, “meticulously researched and absorbingly written” (The Washington Post) story of the trailblazers and the ordinary Americans on the front lines of the epic Apollo 11 moon mission. President John F. Kennedy astonished the world on May 25, 1961, when he announced to Congress that the United States should land a man on the Moon by 1970. No group was more surprised than the scientists and engineers at NASA, who suddenly had less than a decade to invent space travel. When Kennedy announced that goal, no one knew how to navigate to the Moon. No one knew how to build a rocket big enough to reach the Moon, or how to build a computer small enough (and powerful enough) to fly a spaceship there. No one knew what the surface of the Moon was like, or what astronauts could eat as they flew there. On the day of Kennedy’s historic speech, America had a total of fifteen minutes of spaceflight experience—with just five of those minutes outside the atmosphere. Russian dogs had more time in space than US astronauts. Over the next decade, more than 400,000 scientists, engineers, and factory workers would send twenty-four astronauts to the Moon. Each hour of space flight would require one million hours of work back on Earth to get America to the Moon on July 20, 1969. “A veteran space reporter with a vibrant touch—nearly every sentence has a fact, an insight, a colorful quote or part of a piquant anecdote” (The Wall Street Journal) and in One Giant Leap, Fishman has written the sweeping, definitive behind-the-scenes account of the furious race to complete one of mankind’s greatest achievements. It’s a story filled with surprises—from the item the astronauts almost forgot to take with them (the American flag), to the extraordinary impact Apollo would have back on Earth, and on the way we live today. From the research labs of MIT, where the eccentric and legendary pioneer Charles Draper created the tools to fly the Apollo spaceships, to the factories where dozens of women sewed spacesuits, parachutes, and even computer hardware by hand, Fishman captures the exceptional feats of these ordinary Americans. “It’s been 50 years since Neil Armstrong took that one small step. Fishman explains in dazzling form just how unbelievable it actually was” (Newsweek).

Download or read book Apollo to the Moon written by Teasel E. Muir-Harmony and published by National Geographic Society. This book was released on 2018 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A celebration of the 50th anniversary of NASA's Apollo missions to the moon, this narrative uses 50 key artifacts from the Smithsonian archives to tell the story of the groundbreaking space exploration program. Bold photographs, fascinating graphics, and engaging stories commemorate the 20th century's most important space endeavor: NASA's Apollo program to reach the moon. From the lunar rover and an emergency oxygen mask to space food and moon rocks, it's a carefully curated array of objects--complete with intriguing back stories and profiles of key participants. This book showcases the historic space exploration program that landed humans on the moon, advanced the world's capabilities for space travel, and revolutionized our sense of humanity's place in the universe. Each historic accomplishment is symbolized by a different object, from a Russian stamp honoring Yuri Gagarin and plastic astronaut action figures to the Apollo 11 command module, piloted by Michael Collins as Armstrong and Aldrin made the first moonwalk, together with the monumental art inspired by these moon missions. Throughout, Apollo to the Moon also tells the story of people who made the journey possible: the heroic astronauts as well as their supporters, including President John F. Kennedy, newsman Walter Cronkite, and NASA scientists such as Margaret Hamilton."--Publisher's website.

Download or read book The Earth Gazers written by Christopher Potter and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2017-09-07 with total page 546 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The most beautiful and influential photographs ever made were of the whole earth seen from space. They were taken from the moon, almost as an afterthought, by the astronauts of the Apollo space programme. They inspired a generation to think more seriously about our responsibility for this tiny oasis in space, the 'blue marble' falling through empty darkness. This is a book about the long road to the capture of those unforgettable images. It is a history of the space programme and of the ways in which it transformed our view of the earth and changed the lives of the astronauts who walked in space and on the moon. It is the story of the often blemished visionaries who inspired that journey into space: Charles Lindbergh, Robert Goddard and Wernher Von Braun, and of the courageous pilots who were the first humans to escape the Earth's orbit.

Download or read book Apollo Expeditions to the Moon written by Edgar M. Cortright and published by . This book was released on 1975 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here men from the planet earth. First set foot upon the moon - July 1969 A.D. We Came in peace for all mankind. From the plaque on the Eagle, Apollo 11, which landed on the moon on July 20, 1969.

Download or read book Apollo 15 at Hadley Base written by United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Office of Public Affairs and published by . This book was released on 1971 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Countdown to a Moon Launch written by Jonathan H. Ward and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-07-07 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Thousands of workers labored at Kennedy Space Center around the clock, seven days a week, for half a year to prepare a mission for the liftoff of Apollo 11. This is the story of what went on during those hectic six months. Countdown to a Moon Launch provides an in-depth look at the carefully choreographed workflow for an Apollo mission at KSC. Using the Apollo 11 mission as an example, readers will learn what went on day by day to transform partially completed stages and crates of parts into a ready-to-fly Saturn V. Firsthand accounts of launch pad accidents, near misses, suspected sabotage, and last-minute changes to hardware are told by more than 70 NASA employees and its contractors. A companion to Rocket Ranch, it includes many diagrams and photographs, some never before published, to illustrate all aspects of the process. NASA’s groundbreaking use of computers for testing and advanced management techniques are also covered in detail. This book will demystify the question of how NASA could build and launch Apollo missions using 1960s technology. You’ll discover that there was no magic involved – just an abundance of discipline, willpower, and creativity.