Book Review — A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of Astronauts
Andrew Chaikin in 1984 had an idea of writing a book on the Apollo astronauts moon experience’s, where in order to write it, he would need to interview the twenty*three surviving moon voyages (Apollo 13 astronaut Jack Swigert died in 1982). The author was able to work on the book full time in 1986. Some of the men were reluctant to be interviewed, but perseverance paid off. It wasn’t until 1992, until the last of the veterans, Ken Mattingly sat down to tell his stories. When Chaikin was asked for his reasons for wanting to write this book, he would day that it was the story of the lunar voyages that the astronauts never wrote. This is their story. He also interviewed others too involved with the Apollo project. Plus used archives like the transcripts recorded by NASA of the Apollo voyages to
From the tragedy of the three astronauts who lost their lives on the launchpad of Apollo 1 in January 1967, the first voyage of orbiting the moon in December 1968, to when in July, as Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon. The subsequent trips, in some ways I found more interesting as they were able to spend more time on the moon, conducting experiments, collecting moon sand, rocks. All their accounts were vivid, exciting and tried to paint a picture of what it was like being there. I still like Buzz Aldrin’s description of the moon as ‘Magnificent desolation’. As each mission was able to spend longer on the lunar surface, Apollo’s15,16,17 with more flexible space suits and the moon rovers allowing them to leave their lunar module and travel further, they always needed to be prudent, if something went wrong with the electrical car, they needed to be able to walk back in time. It is a wonder when you think about it, aside from the fateful Apollo 13 that more things didn’t go wrong.
A Man on the Moon is an excellent, personal account of the experiences of these men. In 1994 when it was published, twenty-three of the twenty-four were still alive. Today as I write this review in early October 2020, I checked and there are only eleven moon travellers alive today, the most recent passed away in March 2020 was Apollo 15 Al Worden, who piloted the command module in July/August 1971. So, we must thank Andrew for his years if research and interviews. I enjoyed this book and while it doesn’t have all the stories, few books could, found it fascinating, reading at times more like a novel than a history book.
Author: Andrew Chaikin
Minimum Age: High School
Type of Book: History
Book Length: 670
Published: 1994
Note: This book review is from Carl Strehlow, a valued member of Coffin Nation.
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