Apollo Expeditions to the Moon: The NASA History

by Edgar M. Cortright, Paul Dickson (Foreword)

This special edition of Apollo Expeditions to the Moon, an official NASA publication, commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of the July 20, 1969, Moon landing with a thrilling insider's view of the space program.  Essays by participants — engineers, astronauts, and administrators — recall the program's unprecedented challenges. Written in direct, jargon-free language, this compelling adventure features more than 160 dazzling color photographs and scores of black-and-white illustrations.
Insights into management challenges as well as its engineering feats include contributions from Michael Collins, Buzz Aldrin, Alan Shepard, and other astronauts; NASA administrator James E. Webb; Christopher C. Kraft, head of the Mission Control Center; and engineer Wernher von Braun. Their informative, exciting narratives explore the issues that set the United States on the path to the Moon, offer perspectives on the program's legacy, and examine the particulars of individual missions. Journalist Robert Sherrod chronicles the selection and training of astronauts. James Lovell, commander of the ill-fated Apollo 13, recounts the damaged ship's dramatic return to Earth. Geologist and Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt discusses the lunar expeditions' rich harvest of scientific information. These and other captivating firsthand accounts form an ideal introduction to the historic U.S. space program as well as fascinating reading for all ages.
This new expanded edition includes a chronology of the Apollo project, additional photographs, and a new Foreword by historian Paul Dickson that offers a modern retrospective of the Moon landing, discussing its place in the world of space exploration and its impact on American history and culture.  

Genres: Space, Science, History, Nonfiction, Technology

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1975

Reviews

[Collin Willis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book will make you feel small, and I mean that in the best of ways. The Apollo Program is one of the shining achievements of mankind and its awe inspiring to think that mankind has left this rock and planted its flag upon another. At times this book is an extremely dense dive into technical jargon and mechanical specifications, but it never strays far from that sense of awe even as it hits you with acronyms and rocket transportation systems.

Here are these legends of exploration writing essays from even before my parents were born and fifty plus years later I can access them and for a time live in their world, riding with them in the command module, and peering curiously out at the blue orb growing smaller in the window.

[Rudradeep Mukherjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is humbling to read about Apollo from the people who were a part of it. Flight directors, astronauts, engineers and scientists write about a project which was the highlight of their lives. Though, the accounts are sometimes duplicative, it hardly reduces the book's worth. You're awed to know just how advanced technology was - even in the 1960s. It is full of illustrations too - which kind of can take all of your time, if you're not disciplined about it. The book tracks how the Moon program evolved from President Kennedy's wish to a full-blown scientific endeavour by the last Apollo 14 mission. And, how a disaster(which killed three astronauts in a pure-oxygen fire) put all the more dedication and commitment into the mission. Overall, the Apollo missions were an outstanding success.

My favourite part of the book was about the development of Saturn launch vehicle. I am going to deep-dive further, in another book - "Stages to Saturn" by Roger E. Bilstein.

[Stephen Lockett · Rating 4 out of 5]

We visited the Kennedy Space Centre in Cape Canaveral Florida that has an unused Saturn 5 rocket the same type that was used to get the Apollo mission to the moon, and I can tell you that when you see the size of this rocket you simply cannot believe it was possible to travel to the moon and back again. This book allows you to realise how it was possible. It covers the entire history from the beginning of the space race in the fifties to Apollo 17 in 1972. All aspects are touched on as well as science, engineering and astronauts we hear of the political challenges, the organisational skills required to manager such large and disparate research and development projects and the personal interfaces of some of the key players. The chapters are written by the individuals involved at the time, so we do hear from people who have really walked on the moon. There are pictures in colour on nearly every page, as well as diagrams and charts, it is truly staggering to realise the resources which went into this achievement. I found the descriptions of the early planning when they did not even know how they were going to get there, let alone get back again, fascinating.

[Brian Page · Rating 4 out of 5]

Apollo Expeditions to the Moon, edited by Edgar Cortright and published in 1975, is surprisingly good. I had expected a typical lightweight NASA PR production – you know, a text written at a fourth grade reading level. But this volume, with one exception, is a compilation of chapters written by the participants: Webb, Gilruth, von Braun, Kraft, Mueller, Lovell, Schmitt – you get the idea. So even though I grew up with the space program and having read literally dozens of spaceflight histories, I learned a few things. For example, John Glenn convinced President Kennedy to allow the astronauts to continue their publicity contract with Life after the administration had already announced that there would be no more exclusive publicity contracts after the Project Mercury. I don’t recall ever having read that tid-bit elsewhere. It was also interesting to get von Braun’s take on Mueller’s “all-up” decision. And I had never before come across the reasoning behind the Saturn V first stage being fueled by kerosene rather than hydrogen as were the other two stages. Anyway, for a text aimed at the general reader, this is a pretty good book.

[Bonnye Reed · Rating 5 out of 5]

As are most offerings by Dover, Apollo Expeditions to the Moon is a complete, intense presentation of the facts, told very well. It is more thorough than I have seen in the past, and something I am pleased to refer to my friends and family, especially those not old enough to have lived through this time. Cortright presents that intensity of life as we lived it well in this history.

I received a free electronic copy of this history from Netgalley, Edger M. Cortright, and Dover. I have read and reviewed it of my own volition. This is my honest opinion of this work.

Publishing date April 17, 2019

Reviewed April 21 at Goodreads, Netgalley, Amazon, B&N, and BookBub. Not available at Kobo.

[Richard Littel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great summary of the Apollo missions. A collaboration work with each chapter providing a different focus of the various aspects of the technical marvel that was the Apollo program. Also includes great photography further documenting the missions.

[Wayne McCoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

'Apollo Expeditions' by Edgar M. Cortright with contributions by many involved in the program is a reprint of a book originally published in the 1970s, but with the upcoming 50th anniversary of landing on the moon, the timing is perfect.

The 15 chapters of this amazing book are written by different people with different aspects of the Apollo program. So, one chapter is about the Saturn rocket and it's written by WernHer von Braun. One is about the huge hangar built for rockets. One is about the scouting missions made before man went to the moon. Chris Kraft talks about mission control. Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin talk about landing on the moon.

Along with the text, there are tons of photos and drawings. I loved reading this book from the perspective of those that lived it. There is a small amount of repetition, but I attribute that to different perspectives of the same event. Timely and breathtaking.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Dover Publications and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

[James Mcneill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Monumental and lavishly illustrated.