Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America's Apollo Moon Landings

429 Pages·2011·2.63 MB·English

by  Alan Shepard

MOON SHOT
The Inside Story of America’s Apollo Moon Landings
Alan Shepard AND Deke Slayton
WITH Jay Barbree
INTRODUCTION BY Neil Armstrong
Moon Shot is for the quintessential space journalist Howard Benedict, the senior
aerospace writer for the Associated Press and a perennial winner of spaceflight’s
top awards.
Howard employed his magnificent talents to herd the facts and details for the
original Moon Shot. He was simply the best and we miss him.
CONTENTS
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION by Neil Armstrong
CHAPTER ONE: 2011
CHAPTER TWO: The Beginning
CHAPTER THREE: The Pilots
CHAPTER FOUR: The Astronauts
CHAPTER FIVE: Training
CHAPTER SIX: The Selection
CHAPTER SEVEN: The Cape
CHAPTER EIGHT: First in Space
CHAPTER NINE: Freedom Seven
CHAPTER TEN: NASA Is Made
CHAPTER ELEVEN: Mercury
CHAPTER TWELVE: Houston
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Space Walk
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Gemini: A Bridge to the Moon
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: We’ve Got a Fire in the Cockpit
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: Aftermath
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: Apollo 8: First Around the Moon
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: Getting There, Getting Back
CHAPTER NINETEEN: The Landing
CHAPTER TWENTY: Boots on the Moon
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: Apollo 13: NASA’s Finest Hour
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: Apollo 14: All or Nothing
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: No Turning Back
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: Longest Walk on the Moon
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: An Astronaut’s Heart and The Last Stages of
Apollo
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: A Handshake in Space
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, and the Day
After
Image Gallery
About the Authors
Index
PREFACE
“Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.”
MORE THAN A BILLION PEOPLE heard this terse message from the surface
of the Moon on July 20, 1969. It was a singular moment for humankind, and the
world was united in awe at the enormity of the accomplishment. Nowhere was
the jubilation greater than in Mission Control near Houston where Alan Shepard
and Deke Slayton watched history unfold and led the cheering as it did. Both
were members of the Mercury Seven, America’s elite original astronauts.
Shepard was the first American in space, and the astronaut who took the longest
walk on the moon. Slayton would fly on the last Apollo mission—the historic
first rendezvous with the Russians in earth orbit.
They were at the very heart of America’s effort to reach the moon, and no
one else was more qualified to write this fascinating and thrilling account of
victories won and defeats endured by a small, but remarkable, group of
astronauts. Here are the successes: the first space flights, the first spacewalk, the
first rendezvous and docking in space, and the first moon landing. Here, too, are
the failures: the masterful saving of an out-of-control Gemini 8, the Apollo 1
launch pad fire that resulted in the deaths of three astronauts, the split-second
decision to land Apollo 11 on the moon despite overloaded computers and low
fuel, and the Herculean “failure is no option” effort to save the crippled Apollo
13.
Moon Shot reflects the risks and accomplishments of those who traveled
faster and farther than any before or since. As the captain said, fasten your seat
belt. We’re going to the moon, the damnedest trip you’ll ever make.
INTRODUCTION
Neil Armstrong’s Moon
LUNA INCOGNITA. THE UNKNOWN MOON. A silent sentinel. For all of
man’s history it had hung overhead, remote, unreachable, unknowable.
Marching across the heavens each day and circling our earth monthly, the
moon has fascinated scientists and inspired poets. Its changing shape provides a
perpetual clock-calendar in the sky, a marker for planting, for holidays, for
religious celebrations. So near and yet so far, men and moon intertwining for
millennia, but never touching.
In the twentieth century, two distinctly different technologies emerged: the
digital computer and the liquid-fueled rocket. Two great world powers,
ideological adversaries, each recognized that the rocket, which could operate in a
vacuum, and the computer, which could enable precision navigation, might
break the barrier to space travel.
Both the Soviet Union and the United States believed that technological
leadership was the key to demonstrating ideological superiority. Each invested
enormous resources in evermore spectacular space achievements. Each would
enjoy memorable successes. Each would suffer tragic failures. It was a
competition unmatched outside the state of war. Finally, and unpredictably, the
competitors would join in a cooperative effort that would contribute to the
demise of the Cold War that enveloped them.
The moon’s isolation of nearly five billion years would soon end. Early in
the space age, man-made probes flew near the moon. Others soon crashed into
the lunar surface. Robot craft landed and transmitted pictures and scientific
measurements back to earth laboratories. The stage was set for a visit by man.
The Soviets established an impressive number of “firsts”: first to place a
satellite in orbit, first to send a probe to the moon, first to place a human in
space, first to orbit two manned craft simultaneously, first to have a human exit
his craft in space. But it would be the Americans who would accomplish the
seemingly impossible, sending men to the moon and returning them safely to
earth.
History will remember the twentieth century for two technological
developments: atomic energy and space flight. One threatened the extinction of
society, one offered a survival possibility. If Earth were ever threatened by man-
made or natural catastrophe, space flight could, just possibly, provide protection
or escape.
Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton knew the practical aspects and the visceral
feelings of flight. Both were experienced airplane test pilots. Test pilots have the
responsibility for finding errors in airplane design. The may discover them
during flight, but they would much prefer to identify the problems before going
aloft. As two of the seven initial American astronauts, this search for perfection
served them well.
Deke and Alan were at the heart of the manned space program. Deke was
responsible for the selection of flight crews and their preparedness to fly in
space. He took an intense interest in the well being of his flock, protecting,
supporting, and encouraging them. They were test pilots, and he understood
them. He was a superb boss.
Alan, as chief of the Astronaut Office, was responsible for day-to-day
operations. Astronauts were needed for spacecraft tests, for design reviews, for
newspaper interviews. With equanimity, he distributed these seemingly limitless
tasks to a very limited number of “his boys.” He was an impenetrable barrier to
inappropriate or untimely requests. He was “the man in the middle” and handled
it well.
Moon Shot is their story. Much more than the story of their flights in space,
it details their central role in the most exciting adventure in history. Jay Barbree,
one of the world’s most experienced space journalists, reported the triumphs and
the tragedies from the dawn of the space age. He is exceptionally well qualified
to recall and record the remarkable events and emotions of the time.
Luna is once again isolated. Four decades have passed without footfalls on
its dusty surface. No wheeled Rovers patrol the lunar highlands. Silent ramparts
guard vast territories never yet visited by man. Unseen vistas await the return of
explorers from Earth.
And they will return.
—Neil Armstrong