Review:Into That Silent Sea (5/5) A MUST READ!!! French and Burgess really know how to sum up the early space program and make it completely relivable. For previous generations who were not around to partake in the early threads of space exploration this book will take them into that silent sea.
This book would make an excellent documentary covering all the brilliant aspects of the beginnings of our space program. A fantastic journey and pleasure to read, I got to relive this pinnacle of time in the history of space exploration. GREAT STUFF!!! Dorice Odell
Review:Understand the People of Space (5/5) Samuel Taylor Coleridge provides the quote that lends its name to the first of a planned ten-volume series chronicling the Space Age. I believe that Francis French and Colin Burgess have chosen well, as Into that Silent Sea, Trailblazers of the Space Era, 1961-1965, is one of the most evocative titles about flying into space I can recall. A good title certainly tells a lot about a work, and this is especially true in this case.
Into that Silent Sea trades between the two sides of the superpower race to the Moon, giving us a wonderful behind the scenes glimpse from Yuri Gagarin's first foray into the cosmos to the harrowing spacewalk of Alexei Leonov, from the competition to be first at Cape Canaveral to limping through a day in Gordo Cooper's dying Mercury capsule.
Burgess' and French's two writing styles mesh easily, and the book speaks with one authoritative voice. The space travelers and others written about in the book have shared their stories and given us all a peek beyond what we are used to seeing.
It is a unique work in that it presents both sides of the race in a clear and succinct manner while giving us real astronauts and cosmonauts, many never before discussed in Western press. The closest comparison would have to be Two Sides of the Moon, by Dave Scott and Alexei Leonov. However wonderful that book is, it doesn't compare with the French and Burgess work in that we examine many more spacefarers than just the one American and one Russian, and put it all in the context of the flights as they occurred.
If I have to find fault with the work, there are two things that come to mind. First, is the lack of an index to aid in searching for the people and incidents that interest us the most. Second, is the paucity of photographs. The space race was a visual feast, in that it showed people racing above the planet, yet most of the photos are simple head shots of the people talked about in the text. Most people today have probably never even seen one of the grainy shots of Leonov's first-ever spacewalk, so things of that nature would have added immensely to the impact of the book. I hope that in future volumes, more effort will be made to include historic and little-seen photos to illustrate the text.
We've read stories and seen movies, documentary and otherwise, that have supposedly told us the inside scoop. As the first in the Outward Odyssey series, I believe Into that Silent Sea will be viewed in the future as the one that led the way to what could prove to be the definitive story of the people involved in our rise to the challenge of spaceflight.
Review:My wife's review of 'Into That Silent Sea' (5/5) As the wife of a fanatical space enthusiast, I have frequently found myself accompanying my husband to lectures, presentations and autograph shows - my role was never more than to act as gofer, holder, porter, etc. Thanks to 'Into That Silent Sea', this has all changed. I feel knowledgeable, competent and keen to engage in a dialogue of my own with these incredible people. I never would have believed that I would ever have described a book covering the history of space travel as being unputdownable. But, truly, it was and here are the reasons why:
I enjoyed the straightforward language in which it was written. At no time was I ever bamboozled by highly technical spacespeak.
It was akin to reading a detective story all the way from Gagarin's first spaceflight to Alexei Leonov's spacewalk. (I once had my photograph taken with him - next time I will be able to talk intelligibly with him!). One always wanted to read on and on and see what happened next.
My interest was held as I learned about the personal lives of the astronauts / cosmonauts and those near and dear to them.
I thank the authors for opening my eyes to a whole new sphere of interest.
In 1957, the Russians launched Sputnik and the ensuing space race. Three years later, Gene Kranz left his aircraft testing job to join NASA and champion the American cause. What he found was an embryonic department run by whiz kids (such as himself), sharp engineers and technicians who had to create the Mercury mission rules and procedure from the ground up. As he says, "Since there were no books written on the actual methodology of space flight, we had to write them as we went along."
Kranz was part of the mission control team that, in January 1961, launched a chimpanzee into space and successfully retrieved him, and made Alan Shepard the first American in space in May 1961. Just two months later they launched Gus Grissom for a space orbit, John Glenn orbited Earth three times in February 1962, and in May of 1963 Gordon Cooper completed the final Project Mercury launch with 22 Earth orbits. And through them all, and the many Apollo missions that followed, Gene Kranz was one of the integral inside men--one of those who bore the responsibility for the Apollo 1 tragedy, and the leader of the "tiger team" that saved the Apollo 13 astronauts.
Moviegoers know Gene Kranz through Ed Harris's Oscar-nominated portrayal of him in Apollo 13, but Kranz provides a more detailed insider's perspective in his book Failure Is Not an Option. You see NASA through his eyes, from its primitive days when he first joined up, through the 1993 shuttle mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope, his last mission control project. His memoir, however, is not high literature. Kranz has many accomplishments and honors to his credit, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, but this is his first book, and he's not a polished author. There are, perhaps, more behind-the-scenes details and more paragraphs devoted to what Cape Canaveral looked like than the general public demands. If, however, you have a long-standing fascination with aeronautics, if you watched Apollo 13 and wanted more, Failure Is Not an Option will fill the bill. --Stephanie Gold
Review:Best Overview of Later Apollo Missions (5/5) My teenage interest in rocketry, launching about 1000 tiny rockets in all, my dreams of extraterrestrial voyages from reading science fiction, and being involved in real countdowns for liquid propellant rocket motors in the MIT Rocket Research Society all came back from reading this book. This is the perfect follow-on to Chris Kraft's "Flight: My Life in Mission Control" which came out a year later. Both are excellent. Kraft and Kranz were the guys we saw most of on TV during the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo Programs -- more than could be seen of any single astronaut.
The first major Flight Directors of Mission Control of NASA were much more than masters of ceremonies. They had to make decisions on continuing or aborting or modifying missions, and any decision could have led to deaths. Because of the short times in which some decisions had to be made, Kraft (yes, Kraft) wrote the job description for his own position as Flight Director that said he had the final say, knowing that a mistake would be the end of his career at NASA, but also knowing that delayed decisions could kill the astronauts or the program. This necessitated building a team of specialists for each of the many aspects of the missions (communications, computing, engine status, crew status, etc., etc.) and trusting their decisions.
Kranz was deeply affected by the deaths of three astronauts by fire on the ground in the Apollo 1 capsule. He was point man in the Apollo 13 explosion (as in the movie), and safe return to Earth of 3 astronauts. The details of how thorough simulations of missions were was a revelation to me. It all paid off, because almost no missions ran without failures. On-board computers were too slow or had too little memory, thrusters failed to turn off, all kinds of failure indicators would give false readings, hatches or seals would leak.
Much that was kept from the public during the missions came out. The enthusiasm for the projects was incredibly high among the early birds in NASA, including the first administrators, who had to fight often for continuation of funding, especially after the USSR lost momentum, even to get the first mission to the moon. NASA pay was low, so the committment of so many on the team was not financial. The cooperation of contractors, notwithstanding some lapses in quality, was excellent, and included turning over copies of engineering drawings of all parts of a capsule or component. The willingness to take risks by NASA personnel and others during the Moon progrtam is awe-inspring, especially compared with today's timidity. Fom p383: "Lacking a clear goal, the team that placed an American on the Moon, NASA, has become just another federal bureaucracy beset by competing agendas, and unable to establish discipline within its structure. Although NASA has an amazing array of technology and the most talented workforce in history, it lacks top-level vision."
Kranz was aware that he was making history. While he was steady and decisive (like Kraft) while on duty, Kranz revealed his extreme emotions at many points. While you should read books by astronauts, such as "Off the Planet" by Jerry M. Linenger, 2000, and "Last Man on the Moon" by Gene Cernan, the best overview for me has been through the eyes of the Flight Directors.
Review:Inspiring reading for technical leaders of all kinds (5/5) While I confess to being a lifelong space buff, this book is the first of many memoirs I have had the pleasure of reading from the actual men and women who participated in one of the greatest adventures in human history. I read it nonstop from the moment I brought it home, and have reread many sections of it numerous times. I believe it is a useful historical record of the golden era of the space program, but also holds many lessons for those who find themselves in formal or de facto positions of technical leadership in all types of organizations - churches, consulting firms, technical contractors, manufacturers, and probably many others with which I am not personally familiar. Thank you Mr. Kranz for all you have shared!
Review:a fist hand report of the early NASA years (4/5) I highly recommend this book to all the poor men who already believe today that APOLLO is a whole fake
KRANZ tell the truth it is obvious when you read him
Review:This is THE definitive biography about Neil Armstrong (5/5) Simply put, there is no finer book in print that helps us understand the modern-day Christopher Columbus of our times - Neil Armstrong. Not only will you come to better understand the man, the First Man, but you will also walk away with a tremendous appreciation for the Apollo program generally and the Apollo 11 mission specifically. Budget some serious time to get through this book but add it to your list of reads for 2008.
Review:Great Biography of My Boyhood Idol (5/5) James Hansen's authorized biography of pilot/engineer/astronaut Neil Armstrong is a well written and long awaited in-depth look at a man who has led a truly extraordinary life. His detailed accounts of Armstrong's roots, interests, loves, successes and tragedies made a captive reading experience for me. It was Neil Armstrong and the Apollo 11 journey that inspired my lifelong interest in spaceflight.
I feel for him in his pursuit to maintain as much of a personal life as possible over the years. NASA and the space program may be owned by the taxpayers, but it's human participants are not. Neil has recognized this more than many others have.
An excellent biography. I highly recommend it.
Review:A Name That Will Remembered Through The Ages (4/5) Somewhere in my reading, I remember someone who said that there is only one name from the 20th Century that is guaranteed to be remembered 1,000 years from now; the name of the first man to step foot on another planet, Neil Armstrong.
I was alive when Apollo 11 landed and Armstrong made his historic step but, at 11 months old, far from old enough to remember the event. Despite that, though, the events of July 20, 1969 are so much a part of historical memory that it seems like we were all there. There's always been one mystery, though, and that's been the man who actually stepped off the Eagle and onto lunar soil for the first time. Now, the mystery is, at least somewhat, solved thanks to the publication of an fascinating biography of the First Man On The Moon, titled, appropriately enough, First Man.
James Hansen, who was given extraordinary access to Armstrong himself as well as his family and personal records, tells a story that stretches from Armstrong's boyhood in Ohio, to Korea, to his years as a test pilot, all of which were mere training for his ultimate destiny. In addition to a mass (though not overwhelmingly so) of technical data about everything from the X-15 flights that Armstrong flew at Edwards AFB to the Gemini and Apollo programs, Hansen paints, as best he can, a portrait of an intensely private man who was thrust, willingly or otherwise, into an intense spotlight comparable to that of his boyhood hero Charles Lindbergh.
Like Lindbergh, Armstrong was and is, it seems, the reluctant hero. Hansen consistently quotes him as giving equal credit for the achievements of Apollo 11 to his crew mates and the men on the ground and in the factories who built the Apollo program from the ground up.
The most compelling parts of the book, of course, come when Hansen tells the story of the landing and first sojurn onto the lunar surface, including excerpts from recordings of conversations among the crew that were never broadcast publicly. After that, somewhat disappointingly, the book comes to a very quick close. The story rushes through the post-Apollo 11 euphoria and Armstrong's short involvement as a NASA administrator and offers vignettes showing the difficulties that he had coping with the public's fascination with him, some of which was obsessive to say the least.
All in all, though, First Man is an excellent read, and, as the official biographer to the First Man on the Moon, Hansen has done a fabulous job with the task that Armstrong assigned to him.
If you have any interest in the history of the American space program at all, this book is a must-read.
Review:Great story harmed by the author's overzealous need to be descriptive (2/5) I'm not a space junkie in any respects. This was actually my first space book. I don't even like sci-fi novels. I mainly read non-fiction books of all themes (except space). I happened upon this book while at the library when I glimpsed its cover and thought I'd give it a read. However, twenty-five pages or so into my journey I began to feel the collective cogs of my rocket ship begin to gum up with too much descriptive sludge.
Here's the deal... descriptions are necessary, especially for things such as space travel where so few of us lack the actual experience. However, I felt the authors' intrusive descriptive hand kept distracting me from an otherwise great story. "Like a magician training an apprentice, he taught Pettit tricks. He stretched him, too, and groomed him for big dreaming - engineers had picked up from God building the world." Hu? (pg 73) It's also very obvious the author is a sports writer, a fact I hadn't actually realized until much later when I read his bio. Examples: " ...trying to pick out planets that looked more like fuzzy footballs" and "A throw-in with his sneakers made him want desperately to look over Glenn's shoulder and enjoy the same view" (pg 73). I don't know, do you throw-in your sneakers to look over someone's shoulders?
I do realize some people do and will enjoy this author's writing style, unfortunately I did not, which is why I rate it so low. To give the author some credit, it does sound like he did a lot of research (though apparently not all together accurate according to more knowledgeable reviewers), and beneath his bravado he does recount an interesting story about space travel over the years, and about the plight of the three astronauts (of which this story is about) stuck in space. As noted by another previous reviewer the book does pick up speed toward the end (last fifty pages or so) when less descriptive narrative is needed to land this thing.
Review:not just another space book (5/5) I have never really gotten involved in the typical space/astronaut/nasa books before. This is really written by someone who truly understands the human phenomenon. I couldn't put the book down, and was sad when it was over. How many non fiction books can you say that about? I learned so much about the space program, and came to love the real folks who serve it. I was able to identify with the wives, and with the feelings of isolation and disconnect that the astronauts experienced as well.
Review:Great for those with interest in life in space. (4/5) I really enjoyed this book. I have always had an interest in the space program since I grew up in Florida and would watch most launches when I was in grade school. There were just a few parts of the book that might not be totally accurate due to the writers background as a sports writer and that is why I gave 4 stars. Happy reading!
Review:Inner workings of humankind's greatest accomplishment (5/5) This is an excellent book covering the inner workings of the Apollo program. It does not focus on the astronauts or the missions themselves, but more about the people on the ground in Mission Control, the engineering challenges of Apollo, the management of the program, and NASA / Washington politics about space exploration at that time. Some chapters are so well done, they read like a thriller and you can't stop turning the pages. It also covers well the most important personalities of Apollo.
After reading this book, I realized how much we have lost the memories of what is probably the most incredible achievement in humankind's history. Shockingly enough, most people think about Apollo about being a thing of the past, while it is in fact our future.
Reflecting back on the sad end of the Apollo program (the plug was simply pulled in the mid-70s without any kind of follow up), it is a shame that we have lost all these years. Just imagine if we would have persevered with more missions, the eventual setup of a moon base in the 80s, moon exploration of resources, etc... Who knows where we would be now in 2007 ? Perhaps on the verge of a Mars mission, or Jupiter ? We would have impressed new generations with the same sense of awe-inspiring achievements and exploration that Apollo did 40 years ago. These emotionally inspiring achievements are the ones that elevates humankind to new heights, and this is probably the strongest feeling I felt about Apollo after reading this book.
Review:A Book Every System Engineer Should Read (5/5) We used some parts of this book in our Systems Engineering lecture, at Turkish Military Academy Defense Sciences Institute (I was a student at the lecture). Later I purchased the book and read the whole book.
Of course I am not in a position to state the correctness and completeness of the contents. I rely on other people's comments on these criteria. But accepting the contents as correct and complete, the book clearly describes how a huge R&D project can be run (or can not be run), from every point of view. It is the next best thing after participation in a such project.
I believe every engineer and technical administrator has many things to learn from the book.
I highly recommend the book. I do not know whether it is also used as a lecture aid in other academies. If it is not so, another recommendation the the lecturers: The book contains one of the best case studies.
Review:probably the best book of all about the Apollo program (5/5) full of great stories, names, dates, places, very accurate. another great book is Moon Lander. conspiracy buffs, read this book and all your questions will be answered. ( oh, i forgot, you dont want to really know the facts, sorry ).
Review:book smart (5/5) wonderful book. Would recommend this book to anyone great for the price
Review:Project Constellation, a work in progress (5/5) This book is as clear a guide to the plans to return to the Moon as can be published at such an early date. It gives a broad overview of the craft that will be built to undertake the journey .
The sections on the Ares vehicles is interesting, and shows the Shuttle heritage of the Orion program. The Orion section is a little indistinct, as the Spacecraft is still undergoing design changes, and the section on the Altair Lander is sketchier still, as at the time, they were still referring to it by the acronym LSAM or Lunar Surface Access Module.
This book is great for current readers who are following the current build -up to a Lunar return as well as providing future readers with a historical context to the earlier days of the Second Lunar explorations
Review:It really does fit in your pocket (4/5) The best book I've seen so far on the Ares / post space shuttle rockets. This is a serious rocket designed to go primarily back into deep space, as opposed to the space shuttle which is just a trolley bus to space stations. The biggest version is as big as the old Saturn V .... anyone who's stood next to that thing knows this is one serious rocket...
Its a compact book but as these types of books date quite quickly, its ideal.
Review:Incredibly well-done and superb photos. (5/5) If this book doesn't whet your appetite for space flight and exploration then I don't know of another book that will. I feel like I've just walked out of spaceflight seminar every time I put this book down. I got tired of taking it to my office and lugging it home so I just bought another copy to have at work too. Would also make a great gift.
Review:One of the best Space Program books (5/5) I have a collection of space books from DK's the Universe, Illustrated History of NASA, Atlas of the Universe, Apollo and now Space Flight. This book has a great many pictures of the historical figures from the space program as well as cutaways of rockets and spacecraft and of course space. In my opinion if you already own DK's universe. Get this book even though Universe has the space program in that book. This has more detail.
When NASA sent the crew of Apollo 12 to the moon, they may not have realized that they were giving an artist the vision that would carry him through a lifetime of painting. The artist, of course, was astronaut Alan Bean, whose trip to the moon with pals Pete Conrad and Dick Gordon sunk so deeply into his brain that he's been trying to get it down on canvas ever since. He even mixes moon dust and bits of charred Apollo 12 heat shield into his paints to capture a bit of the Ocean of Storms in each image. The astronauts Bean paints are brave, exuberant, and all-American, right down to the reflections of Old Glory in their mirrored visors. His moon is surprisingly colorful and dreamlike, a magical place for jumping higher than you ever did before, racing around in the lunar rover, and swatting golf balls into orbit. Apollo: An Eyewitness Account, coauthored with space expert Andrew Chaikin, is filled with Bean's riveting stories and paintings, recording a long, successful career as an explorer-artist. He recreates the drama and brash enthusiasm of the Apollo program in bold strokes. --Therese Littleton
Review:Beautiful book in every way (5/5) When you get Alan Bean, astronaut and amazing artist, with Andrew Chaikin, a tremendous writer, you have the recipe for one magnificent book. The artwork, of course, is the main ingredient and it never disappoints. Alan Bean has a unique talent and tells the tale of going to the Moon in his drawings. Even without the accompanying words, it is easy to lose oneself in the moment. I think there is a certain 'realness' that the photos dont have and I do not know how to adequately explain why.
At any rate, this is a wonderful book and any space fan should not hesitate to pick it up.
Review:An artist from the Moon (4/5) There are sometimes laments that we will never get a proper description of what it's really like to be in space until we send a poet. However, though NASA may not have sent a poet, it did send a painter. Al Bean had dabbled in the arts before and during his tenure as an astronaut, but when he retired he focused on becoming a painter and particularly on creating paintings that showed what it was really like to walk around on the surface of the Moon. This book contains many of those paintings.
The text, meanwhile, is yet another memoir by an Apollo astronaut, and if anything is rather on the terse side, with only brief bits leading up to the more extensive Apollo portion, and only a brief conclusion. It's interesting but doesn't stand out amongst the many other astronaut memoirs, except for the accompanying illustrations. Each chapter concludes with a dozen or so pages reproducing Bean's paintings, with Bean explaining the scene he was depicting and what he wanted to show. This makes this book a unique record of one man's trip to the Moon, and, I suppose, won't be matched until we actually do send a poet.
Review:Exquisite Paintings from the Moon (5/5) First, let me say that Alan Bean is one of the most articulate of the Apollo Astronauts who walked on the Moon. In addition to listening to the painter himself about his collective series of truly unique "Paintings from the Moon", you owe it to yourself to purchase a copy of the DVD, "For All Mankind". That DVD is reviewed elsewhere on this site, but it and this particular book full of Mr. Bean's paintings will likely become the most treasured additions to your collection of manned spaceflight memorabilia.
I also found the dramatic characterization of Alan Bean, and the exploits his Apollo 12 crewmates, depicted in Tom Hank's 1998 HBO miniseries "From the Earth To The Moon" to be one of the most entertaining espisodes of that facinating and truly outstanding TV production first telecast in 1998. This book was published in the same year and the two works complement each other very well, upstaging most of the other spaceflight documentaries which are somewhat lacking in humanistic content.
We are very fortunate to have had at least one Astronaut with additional interests other than just pure science and aerospace engineering, to share his extraordinary experiences while serving as a key member of the Apollo program.
The one and only thing missing from my copy of this book is Al Bean's personal autograph!
Review:A Strange Book (3/5) This is, indeed, a strange book. Its cover is strange (like grammar-school textbooks) and its approach is strange. It uses a fictional space traveler as the lead-in to discussions of various issues. Although Comins (a Ph.D) is undoubtedly knowledgeable, the book ends up feeling dumbed down. In the middle of reading the book, I found myself looking for some reference to it being for readers 10 and over. "Hazards" is not a bad book, and although it covered the promised material, I felt let down. [Perhaps I was jaded by having just finished reading the outstanding "A Man on the Moon."]
