Book Review – “Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America’s Race to the Moon”
It’s been . . . ummm, let’s see . . . . nearly nine months since my last book review, and I’ve read plenty of books since then, so it’s time I started doing more of the reviews.
Who knows, this may turn into a new website project in the future ;).
A few weeks ago I finished reading the historical book “Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America’s Race to the Moon” by Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton.
As a whole, this was an excellent, fast paced book that took a look into the thrilling and exciting lives of the Mercury Seven, Gemini Nine and Apollo astronauts as they and the entire NASA team worked towards the national goal of beating the Russians and sending a man to the Moon and back before the end of the decade (1960s).
It felt like this book was geared towards those people who knew a little bit about the early days of the space program but were still thirsty for more information. People with no idea about the rockets or spaceflight will probably be lost, whereas the people with a great understanding and looking for more detailed, in-depth information will be disappointed.
This book fits right there in the middle as it focuses on Mercury Seven astronauts Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton and as the race to space and the Moon evolves around them.
I, myself, thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and learning about what it took for us to go from virtually nothing to putting a man on the Moon and returning him (them) back safely within a ten year period. Seeing how long it’s taking NASA and other space agencies to look into going back to the Moon and to Mars today (It’s supposed to take how long now? Fifteen years? Twenty years? Even longer?), the ten year stretch in the 1960s was nothing short of spectacular and as a whole one of the greatest accomplishments in the history of the United States of America.
Apollo 8 - Earthrise
Those men who flew the Mercury and Gemini missions and ultimately took the ultimate adventure to the Moon in the Apollo program truly are heroes. Their courage and bravery was and still is inspiration to us all today. It’s just a shame that most of their accomplishments have been dismissed or even forgotten and that many people today can’t even name the first American in space or the first man to set foot on the Moon, let alone the second. That’s ancient history. It’s trivia.
Mercury Seven astronauts
Enough about the people today and their lack of knowledge in American history or milestones in aviation and spaceflight.
One of my favorite parts of this book was the landing of the lunar module Eagle on the surface of the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission. The landing of the Eagle was no doubt quite a thrilling experience as Armstrong manually flew the lunar lander across the rocky surface, searching for a flat surface and finally bringing down the spacecraft with less than sixteen seconds of fuel remaining. Then again, most of the first half of the Apollo missions had some kind of critical error that needed to be solved to save the mission and continue the goal of reaching the Moon.
Apollo 11 - Buzz Aldrin and lunar module "Eagle" on the Moon
My other favorite part of this book was the thrilling launch of Freedom 7 and Shepard’s historic (and short) flight into outer space. The account of the mission was so vivid and detailed that I felt like I was in the tin can capsule and riding on the missile as it blasted through max Q, shaking the spacecraft violently and nearly tearing it apart like it did to Russia’s massive and powerful N1 rockets, and then the incredible smoothness of zero-G flight before the tough 11.5 g reentry through the atmosphere.
Mercury III - launch of Freedom 7
Check out the clip below from the HBO miniseries, From the Earth to the Moon for a recreation of that historic first flight.
As a whole, “Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America’s Race to the Moon” is a good read and tribute to the Mercury Seven astronauts. The Gemini Nine astronauts are also covered, but this book leans more towards the Mercury crew as they were the ones who spearheaded the program and led the way for the future missions. Plus, Shepard and Slayton’s names are on the cover.
This book is an excellent companion to the hit movie Apollo 13 and HBO miniseries, From the Earth to the Moon. This book was great, but it still left me wanting to learn even more about both the American and Russian space programs, not to say that wanting to learn more is necessarily a fault with the book ;).
Enjoy the book and watch the movie and miniseries. If you have a love of space travel or aviation history, then you will not be disappointed.