NASA Apollo programme (1963-1972): books (1/2)

NASA's Moon Program - Paving the Way for Apollo 11

In 'Paving the Way for Apollo 11' David Harland explains the lure of the Moon to classical philosophers, astronomers, and geologists, and how NASA set out to investigate the Moon in preparation for a manned lunar landing mission. It focuses particularly on the Lunar Orbiter and Surveyor missions.
With high resolution color scans from NASA/original Hasselblad film, this colorful book brings to life the flight detail of the Apollo missions. It is the first published account accessible to enthusiasts who wish to know what transpired during the missions.

Table of contents: Astronomers' Moon - Geologists' Moon - The space age dawns - Preparing Ranger - The Apollo commitment - Ranger struggles - Ranger triumphs - Soviet activity - Developing Lunar Orbiter - On the surface - The Apollo zone - Scratching the Moon - Orbiters for science - Tasting the Moon - Apollo development - Apollo picks up the pace.

Projekt Apollo - Die frühen Jahre (Raumfahrt-Bibliothek)

Dieser Band der Raumfahrtbibliothek widmet sich dem bis heute wohl ambitioniertesten Raumfahrtvorhaben aller Zeiten: der bemannten Landung auf dem Mond.
Die Raumfahrt steckte noch nahezu in den Kinderschuhen. Die Amerikaner führten gerade ihre ersten Raumflüge durch, da wurde der kühne Plan gefasst - und von Kennedy verkündet - bis zum Ende der 60er-Jahre einen Menschen auf den Mond zu schicken! Die notwendigen Technologien existierte dabei weitgehend noch überhaupt nicht. Eine hochspannende Zeitreise voller Rückschläge und gleichzeitig unbändigem Optimismus.

Exploring the Moon : The Apollo Expeditions (40th Anniversary Edition)

A story of one of the great adventures of our time. David Harland concentrates on the final three lunar landings (Apollos 15, 16 and 17); each of which spent three days on the Moon and used the famous 'lunar rover' to get around.
He focuses on the exploration carried out by the Apollo astronauts whilst on the lunar surface and combines the words of the astronauts themselves with the photographs they took. It is a lunar travelogue, a minute-by-minute account of what the astronauts did, said and felt, enhanced by their subsequent reflections.

Although the book can be read just for its description of human adventure, it also explains how the astronauts worked as the first extraterrestrial field geologists. New to this edition are specifically assembled, high-resolution panoramic pictures based on scans recently released by NASA of the original film.
The result is a stunning impression of the lunar surface. As you read this book, you will seem to walk with the astronauts as they explore . . .

Contents:
- The Apollo challenge
- The robots
- Magnificent desolation
- 'Pin-point' landing
- Knowledge from the Moon
- The wonder of the unknown at Hadley-Apennine
- Surprise at Descartes-Cayley
- The beautiful valley of Taurus-Littrow
- Luna revival
- Apollo in context
- Spaceflight log
- Lunar landing sites
- Apollo missions, facts and figures
- Apollo lunar samples.

Apollo Moon Missions - The Unsung Heroes

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy issued a challenge: the United States would land a man on the moon and return him safely to Earth before the end of the decade. It seemed like an impossible task and one that the Russians - who had launched the first satellite and put the first man into Earth orbit - would surely perform before us. The ingenuity, passion, and sacrifice of thousands of ordinary men and women, from all walks of life, enabled the space program to meet this extraordinary goal. In all, six crews would land on the moon before Congress withdrew financial backing for the program. This is the story of the men and women who worked behind the scenes, without fanfare or recognition, to make these missions a success. Thirty years later, they still speak of Apollo with pride, sometimes even awe.

After Apollo moonwalker John Young told journalist Billy Watkins in a 1999 interview that nobody knows anything about the people who helped make those flights so successful, Watkins made it his mission to identify the unsung heroes and learn their stories.

His subjects include: Julian Scheer (NASA publicist); Sonny Morea, lead designer of the Lunar Rover; Hugh Brown, one of the few African Americans who worked on the Apollo program; JoAnn Morgan, one of the few women involved in the space program; Joan Roosa, widow of Apollo 14 astronaut Stuart Roosa; Joe Schmitt, veteran suit technician was responsible for making sure the suits were leak-proof and hooked up correctly; Joseph Laitin, who came up with the idea for the Apollo 8 astronauts to read the first ten verses of Genesis during their Christmas Eve television broadcast from the moon; and Clancy Hatelberg, the Navy diver, who plucked the first humans to walk on the moon from the Pacific Ocean after the Apollo 11 landing.

How Apollo Flew to the Moon (2nd Edition)

This new and expanded edition of the bestselling How Apollo Flew to the Moon tells the exciting story of how the Apollo missions were conducted and follows a virtual flight to the Moon and back.

From launch to splashdown, hitch a ride in the incredible Apollo spaceships, the most sophisticated machines of their time. Explore each step of the journey and glimpse the enormous range of disciplines, techniques, and procedures the Apollo crews had to master.
Although the tremendous technological accomplishments are well documented, the human dimension is not forgotten, and the book calls on the testimony of the people who were there at the time.

A wealth of fascinating and accessible material is provided, including: the role of the powerful Saturn V; the reasoning behind the trajectories; the day-to-day concerns of human and spacecraft health; the triumphs and difficulties of working in an unforgiving and hostile environment while surrounded by hard vacuum and pernicious dust; and the sheer daring that was involved in traveling to the Moon in the mid-20th century.

Contents:
- Apollo: an extraordinary adventure
- The Apollo flights: a brief history
- Launch: a fiery departure
- Earth orbit and TLI
- Retrieving the lander
- Navigating to the Moon
- Coasting to the Moon
- Entering lunar orbit: the LOI manoeuvre
- Preparations for landing
- Next stop: the Moon
- Down in the dust
- Exploration at its greatest
- Rendezvous and docking
- Heading for home
- Re-entry.

Rocket Ranch : The Nuts and Bolts of the Apollo Moon Program at Kennedy Space Center

Jonathan Ward takes the reader deep into the facilities at Kennedy Space Center to describe NASA's first computer systems used for spacecraft and rocket checkout and explain how tests and launches proceeded. Descriptions of early operations include a harrowing account of the heroic efforts of pad workers during the Apollo 1 fire.
A companion to the author's book Countdown to a Moon Launch: Preparing Apollo for Its Historic Journey, this explores every facet of the facilities that served as the base for the Apollo/Saturn missions.

Hundreds of illustrations complement the firsthand accounts of more than 70 Apollo program managers and engineers. The era of the Apollo/Saturn missions was perhaps the most exciting period in American space exploration history. Cape Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center were buzzing with activity.
Thousands of workers came to town to build the facilities and launch the missions needed to put an American on the Moon before the end of the decade. Work at KSC involved much more than just launching rockets. It was a place like none other on Earth.

Technicians performed intricate operations, and hazards abounded everywhere, including lightning, fire, highly-toxic fuels, snakes, heat, explosives, LOX spills, and even plutonium. The reward for months of 7-day workweeks under intense pressure was witnessing a Saturn V at liftoff.

For anyone who ever wished they had worked at Kennedy Space Center during the Apollo era, this book is the next best thing. The only thing missing is the smell of rocket fuel in the morning.

Countdown to a Moon Launch : Preparing Apollo for its Historic Journey

Thousands of workers labored at Kennedy Space Center around the clock, seven days a week, for half a year to prepare a mission for the liftoff of Apollo 11. This is the story of what went on during those hectic six months. "Countdown to a Moon Launch" provides an in-depth look at the carefully choreographed workflow for an Apollo mission at KSC.

Using the Apollo 11 mission as an example, readers will learn what went on day by day to transform partially completed stages and crates of parts into a ready-to-fly Saturn V.
Firsthand accounts of launch pad accidents, near misses, suspected sabotage, and last-minute changes to hardware are told by more than 70 NASA employees and its contractors. A companion to "Rocket Ranch", it includes many diagrams and photographs, some never before published, to illustrate all aspects of the process. NASA's groundbreaking use of computers for testing and advanced management techniques are also covered in detail.

This book will demystify the question of how NASA could build and launch Apollo missions using 1960s technology. You'll discover that there was no magic involved - just an abundance of discipline, willpower, and creativity.