At the start of the twenty-first century, there is a new exodus to the Moon as many of the world's most powerful countries bring their gaze to our natural satellite. India, China and Japan have already sent probes into orbit around it and the United States is planning to disturb its dust once more after a lapse of half a century.
That first flurry of exploration was begun by an American president who was stung by the pioneering space successes of the Soviet Union. In reply, the United States gathered the best of its engineers and set itself the goal of reaching the Moon within a decade.
In How Apollo Flew to the Moon, author David Woods tells the exciting story of how the resulting Apollo flights were conducted by following a virtual flight to the Moon and back. From launch to splashdown, he hitches a ride in the incredible spaceships that took men to another world, exploring each step of the journey and detailing the enormous range of disciplines, techniques and procedures the Apollo crews had to master. While describing the tremendous technological accomplishment involved, he adds the human dimension by calling on the testimony of the people who were there at the time.
The book contains a wealth of fascinating and accessible material: the role of the powerful Saturn V rocket, the day-to-day concerns of human and spacecraft health between two worlds, and the sheer daring involved in travelling to the Moon in the mid-twentieth century.
David Woods is a post-production editor at BBC Scotland, but in his spare time he edits and compiles the Apollo Flight Journal*, a website under the aegis of NASA that details the moment-by-moment progress of the Apollo missions as they flew to the Moon. He lives in Bearsden near Glasgow.
*Apollo Flight Journal - http://history.nasa.gov/afj
David Woods
How Apollo Flew to the Moon
2008, XXVIII, 412 p. 181 illus., Hardcover € 24.95; $ 29.95; ₤20.00
ISBN: 978-0-387-71675-6
Jointly published with Praxis Publishing, UK