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A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts

Author: Andrew Chaikin
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Category: Book

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Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars

33 reviews
Sales Rank: 34452

Media: Paperback
Edition: New Ed
Pages: 688
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 1.3

ISBN: 0140241469
Dewey Decimal Number: 523
EAN: 9780140241464
ASIN: 0140241469

Publication Date: January 5, 1995
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW and IN STOCK - dispatched within 48 hours from the UK

Customer Reviews:

Showing reviews 6-10 of 33

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A truly gripping read. December 4, 2006
4 out of 5 found this review helpful

Andrew Chaikin knows about the moon landings. This is the book that will satisfy both the casual reader seeking to find out about that era, and the 'anorak' who thinks he knows it all, as Chaikin tells the story of one of mankind's greatest achievements. He gains access to the men who flew to the moon and their families, as well as the key members of that vast inverted human pyramid of people who contributed so much... sometimes they dedicated their careers... a few gave their lives. A truly gripping read. THE book about the moon landings.

5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant book! November 18, 2006
3 out of 4 found this review helpful

I have read this book twice now and is an excellent read. It gives such insight into the apollo missions.

The first time I read it I whizzed through it. It is totally engrossing.

I just wish I could have been there to see it all for myself!

4 out of 5 stars

A good read November 16, 2006
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

This book concentrates almost exclusively on the crews of the nine space missions that actually went as far as the moon - the six landings, the two preparatory flights, and Apollo 13, the flight that failed. This means a certain narrowness of focus - although one does also get a sense of the massive numbers of people involved with the Apollo project at every stage.

It's a good narrative but without much depth. I was initially puzzled by some curious repetitions of familiar material about a third of the way in, and a little later a sudden shift of concentration to the (extensive) scientific work of the latter three moon landings, but then realised that the reason it reads a bit like three different books stuck together is precisely that it *is* three different books stuck together, the originals having been i) the story to Apollo 10, ii) Apollos 11 to 14, and iii) Apollos 15, 16 and 17.

The last section of the book, with its strong emphasis on the science of the Moon landings, is perhaps surprisingly the most interesting, outdoing the drama of the first landing of Apollo 11 and the crisis of Apollo 13. The politics of getting a serious scientific component into the lunar programme in the first place, and then the psychology of persuading the astronauts to take it seriously, are a rather fascinating story, with ups and downs - a down in particular for the non-scientist astronaut who was bumped off the very last lunar mission for his geologist colleague. "He told a reporter that the toughest thing he could remember doing in a long time was explaining to his kids that he wasn't going to the moon."

The politics of astronaut selection for the various missions also makes interesting reading. Chaikin seems to buy Armstrong's own instistence that there were no special reasons why he was chosen as the commander of the first lunar landing; it was just his turn on the roster. This is belied by other evidence even in Chaikin's book, in that the spot had in fact been offered to another astronaut. This makes Armstrong's role a conscious choice rather than a default option; and when one considers the stronger ego of Pete Conrad, the next astronaut in line, one can see why the decision was made to stick with Armstrong. Incidentally, of the three moon landings before they got serious with the science, Armstrong appears to have done much the best job of gathering and recording moon rocks.

I still preferred Andrew Smith's "Moondust", though.

5 out of 5 stars

A great and entertaining read July 21, 2006
8 out of 8 found this review helpful

I really enjoyed this book. It was thorough, and well written. It was also very varied and kept my attention from start to finish. The book starts with chapters dealing with the run up to the first "moonshot" -- Apollo 8. It then covers that mission and each of the subsequent missions that landed on the moon from Apollo 11 to 17 in detail, but without being repetitious. I would have liked to know a bit more about Apollos 9 and 10 which were hardly covered. The author is also (as you would expect) a great fan of space and this means that the (limited) disucssions of the value of the missions do not have the air of balance. But then I didn't buy the book for that, I just wanted to know what happened. And on that front the book delivered all that I could have asked from it.

5 out of 5 stars

Chaikin's Full-Up Mission May 23, 2006
5 out of 6 found this review helpful

A superbly written book - a mass of detailed information on all of the Apollo missions placed in chronological order from the tragic Fire on Apollo 1 to Jack Schmitt's lunar outing on Apollo17.

Wonderful read and a must to anyone even remotely interested in this subject.

Andrew Chaikin - superb job!