The Apollo Chronicles: Engineering America's First Moon Missions

ISBN-10: 0190681349
ISBN-13: 9780190681340
Category: Transportation
Pages: 269
Language: English
Published: 2019
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Author: Brandon R. Brown

Description

The moon landing of 1969 stands as an iconic moment for both the United States and humankind. The familiar story focuses on the journey of the brave astronauts, who brought home Moon rocks and startling photographs. But Apollo's full account includes the earthbound engineers, mounds of their crumpled paper, and smoldering metal shards of exploded engines. How exactly did the nation, step by difficult step, take men to the Moon and back? In The Apollo Chronicles, fifty years after the moon landing, author Brandon R. Brown, himself the son of an Apollo engineer, revisits the men and women who toiled behind the lights. He relays the defining twentieth-century project from its roots, bringing the engineers' work and personalities to bright life on the page. Set against the backdrop of a turbulent American decade, the narrative whisks audiences through tense deadlines and technical miracles, from President John F. Kennedy's 1961 challenge to NASA's 1969 lunar triumph, as engineers confronted wave after wave of previously unthinkable challenges. Brown immerses readers in key physical hurdles--from building the world's most powerful rockets to keeping humans alive in the hostile void of space--using language free of acronyms and technical jargon. The book also pulls back from the detailed tasks and asks larger questions. What did we learn about the Moon? And what can this uniquely innovative project teach us today?

Get the book

Similar books

WINGS LIKE EAGLES PB
By Paul A. Schweizer
Directors : R. S. Barnaby , T. Boyer , G. Briegleb , S. Corcoran , J. S. Charles , A. Dawydoff , F. Compton , P. Leonard , W. Klemperer , A. Raspet , E. J. Reeves , J. Robinson , A. Schultz , E. Schweizer , P. A. Schweizer , B. Shupack ...
Barney Hall's Tales From Trackside
By Barney Hall, Ben White
He also witnessed the unforgettable '76 Daytona finish between Richard Petty and Pearson. In Barney Hall's Tales from the Trackside, he reflects on many memorable stories, including Bill Elliott winning the Winston Million in 1985.
Lost Sounds: The Story of Coast Fog Signals
By Alan Renton
... lens is still in daily use and though it no longer ... revolves in its liquid metal bed by clockwork 36 it seems likely that it will continue to revolve in its mercury bath after automation . ... Stone , John Harris op . cit .
American Auto Racing: The Milestones and Personalities of a Century of Speed
By J.A. Martin, Thomas F. Saal
But by the end of the season the hot combination was Mark Donohue in the Camaro . Cougar did not return but Donohue did , taking ten of the twelve 1968 races , including eight in a row . American Motors entered the series with the new ...
The Truck, Van and 4x4 Book: The Definitive Guide to Buying a Truck
By Jack Gillis, Karen Fierst, Scott Beatty
Gillis is a Contributing Correspondent for NBC's “ Today Show ” and has appeared on all three network evening news programs as well as local and national talk shows , including “ Donahue , " “ 20/20 , " “ Nightline , ” “ The Oprah ...
Human Factors for Naval Marine Vehicle Design and Operation
By Jonathan M. Ross
Miller , J. , M. Sanders , E. Fitzhugh , K. Plummer ( 2005a ) . “ Real or Self - Imposed : The Gap Between Cognitive Systems Engineering and Softward Systems Engineering , ” Human Systems Integration Symposium , Arlington , VA , June .
Locomotives of the Western United States
By Jonathan Lewis
St Maries River Railroad GP9s 101 and 102, both built by EMD in 1959 for the Milwaukee Road, are seen working a freight from St Maries to Tacoma Rail Switcher MP15 1521, built by EMD in 1983. Plummer, Idaho, beside Chatcolet Lake on the ...
Picture History of the Cunard Line, 1840-1990
By William H. Miller, Frank Osborn Braynard
134 PICTURE HISTORY OF THE CUNARD LINE 1840-1990 Frank O. Braynard. Adriatic, 63, 64 Alaunia, 51 Albania, 44 America 1 1848), ... 110.111, 112, 118 #fx,44 Russia, 4 Sagafjord, 130 Samaria, 25 Saturnia, 1 10 &«w»w(1900), ...
Karen Brown's England, Wales and Scotland: Exceptional Places to Stay and Itineraries
By Karen Brown
Map : 4 Eglwysfach Ynyshir Hall Ynyshir Hall shares its location on the Dovey river estuary with a 1,000 - acre bird reserve , home to herons , oystercatchers , curlews , and cormorants . Nestled in acres of gardens full of azaleas and ...
The Transportation Experience: Policy, Planning, and Deployment
By David M. Levinson, William L. Garrison
The Transportation Experience seeks to understand the genesis of transportation policy in America and the UK, along with the roles that this policy plays as systems are innovated, deployed, and reach maturity, and how policies might be ...