|
|
 |
|
Categories:
Tracking Apollo to the Moon Lindsay worked at NASA's Muchea tracking station near Perth, Australia, from 1963 to 1981. His experience enables him to offer an excellent account of the space program from someone who was there. From a brief but outstanding history of flight to the Apollo-Soyuz program, he chronicles the events that shaped manned space flight. The well-known stories of the astronauts are here with additional detail, as well as many of the stories of the people and events behind the scenes. His approach is to "tell it just like it was" and the book is full of firsthand accounts and transcripts of the actual transmissions made during the space flights. There are numerous pictures and illustrations to help foster this approach. The chronological order allows the reader to see how the various decisions and events shaped the direction of the US space program. The book is very readable, and its format makes it an excellent resource for the general reader interested in finding answers to questions about the space program through the late 1970s. All levels. Somewhere between odd and typical This edition reprints astronaut quotations in purplish color throughout. It is a weird choice, since the only other books I know of that do that are Bibles with the words of Christ highlighted in red letters. The color is hard to read. Aside from that, this book is about what you'd expect. It was written by an Australian, and so everything is slightly skewed toward the Australian involvement, which seems unimportant in the grand scheme of things if you ask me. I loved the movie The Dish about the Australian tracking station, but I can't seem to stir up any more interest in the subject. At least the film was comical and quite aware of its peripheral status--the book has no such perspective. See the movie The Dish and buy another book--either Chaiken's or the new one by Reynolds. Somewhat of a letdown This book would be a great introduction for anyone who hasn't read any previous biographies/details of the Apollo or NASA histories. However for those who have, the book may turn out to be a real disappointment. I'm Australian and was looking forward to a detailed Aussie perspective on the spaceflight industry, but this seems to me to be too brief. Only glimpses are shown of the development of Honeysuckle Creek/Carnarvon tracking stations etc, which may please international readers but not this Aussie! The book seems to be trying to gain an international audience by overviewing the entire NASA spaceflight chronology, but after a few chapters some of the quotes and phraseology started to appear disturbingly familiar. Why do I get the impression the author has read every other book on the subject and just cut and pasted from each of them? The reference to Al Shepard as 'Smiling Al'/'Icy Commander' will be VERY familiar to some, and is only one example of a number of apparent ... which start to annoy after a while and eventually to the point where I gave up reading. (And why the strange purple print?)There are also some inaccuracies in the text which point to the author not having done original research, but these are not major, only adding to my irritation. It's not really revelatory except in some brief instances, and won't contain much you haven't read before if you are a space buff. The book is rather shallow and as a previous reviewer found, does not take a definite perspective, which I found a big letdown. I felt it tried too hard to be all things to everyone, and would have been better to have concentrated on a particular aspect such as the birth of the Australian spaceflight industry with an analysis of the attendant federal/state politicking and development of local spaceflight industry, and appealed to a niche market instead of trying to capitalise on the mainstream space market. However a good read if you are starting out in spaceflight history, and there are some very nice colour plates. Copious illustrations, welcome focus, some inaccuracies I was looking forward to this one and was somewhat disappointed. It's a straightforward telling of the history of manned space flight, exceeding Chaikin's From the Earth to the Moon in only a few respects, specifically the coverage of Skylab and in its behind-the-scenes addressing of the ground system and tracking station issues associated with each mission. There are some unnerving inaccuracies, though, the most glaring of which is misquoting some of Grissom's last words before the Apollo 1 fire. (He said, "How can we get a man to the moon when we can't even talk between two buildings?" not "How do you expect to get us to the Moon if you people can't even hook us up with a ground station?" As always, the glitches seem minor but reduce confidence in everything else. On the other hand, the book is copiously illustrated with diagrams and color pictures, which are interspersed with the text rather than, as is usually the case, confined to their own separate section. I was also pleased to see quotes from two of my former coworkers at Goddard, Bob Stanley and Robert Burns, in a section talking about setting up the tracking stations for Apollo, an effort they were closely involved with. 'Must Have' Apollo Book This book is both a superb introduction to the Mercury/Gemini/Apollo/Skylab programs and a valuable addition to the collection of any space enthusiast. It contains a few errors, but none of any consequence. Lindsay's discussion of such episodes as the Gemini VIII emergency, the Apollo 11 launch, and the Apollo 13 accident are among the best I have ever read. Importantly, the book tells the story from the perspective of the Australians who built and operated the various tracking/communications stations that supported the missions. Their stories help us understand the dedication and resourcefulness of the people, worldwide, who made the moon landings possible. Hamish Lindsay was one of those people and, in part, the joy of his book is the feeling one gets for how justifiably proud the Apollo veterans are of their contributions. See also:
| ||
|
