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Description:
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On July 20, 1969, the human race accomplished its single greatest technological achievement of all time when a human first set foot to another celestial body. Six hours after landing at 4:17 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (with less than 30 seconds of fuel remaining), Neil A. Armstrong took the "Small Step" into our greater future when he stepped off the lunar module, named "Eagle", onto the surface of the Moon, from which he could look up and see Earth in the heavens as no one had done before him. Joined shortly by "Buzz" Aldrin, the two astronauts spent 21 hours on the lunar surface and returned 46 pounds of lunar rocks. After their historic walks on the Moon, they successfully docked with the command module " Columbia", where Michael Collins had been patiently orbiting the cold but no longer lifeless Moon. Then they returned to Earth, "splashing" down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24, 1969. They had accomplished the seemingly impossible challenge of John F. Kennedy to land an American on the Moon "before this decade is out" and the world would never be the same again.
This significant new collection of oral histories concerning the Apollo program recounts the unique history of the lunar landing program from the perspective of some of the political leaders, engineers, scientists, and astronauts who made it such as success. These reflections on this unique time, place, and accomplishment are must reading for any student of space history and Project Apollo. A foreword by Christopher C. Kraft, Jr. provides an additional perspective on the Apollo program.
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