Fifty years ago, three men strapped themselves to the top of a rocket, and were launched on a week long journey, to land on the Moon and return. Yes, the Moon. It was and is amazing, and it was the culmination of a massive amount of work, including two previous Apollo missions around the Moon, without landings. 'Moon Shot' tells a dual narrative, swapping between the story of the space program in general, and the preparations and proceedings of the Apollo 11 crew specifically.
You can't help but be impressed by the courage and careful planning involved in this ridiculous undertaking, and the pressures being felt as the Soviets played their own part in this grand race into space. It's really very disturbing that no human has left Low Earth Orbit since the last moon landing in 1972. That's forty-seven years, for those counting. Apparently the race meant more than the project, for the people paying the bills.
This is a nice book, with some gorgeous photos and deep biographical information on Armstrong, Collins and Aldrin. The information on the preceding Mercury missions and the general development of space flight was probably the more interesting part for me, however. The grand sweep of that process is fascinating. Completely fascinating. Parry is definitely a gifted writer, and he uses first hand accounts and excellent research to make an already dynamic story resonate on the page.
It's still very hard to believe that anyone could really launch themselves into space on top of a giant firework rocket and then land on the moon in a tin foil capsule, before returning in one piece. Yes, they may have been test pilots and drenched in the spirit of maddening courage, but it has that bizarre smell of unreality to it. It's no wonder that people disbelieved the veracity of the Moon landings for so long.
The human costs of the Space Program become clear as you read, culminating in the final cost for the Apollo 11 crew, that of becoming icons and losing their anonymity and to some extent their connection to the world as conventional human beings. All of the glamour of the Space Program was attached to them, while the other astronauts live in the shadow.
Yes, it really has been more than fifty years since we first sent people around the Moon. What a grand project it was, and how well it has been documented. As I get to more books about the Space Program, this one will be put into more perspective, but it is for now my first and the best.
O.
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