Book 65 of my 2019 Reading Challenge
read from September 16 - October 2
Chasing the Moon: The People, the Politics, and the Promise That Launched American into the Space Age
by Robert Stone
Summary (via Goodreads)
published 2019
A charismatic young president issued the historic Moon landing challenge. This book, which greatly expands the companion PBS series, tell the stories of the visionaries--based on eyewitness accounts and newly discovered archival material--who helped America win the space race with the first lunar landing fifty years ago.
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy proposed the nation spend twenty billion dollars to land a man on the Moon before the end of the decade. For the first time, Chasing the Moon reveals the unknown stories of the fascinating individuals whose imaginative work across several decades culminated in America's momentous achievement. More than a story of engineers and astronauts, the Moon landing--now celebrating its 50th anniversary--grew out of the dreams of science fiction writers, filmmakers, military geniuses and rule-breaking scientists. Going in depth to explore their stories beyond the PBS series, writer/producer Robert Stone--called "one of our most important documentary film makers" by Entertainment Weekly--brings these important figures to brilliant life. They include:
* Science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, whose writing inspired some of the key players in the Moon race. A scientific paper he wrote in his twenties led to the U.S. beating Russia in one area of space: communications satellites.
* Wernher von Braun, the Nazi military genius who oversaw Hitler's rocket weapons program. After working on ballistic missiles for the U.S. Army, he was recruited by NASA to manage the creation of the Saturn V Moon rocket.
* Astronaut Frank Borman, commander of the first mission to circumnavigate the Moon, whose powerful testimony before Congress in 1967 decisively saved the U.S. lunar program from being cancelled.
* Poppy Northcutt, a young mathematician who was the first woman to work in Mission Control. Her media exposure as a unique presence in this all-male world allowed her to stand up for equal rights for women and minorities.
* Ed Dwight, an African-American astronaut candidate, recruited at the urging of the Kennedy White House to further the administration's civil rights agenda. But not everyone welcomed his inclusion.
Setting these key players in the political, social, and cultural climate of the time, and including captivating photos throughout, Chasing the Moon focuses on the science and the history, but most importantly, the extraordinary individuals behind what was undoubtedly the greatest human achievement of the twentieth century.
My Opinion
3 stars
I haven't seen the documentary but I think I may have liked it more than the book - I kept stopping to look up footage or photos of what they were talking about so having it all laid out for me would've been easier. I actually feel pretty silly now that I'm typing it out that I didn't just watch the documentary once I started down the rabbit hole of YouTube clips.
It was very well-researched. As with most non-fiction books my interest came and went depending on how interested I was in the material but everything was well-written. A downside is the chapters were very long so if I wasn't interested it felt even longer since I usually read until I can find a good break point.
Reading about how such small things could make a huge, possibly catastrophic, impact was a good reminder to always put 100% effort into a task and not overlook the details.
Reading the quote, "We have talked about adding provisions in the space capsule for one hundred twenty pounds of recreational equipment" (Werner von Braun) in response to the question of whether women could be astronauts was a gross reminder of blatant sexism (which wasn't unique to NASA, I'm sure).
I finished this book wanting to watch the documentary and with a few books added to my never-ending "to-read" list (mostly biographies written by the astronauts themselves) so I consider it a win.
A Few Quotes from the Book
"To see the Earth as it truly is, small and blue and beautiful in that eternal silence where it floats, is to see ourselves as riders on the Earth together, brothers on that bright loveliness in the eternal cold - brothers who know now they are truly brothers." ~ from an article in The New York Times during the Apollo 8 mission
"In comparison with the Apollo photographs of the whole Earth seen from space, the Apollo plaque [left on the moon] made only a brief impression. But its message was the same: The people of the planet were one species, united by universal hopes and dreams and motivated by a desire to explore and learn."
"The generation that came of age in the 1960s [is] the last earthbound generation. They saw in their own lifetimes the shift of man as a creature of a single planet to man beginning the exploration of space. It's the most exciting and significant time in the history of mankind." ~ Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
