Scheduled to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the first lunar landing on July 20, 1969, this chronicle offers a comprehensive, often penetrating look at NASA's Apollo program. Originating in 1961, when President John Kennedy told Congress that the U.S. should attempt to land a man on the moon ``before this decade is out,'' the program's last mission ended in December, 1972, with the splashdown of Apollo 17. Diary-like reports mix with first- and third-person accounts as Chaikin, an editor at Sky & Telescope magazine, delivers a chronological view of the missions and those who planned and flew them. Focusing closely on the Apollo astronauts, including Buzz Aldrin, Pete Conrad and Neil Armstrong, Chaikin gives his topic a sense of immediacy. But his treatment, lengthy as it is, reads more like an extended magazine article. Missing is a view of Apollo in a wider context, one that captures the mythos of our efforts to land on the moon. 40,000 first printing. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Science writer Chaikin celebrates the 25th anniversary of the moon landing. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A well-known writer on space exploration, Chaikin has gathered together everything about the Apollo Program in this book, which took him more than ten years to prepare. In that time he interviewed all 23 surviving Apollo astronauts as well as scores of others involved on the ground. He is able to describe accurately what went on in people's minds at various times, and records the sometimes vicious politics of astronauts eager to get on Moon flights. His six years on the staff of Sky and Telescope prepared him for clear, precise writing, starting with Neil Armstrong's "small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind" on July 20, 1969. Apparently he made close friends among the astronauts; Gene Cernan, Apollo 17, says: "I've been there. Chaikin took me back." The US public stopped watching, and NASA canceled the last two Apollo missions, but, along with Arthur C. Clark, Chaikin believes that the Apollo success will be "remembered a thousand years from now." The book is divided into 13 chapters and illustrated by 47 glossy plates; these include some of the most dramatic shots taken on the Moon. In a long epilogue, Chaikin describes many encounters of astronauts with unusual audiences, both in the US and overseas. Three appendixes treat astronaut biographical information (birth date, education, etc.); persons interviewed (astronauts, astronaut wives, children, engineers, scientists, etc.); and Apollo mission data (Apollo 7 through Apollo 17; dates, crew, purpose, duration.) In the bibliography, Chaikin lists 60 books he found useful. There are 42 pages of author's notes, and a good, 42-column index. The best yet on the Apollo Program. Highly recommended for academic use at all levels above junior high school, and for general readers. T. Page; NASA Johnson Space Center

Chaikin believes we have never truly come to terms with the fact that 24 men have left their footprints on the moon. In an effort to document and understand the shift in consciousness that transformed the moon--a celestial body long associated with goddesses, love, madness, and mystery--into a moving target and goal of the world's most sophisticated technology and determined egos, Chaikin conducted numerous interviews with the moon voyagers and their earthbound colleagues who guided and prayed for them. The result is a can't-put-it-down volume that picks up where Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff left off. These portraits of the men who were willing to be more alone than any human had ever been before are vibrant and compelling. And Chaikin meticulously chronicles each Apollo mission in dramatic detail, describing the dynamics within each trio, the emotions of the astronaut who had to orbit the moon alone while his more glorified comrades romped across powdery moonscapes, and the unprecedented, almost unimaginable experiences of the men who gathered moon rocks and watched the earth rise. This account helps us reclaim the awe these adventures originally inspired, the wonder at such audacity, and the now-ingrained image of the beautiful blue-green Earth spinning hopefully in the austerity of space. ~--Donna Seaman

For the 25th anniversary of the first moon landing, a winning and detailed account of the Apollo astronauts, a dozen of whom were the first human beings to walk on the face of the moon. The strength of the book lies in Chaikin's exhaustive research, including interviews with all 24 Apollo astronauts. Chaikin, an editor of Sky and Telescope, draws on the wealth of material from NASA's files--including recently declassified transcripts from the on-board voice recorders, which give candid glimpses of the astronauts' thoughts not intended for outside ears (not even Mission Control's). As a result, the reader gets an in-depth portrait of the program, which the book sets clearly in its time, with glimpses at the Vietnam War and social unrest at home that were eventually to overshadow its brilliant accomplishments. Even readers who followed the moon program at the time will find surprises (Buzz Aldrin's celebrating communion after the first lunar lander touched down) as well as nostalgic reminders of how much fun it was (Alan Shepard's smuggling along golf balls and a club head to try a few swings in lunar gravity). Chaikin effectively recaptures much of the emotion of Apollo: not only the macho fighter-jock exhilaration of flying higher and farther than anyone in history, but the worldwide tension when an explosion forced Apollo 13 to return prematurely to Earth; the frustration of astronauts bumped from the moon crews by illness or other twists of fate; the almost metaphysical calm of looking back at Earth from a quarter million miles away. And while the author's main focus is rightly on the astronauts themselves, the supporting cast, from politicians to engineers--and especially wives and families--gets its fair share of the spotlight. Essential reading for anyone interested in the history of space flight: well written, full of fascinating characters and facts, and above all worthy of its subject. (First printing of 40,000; author tour)