Free Eight Years To The Moon: The History Of The Apollo Missions Produced By Nancy Atkinson Digital

book takes a slightly different approach to the Apollo missions than other books I have read, It looks at the years leading up to the moon landing inand focuses on the engineers, scientists, families, and NASA managers tasked with developing a way to get to the moon by the end of the decade.
The astronauts are interspersed in the story, but they seem to have cameo roles in the book the focus is on the unknown multitudes who had to figure out things like communicating over,miles, developing computers and programs that did not exist, or safely docking two spaceships.


If you enjoy the engineering and science angle to the story of getting to the moon, this book is a good one, and it also seems to cover personal stories and people who are largely unknown but played such a huge role in the Apollo project.
The engineers out of college in the earlys and with no more than a slide rule and a suitcase got the astronauts to the moon, and this is their story.
Nancy Atkinson delivers an admirable writeup of the Apollo program, from start to finish, The book was available for theoth anniversary of Apollolanding on the moon, I thoroughly enjoyed the book from start to finish, The author had access to the NASA archives and the faces behind the scenes in the space race that many recall as America's finest moment of theos.


I wholly recommend the book to all both for the amateur and expert, I bought theth Anniversary edition and intend to enjoy the book for years to come, A great job. Looking for an Apolloanniversary read that isn't astronautcentered Read this!

Quite a refreshing read, Too many other books on the same subject fall into telling the same stories about the same people over and over again, This book chooses to focus on individuals who worked in the space program, but have not had their stories told yet, I had heard of very few of the people highlighted here, which means I got to learn quite a bit, Hearing the story of Apollo through different voices was quite refreshing, You also learn more about just how such an audacious thing like a mission to the moon was developed and designed,

My only quibble was that I'd like more/larger photos, For a larger than average sized book, I would have expected more pictures,

One of the most unique space books in the last few years, Definitely worth a read. Well researched with personal insight from many of the individuals involved in the NASA Space program as well as lavishly illustrated with posed publicity photos and lots of candid shots of buildings, people and equipment from the beginning inthrough Apollo, the landing on the moon and further trips and discoveries until the program ended in.


We are familiar with the image of the mission control room with dozens of wall monitors as well as individual monitoring stations manned by men with a pressed shirt, tie and massive headsets.
In a photo from one of the Mercury missions in, there are perhapspeople with chunky monitor desks with switches, one monitor and lots of underutilized gray space and even more empty floor.
NASA grew to fill that space,

This was the same time where NASA could only afford to share two of the huge computers one in Maryland, one in Florida.
There were none in Texas or California, And this was when computers were roomfilling behemoths with temperamental vacuum tubes and, in many cases, required notification of the local electric company before turning them on due to the massive power drain on the grid.


The beginning of the book drags a bit since literally, EVERYTHING, had to created basically from scratch,
The Houston Mission control site was a cow pasture,
Kennedy Space Center called Cape Canaveral at that time was a missile firing facility, All the launch pads and facilities for storage and assembly of the rockets as well as transportation and sturdy roads to move the tremendously heavy rockets.

Rockets that were strong enough to leave Earth's gravity and be consistent in their work, More crashed and exploded than actually flew for a long time,
Communications systems that would cover the distances as well as be as close to Real Time as they could be made,
Tracking systems and their facilities across the world
Maneuvering thrusters system
Protective suits and eventually the isolation suits that those that actually set foot on the moon had to wear to protect the Earth from 'foreign' bioorganisms
Simulations imagined and constructed for every possible experience
Manuals to be written on every system, every happenstance especially the computers that were just beginning to come into the digital age but still very basic with limited memory and processing power.

How the astronauts were to be able to rest, eat and even eliminate waste during the dayslong missions

The public saw the end result of eight long years of work.
Most never saw or even conceived of the obstacles that challenged the ingenuity of not only the employees of NASA but that of it's contractors across the U.
S. and the world. Perhaps as the plaque that was left behind on the moon after that first trip stated: 'We came in peace for all mankind.
' All of mankind is still benefiting from those discoveries and innovations to this day,

The only possible addition that I would like to have seen is an appendix of the various badges from the Mercury program through Apollo.
Only one appears in the publicity photo of Apollo, Any others are small blobs of color on their suits,

The fiftieth anniversary commemorative edition of the history of the Apollo missions brings readers more than sixty personal interviews, oral histories, and illustrations to chronicle the race to the moon.
Beginning inwith NASAs newlycreated manned spaceflight program through thelunar landing, the unfolding story focuses on the engineers, the mathematicians, and the scientists working behind the scenes who helped to make the lunar landing a reality.


The book also includes a commentary by astronaut Russell Schweickart, a prologue detailing the Apollolunar landing, an Acronym Reference Guide, a list of interviewees and or oral histories, and a list of films and websites.
Readers with an interest in NASAs manned spaceflight program, in Apollo, or in learning about the contributions of those working behindthescenes will find much to appreciate here.


Highly recommended.

.stars
This book tells the story a many engineers and other people involved in the Apollo project, which reach,all around the world. It is a feat of humankind to reach the surface of the moon safely and return, Many challenges plagued the mission and it is so interesting to heard and read how they were able to solve all the problem.
Even the ones that they didnt know about,
I learn a lot about the Apollo missions , not just about what happened after launch but also how it all started and was developed.
This is definitely geared toward those who are fascinated with the space program, specifically the Apollo missions, Though there are many, many personal stories, it does get pretty wonky at times, I enjoyed it immensely, even the parts that were WAAAAY over my head, A v Disclaimer: I got a copy through a Goodreads giveaway,
Eight Years to the Moon by Nancy Atkinson
I was astounded by the level of detail and breadth of topics, The author filled the book with stories told through interviews with those who worked on Apollo, Engineers, scientists and others who solved incredible problems in order to get men on the moon, Families and friends who lived through the heartbreak of crashes or fire,
I followed the space program as a boy, And it inspired me. Reading these stories gave me even more inspiration knowing more about the obstacles and time lines, As an engineer, my challenges pale in comparison to these, It leaves me even more astounded at what they accomplished,
The stories include working out the radio systems, computer programming, control thrusters, and so many more systems and logistics, This book is incredibly indepth, Any fan of the program will learn much from this book, A BehindtheScenes Look At NASAs incredible Journey to the Moon

Space journalist and insider Nancy Atkinson weaves together the riveting story of NASAs mission to complete “the greatest adventure on which humankind ever embarked.
”

This incredible account is a keepsake celebrating some of the most important and dramatic events in modern history, Told through overpersonal interviews and oral histories, as well as personal photographs, this tribute to the men and women who made the Apollomission a reality chronicles the highs and lows that accompanied the race to the Moon: the devastating flash fire that killed the crew of Apollothe awe of those who saw their yearsinthemaking contributions to space exploration blast off from Cape Canaveral the knucklebiting descent of Apolloto the lunar surface a nearcatastrophic event on the crews flight home the infectious excitement and jubilation across the world after the astronauts returned safely to Earth.


These littleknown stories of the dedicated engineers, mathematicians and scientists in thes reveal the “hows” of the Apollo missions and bring to life the wonder and excitement of humanitys first steps on the Moon.
It looks like a pretty coffee table book and there are many beautiful photos, but this book is full of content! More than just a recounting of the flights of the space program, it really takes you behind the scenes with the thousands of people who made it all happen.
It's a history of NASA, showing you aspects that may have not fully been explored in other books, It's not a quick read unless you just want to look at the pictures, but it's well worth your time, With theth anniversary of the successful Apollomoon landing this summer I have been watching every documentary and reading books on this historic event.
Ive always been fascinated by the space program I reviewed the book American Moonshot earlier this year, Yet the best material I have found on the Apollo program and the moon landing is Nancy Atkinsons book “Eight Years to the Moon: This History of the Apollo Missions”.


As I retired software engineer I loved the technical details in the book, especially about the early years when NASA planners were debating the best way to meet John F Kennedys challenge, “Land a man on the moon by the end of the decade!” Atkinson quotes one engineer during this challenging time, “You get to do things that nobody has ever thought about and nobody has every deal with.
And then you also have problems like nobody else too, ”

Not into technical details The book will appeal to you, too, with many photos from the Apollo era, The oversized “coffee table” book was worth it to me just to look at all the pictures,

I learned details of the Apollo missions that I was not aware of before, For example, when Neil Armstrong piloted Apollos lunar module Eagle five miles away from the original landing site, this presented a huge challenge for NASA.
“In spaceflight, timing is everything, Knowing the Eagles exact location would establish the timing of liftoff from the Moon in order to meet with Columbia in lunar orbit,” Atkinson writes.
She quotes flight dynamics officer Dave Reed in Mission Control who said to flight director Gene Kranz at the time, “We have a problem we do not know where the hell they are.
”

I relived the thrills and challenges of the Apollo missions by reading “Eight Years to the Moon”, Well worth it! I loooove space and nonfiction space books see: sitelinkmy list and this new release recently hit my radar,

Atkinson's work is set apart from a typical astronaut/NASA employee autobiography because she is able to look at the Apollo program through a wide lens.
Yes, she absolutely gets into some of the fun astronaut stories, but also gives many of the different departments, program administrators, engineers and workerbees my term, not hers their due.
There were an estimated,employees, contractors, scientists and more working on the Apollo program, and Atkinson samples a very interesting and diverse crosssection for this book.


Reading Eight Years to the Moon made the excitement, milestones, near misses and tragedies of the Apollo space program palpable and accessible disclaimer: recall my loveofspace bias.
There was a nice balance of people, project management, technology and some administration can't avoid administration when you're coordinating,warm bodies,

I am

so excited! And did you know we're sitelinkgoing to the moon in I might have to take the year off work.


As a space book lover there was plenty of information I've seen but it was interesting to see it through a new lens and nicely contextualized in the flow of the book.
Atkinson also uncovered some new information about some extremely dangerous near misses during reentry on the first handful of Apollo missions that had never been published/disclosed before.
Couple other newtome details too,

I think it's impossible to share the history of the whole Apollo program in ltpages let alone lt,but this was a superb read, including all the colour photos.


Thanks Saskatoon Public Library for getting a copy into the system at my request!,