A Man on the Moon
The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts
by Andrew Chaikin · first published 1994
100% recommend
Why HN recommends it
Account of every Apollo mission, with Mercury and Gemini background, built on astronaut interviews done soon after the flights. Suits readers wanting the full story; basis for From the Earth to the Moon.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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 resul
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If you're interested in the Apollo program, you'll find no better telling of it than A Man On The Moon by Andrew Chaikin. http://www.andrewchaikin.com/books/a-man-on-the-moon/ The book was adapted into the excellent miniseries From the Earth to the Moon by HBO.
on “How the Apollo Fire Propelled NASA to the Moon” ↗…Race to the Sky and the Making of a City by Neal Bascomb * Caesar’s Last Breath: Decoding the Secrets of the Air Around Us by Sam Kean * Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari * A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts by Andrew Chaikin * The Actor’s Life: A survival guide by Jenna Fischer * The Interstellar Age: The Story of the NASA Men and Women Who Flew the Forty-Year Voyager…
on “Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018?” ↗I cannot recommend "A Man on the Moon" by Andrew Chaikin highly enough. It's an incredible read. Go find it and read it. The HBO mini-series, From the Earth to the Moon, largely based on that book is also quite excellent. Go find it and…
on “The Apollo 11 Journey in Photographs” ↗…http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/Apollo204/inv.html (I'll have to OCR the pdfs. I started to read the first one and it's fairly interesting.) There's two books I always recommend re: Apollo: 1) A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts, by Andrew Chaikin. 2) Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond, by Gene Kranz.
on “Apollo 1” ↗…administrators were anxious about losing a crew and were all too happy to cancel the missions after Apollo 17 (in addition to saving money for future projects). I heartily recommend Andrew Chaikin's A Man on the Moon for an excellent account of the Apollo program.
on “The Incredible Things NASA Did to Train Apollo Astronauts” ↗If you can't get enough of this, let me recommend: A Man on the Moon - http://www.amazon.com/Man-Moon-Voyages-Apollo-Astronauts/dp/... And the HBO series based on it: From the Earth to the Moon - http://www.amazon.com/From-Earth-Moon-Collectors-Edition/dp/...
on “Experience the Apollo 11 Lunar Landing” ↗A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts - Andrew Chaikin. Loved it A Man for all Markets - Edward O. Thorp. Loved his stories about counting cards and then moving onto hedge funds etc. American Kingpin:…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2018?” ↗…the side of a mountain. Focus of the mission was entirely on science and collecting samples. Apollo 16-17: Apollo 15, but at different places and more extreme. --- I'm almost finished listening to "A Man on the Moon" by Andrew Chaikin that tells the story of each mission. Highly recommended.
on “NASA executive quits weeks after appointment to lead 2024 moon landing plan” ↗I highly recommend the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_the_Earth_to_the_Moon_(mi... And the book on which it's largely based, A Man on the Moon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Man_on_the_Moon
on “Ken Mattingly, Astronaut Scrubbed from Apollo 13, Is Dead at 87” ↗Pete Conrad was definitely the most fun astronaut of the Apollo series. See also A Man on the Moon ( http://www.amazon.com/dp/0140272011 ) as well.
on “Why Apollo 12 Was Amazing” ↗…mission control regarding mostly the early US space program, the third about the Apollo program in general. Failure is not an Option - Gene Kranz Flight: My life in Mission Control - Chris Kraft A Man on the Moon - Andrew Chaikin
on “Ask HN: Space exploration book recommendations?” ↗…"hear." Another tidbit. Toward the end you hear mission control say "30 seconds." That's how much fuel is left[1]. Those guys had steel spines. If you can't get enough of this stuff, I highly recommend "A Man on the Moon" by Andrew Chaikin[2], as well as the HBO mini-series produced by Tom Hanks and based largely on that book, "From the Earth to the Moon"[3]. "Failure Is Not an Option" by Gene Kranz[4] (flight director…
on “Apollo 11 Guidance Computer source code” ↗Thank you, for both the reference material and for the "A Man on the Moon" recommendation.
on “NASA executive quits weeks after appointment to lead 2024 moon landing plan” ↗Thanks! I liked reading this extensive accunt of all apollo missions and what each accomplished -- A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts Andrew Chaikin https://www.amazon.in/Man-Moon-Voyages-Apollo-Astronauts/dp/... I wish there was an "annotated verison" or enthusiast discussion forum that corss-linked…
on “Experience the Apollo 11 Lunar Landing” ↗- Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins Of The Internet - A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts
on “Ask HN: Books about people who did hard things” ↗