Carrying the Fire
by Michael Collins · first published 1975
82% recommend14% neutral4% critical
Why HN recommends it
Astronaut memoir by the Apollo 11 command module pilot, balancing technical detail on training and spaceflight with human insight, never romanticized or dry. Suits Apollo and 1960s space-era fans.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
The years that have passed since Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins piloted the Apollo 11 spacecraft to the moon in July 1969 have done nothing to alter the fundamental wonder of the event: man reaching the moon remains one of the great events—technical and spiritual—of our lifetime. In this remarkable book, Michael Collins conveys, in a very personal way, the drama, beauty, and humor of that adventure. He also traces his development from his first flight experiences in the air force, through his days as a test pilot, to his Apollo 11 space walk, presenting an evocative pictur
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It is a pleasant surprise that this made it to the front-page of HN. Although it is late, I want to take a moment to write about how much Michael Collins has meant to me. His book, Carrying The Fire, https://www.amazon.com/Carrying-Fire-Astronauts-Michael-Coll... is one of the reasons why I've decided to go into aerospace and take my shot at becoming an astronaut as an adult. He wrote parts of this…
on “For Apollo 11 he wasn’t on the moon, but his coffee was warm (2019)” ↗To anyone interested in early space flight and the Apollo missions, I strongly recommend reading Michael Collins's memoir Carrying the Fire. It is quite amazing all the training that the astronauts had to go through so they could manually perform various tasks and measurements, since the computing capacity was extremely limited.
on “Apollo 14 50th anniversary images find Alan Shepard's ball and how far he hit it” ↗…time he liked one of my tweets (I joked that I'd been touched by celebrity - he intensely disliked celebrities). But I want to take a moment to describe how much Michael Collins meant to me. His book, Carrying The Fire, https://www.amazon.com/Carrying-Fire-Astronauts-Michael-Coll... is one of the reasons why I've decided to go into aerospace and take my shot at becoming an astronaut as an adult. He wrote parts of this…
on “Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut, has died” ↗NASA and the ability for a government program to be startup-like, as well as my impression that test pilots were selected only for bravado. I'm reading Carrying The Fire, a book by the Gemini and Apollo astronaut Michael Collins. I was totally caught off-guard about how fast-paced, creative and generally entrepreneurial the early space program was. A common description…
on “Ask HN: What have you changed your mind about recently?” ↗He wrote an excellent book Carrying The Fire that's widely considered to be the best written by any astronaut. It gives a broader overview than just the Apollo missions and covers the Gemini and Mercury programs that prepared for the moon shot.
on “Steve Jobs "never had any designs. He has not designed a single project"” ↗I'd also recommend reading "Carrying the Fire" by Michael Collins, it's probably my favourite book written by a Gemini/Apollo astronaut
on “Apollo 17 at Shorty Crater” ↗His sci-fi book "Encounter with Tiber" was pretty neat. Loved it, and it had me hooked the whole time. Michael Collins "Carrying the fire" was also a very good book. Collins is a great writer with a great subject.
on “Buzz Aldrin: The Dark Side of the Moon” ↗One of my favorite books is Michael Collins's "Carrying the Fire": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrying_the_Fire:_An_Astronau...
on “Buzz Aldrin: The Dark Side of the Moon” ↗Michael Collins' "Carrying the Fire" is by far the best of the astronaut memoirs (IMHO). Really well written!
on “The triumph and near-tragedy of the first Moon landing” ↗Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut's Journeys, by Michael Collins. Read it originally 20 years ago. Re-read parts of it recently due to the anniversary, and it's still good.
on “Ask HN: What is the best autobiography you have read?” ↗> I strongly recommend reading Michael Collins's memoir Carrying the Fire Can confirm. Read it a couple of months ago and decided it was the best of the Apollo-era biographies and autobiographies that I've read.
on “Apollo 14 50th anniversary images find Alan Shepard's ball and how far he hit it” ↗…the Shadow of the Moon [0], "Certainly I didn't feel it as fear, I felt it as awareness, almost a feeling of exultation. I liked it! It was a good feeling." He mentioned the same thing in his book, Carrying the Fire (I saw that NPR is calling it "the best of the astronaut autobiographies", and having read it, I concur.) [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMx2MA5bEtk
on “Michael Collins, Apollo 11 astronaut, has died” ↗Carrying the Fire by Michael Collins. He goes into so much detail about training to become an astronaut, his first spaceflight, training and planning for the Apollo missions, and talks about so many of the details and…
on “Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?” ↗Carrying The Fire by Michael Collins is an excellent account of Apollo 11 from the perspective of the command module pilot. I've read it three times, it's a wonderful book, he's a very intelligent, capable and humble man.
on “Ask HN: Books about people who did hard things” ↗…perspective of the engineering and other ground crew as well as the astronauts) Gene Kranz's 'Failure Is Not an Option' https://www.amazon.com/Failure-Not-Option-Mission-Control/dp... Michael Collins' 'Carrying the Fire' https://www.amazon.com/Carrying-Fire-Astronauts-Michael-Coll... (he wrote a part of this in orbit around the moon while Armstrong and Aldrin made their historic landing) Eugene Cernan's 'The Last Man…
on “John Glenn has died” ↗