Apollo: The Epic Journey to the Moon - Hardcover

Apollo is an exciting account of the historic program that landed a man on the moon. Featuring a wealth of rare photographs, artwork, and cutaway illustrations, Apollo brings the journey to life, from the adventurous astronauts to the scientists and engineers who designed and built the state-of-the-art spacecraft. With concise descriptions, David West Reynolds introduces a new generation to this thrilling episode in U.S. history while also providing engaging details for the space aficionado. All of the key events and personalities are covered, creating a comprehensive picture of how we got to the moon and what happened along the way. Detailed diagrams and maps provide a clear understanding of the technology that carried the astronauts their and back again as well as what they accomplished while they were there. In addition, the book includes a foreword by Wally Schirra, the only astronaut to fly in all three of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs, and an afterword by Gene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon.
David West Reynolds is the bestselling author of nine books. He holds a doctorate in classical art and archaeology and has published scholarly articles on imperial Rome and medieval Africa. While researching Apollo, he spent time in an original lunar module trainer, got to try on lunar surface gloves, and was able to take a seat in a lunar rover. In the course of his wide-ranging career, he has sculpted a life-size dinosaur skeleton, created museum models of historic spacecraft, and relocated desert filming locations in Tunisia featured in the original Star Wars film. He lives in Marin County, California.

“I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.”—President John F. Kennedy, May 25, 1961  With those words President Kennedy kicked the U.S. space program into high gear. Project Mercury had already put the first American in space, Alan Shepard, on May 5, 1961, and now the clock was ticking on the most ambitious technological journey in human history. Through the Gemini and Apollo programs, NASA built, step by step, a path to the Moon that won the space race hands down. There were tragedies along the way—the loss of the Apollo 1 crew in a fire during a launch pad test—but the program pressed forward and put a man on the moon on July 20, 1969, just eight years after Kennedy’s ambitious pronouncement. Apollo: The Epic Journey to the Moon, 1963–1972 brings those exciting years to life with rare photographs and detailed illustrations, demonstrating how this audacious trip was made with technology that, although primitive by contemporary standards, achieved what no nation has done since: landing humans on another world.