Moon Shot; The Inside Story of America's Race to the Moon

Atlanta, GA: Turner Publishing, Inc, 1994. First Paperback Edition. First Printing. Trade paperback. Very good. AM 6 Back. 383, [1] pages. Illustrations. Index. Introduction by Neil Armstrong. Cover has slight wear and soiling. Rear Admiral Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. (November 18, 1923 - July 21, 1998) was an American astronaut, naval aviator, test pilot, and businessman. Shepard was designated as the commander of the first manned Project Gemini mission, but was grounded in 1963 due to Ménière's disease, an ailment that caused episodes of extreme dizziness and nausea. This was corrected in 1969, and in 1971, Shepard commanded the Apollo 14 mission, piloting the Apollo Lunar Module to the most accurate landing of the Apollo missions. Donald Kent "Deke" Slayton (March 1, 1924 - June 13, 1993), was an American World War II pilot, aeronautical engineer, test pilot who was selected as one of the original NASA Mercury Seven astronauts, and became NASA's first Chief of the Astronaut Office. Slayton was selected to pilot the second U.S. manned orbital spaceflight, but was grounded in 1962 by atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm. He then served as NASA's Director of Flight Crew Operations, making him responsible for crew assignments at NASA from November 1963 until March 1972. Derived from a Kirkus review: The story of America's space race with the Soviet Union and the scramble to put a man on the moon, by two who were there. Shepard and Slayton, both Mercury Seven astronauts. It begins with an account of the Eagle's landing on the moon's surface, then backtracks to the beginning of the superpower missile competition in the late 1940s. They point out that the US missile expertise was set up in Huntsville, Ala., by Wernher von Braun, the German missile genius captured from the defeated Third Reich. A German team constructed the Redstone and Jupiter rockets. The American public was traumatized by a 1,000-pound Soviet satellite zooming across its airspace, and von Braun got the green light to launch a smaller American satellite at once. The authors turn to the later Apollo missions, which they cover in detail, as well as the eventual Soyuz-Apollo mission, a Soviet-US cooperative effort. Interesting historical material is related, complete with dramatic re-enactments, as if the writing committee -- there are four listed authors -- had decided they needed swashbuckling prose to enliven the material. Moon Shot quite readable and detailed.