Customer Reviews

Apollo 11: First Men On The Moon (Pocket Space Guides)

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As someone who sat on a console during apollo 11-17, i've come to appreciate the exhaustively accurate and detailed work that Richard Godwin has done on this fine work. I might add that i've read most of the other Apogee offerings, from the X-15 history to the Mars Missions, and they all share these characteristics. Might i offer an opinion that they are also a fine read. Highly highly recommended.

Thirty quick read pages reflecting the historical roots and developments that lead to the first moon landing. It's a simple, good, "primer," accompanied by good pictures and straightforward factual details.

Along with the other books in this series I can thoroughly recommend this book to adults and school children alike. It puts the whole story of the first landing with all the relevant statistics in an easy to read format. Robert Godwin has taken a subject that could be boring - and made it fascinating. He obviously knows and loves his subject and this comes through in his writing. Enthralling AND informative! Great value too!

The Pocket Space Guide Series from Apogee is another great addition to their line of books. Robert has condensed things like the mission of Apollo 11 to a handy size that is perfect for those who want to get their feet wet and then to move on to their more detailed books on the subject such as the Mission Reports series. As always, their printing quality is superb and they have chosen excellent photographs, charts, diagrams, and artwork to make understanding the mission clear and easy. I highly recommend the Apollo 11 guide and all the rest in their series to educators and science centers. Giving these books to a group of kids who want to learn about space will really get their interest up.

If you are looking for a consise guide to the Apollo 11 moon landing without the detail of a full-sized book, this is the product you are looking for. "Apollo 11: First Men On The Moon"

is filled with plenty of photos from the mission and technical

diagrams, combined with a brief but detailed description of the

entire flight. This booklet is perfect for young people who are

interested in the first moon landing (which occurred many years before they were born!) but haven't been satisfied with the

material they find on the internet, and don't want to dig into

as much detail as presented in the Apollo 11 volumes published by Apogee Books. It is also a great summary for those of us who

actually remember July 1969. Recommended.

Author Godwin has accomplished a lot with his new 'pocket' guide series.

Apollo Eleven has been seen by so many and usually with the same historic images. But this approach differs from others as it takes the great, lost artistic images from North American Rockwell, Grumman, and NASA combining them with information from the various press kits and mission reports, he magically takes the reader along on the epic journey of Mans' first landing on the Moon. Just in time for the anniversary. Not only a great companion to Tom Hank's "Magnificent Desolation"- but a must read for anyone who wants to know what Apollo was all about.

If you are a real space advocate or brand new to the subject, this is the perfect book for you. The book gives a brief history of rocketry up to the Apollo program. It then summarizes how the Americans intended to travel to the moon, and what was done on the Apollo flights leading up to Apollo 11. The reader is introduced to such concepts as lunar ascent, lunar descent, orbital rendezvous, TLI, TLE, and the EVA. If these terms seem like a foreign language to you, then read this book, because these terms and more are easily explained. With great diagrams of equipment and processes, as well as actual color pictures taken during the historic Apollo 11 mission, this simple little guide will leave the reader with a complete understanding of why this was one of the most important events in human history.

I must admit that I purchased this book because I am an Apollo 11 completist and I liked the look and feel of the book. When I read it, I was pleasantly surprised. Don't let its diminutive size fool you. The book covers the Apollo 11 story better than many tomes five times its size. Godwin's text is easy to read and straight-forward. An adequate number of photographs compliment the text. Priced at about $10, Apollo 11: First Men on the Moon is a true bargain, which is rare these days.

Buy it. Read it. You will not regret it.

Robert Godwin the author of several other Apogee (space) books has once again published something remarkably unique. This book is the first in a series of quick reference space related guidebooks, which can be read in an hour, and will appeal to a wide audience. It is truly wonderful to read about an extraordinary historical event and examine colorful photos of our colorless Moon, exquisitely documented over 37 years ago.

There are 48 pages (about half the book) of high quality, "color" photos of the Apollo 11 mission including many of the astronauts in their EVA spacesuits walking around on the Moon; all of which makes this guidebook well worth the price, only a few dollars more than a monthly magazine.

The text introduction, although quite brief, is extremely well written, covering the age of discovery over many centuries of human history. How the author managed to squeeze such a vast series of of historical events in to such a suscinct overview, is truly amazing.

Mr. Godwin provides an easy to read chronological history of the people, places and things, that led up to the paradyme shift in what was once thought to be an impossible journey, a voyage from the Earth to the Moon. There were many scientific and technological developments, from Gallileo's invention of the telescope, to the Wright Brothers first powered flight at Kittyhawk, to Germany's WW-II V2 rocket development, that one by one, later paved the way to NASA's Project Mercury, Gemini and finally the Apollo Moon Missions. The first trip to the Moon was during Apollo 8 by Christmas of 1968, but what everyone remembers most was the first lunar "landing" realized by Apollo 11, in July of 1969.

I found from the very first page of this book, Mr. Godwin relates well to the accomplishment of Apollo 11; starting with the influence of Columbus and change in thinking that the Earth is really round. I never expected in a "guidebook" such a capsulized historical overview of mankind's most significant advancements in scientific knowledge. Many other earlier discoveries resulted in a far greater understanding of our place in the Universe, but not until the Apollo Moon missions did our knowledge come to the pinnacle, and perhaps contributed the most to the common man's knowledge of space and our nearest celestial neighbor, a mere quarter million miles away from Earth.

This first book in the series is so good, I won't be satified until I get the additional Apogee guidebooks, overviewing the history of spacecraft testing and rocket launchers (Vol I), plus the Moon missions of Apollo 12 through 17 (Vol II). All three books will long endure as a prized addition to my collection of spaceflight memorabilia.

Apollo 11 was, without doubt, the most satisfying space mission ever undertaken. It put men on the moon. And this book details just how much effort went into doing that. Brilliant.