Customer Reviews

Apollo 11: The NASA Mission Reports Vol 3: Apogee Books Space Series 22

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Robert Godwin has given the armchair space historian the best report ever to understand the first lunar landing.

Apogee Books newest entry into their NASA mission reports series, Apollo 11-Vol.3, has more information, and allows everyone to understand the complexities that led to the accomplishment of the lunar landing.
For the first time we can read and see thru NASA illistrations and drawings not only what worked, but what did not. You can finally understand, why the "Eagle" landed farther down range than they estimated before launch- and how Houston HAD to know where Armstrong and Aldrin were so they would meet with Collins in the command ship! Did you know that they almost had to abort the landing because they steerable antenna was mis-aligned? or why the voices echoed coming from the Moon? You will find out here, my friend!
Mr. Godwin has also put in their first DVD, an incredable look thru all the cameras available at Mankinds first lunar stroll.
This is the document we wish we had when we put together the scripts for our Miniseries!

James M. Busby
Technical Advisor
HBO's "From the Earth to the Moon"

I know I'm the editors brother, but I'd like to emphasize the amazing never seen before DVD movies that come with this book.
Everyone has seen the 16mm movies footage of the landing on the moon taken from the LM window. The problem has been that the camera ran at varying frame rates, 1ps 6ps and 12ps. This made it almost impossible to sync up the audio with the pictures, until new technology came along. Now Rob has not only put the audio over the video precisely, but has also cleaned up and filtered the never heard before onboard voice recorder. Never heard before because it was lousy quality. Enter the new technology again and he has been able to clean it up and present an audible version. So now whilst watching the video of the landing, you can hear Neil in left channel, PAO/Houston in right channel and Buzz in the middle. Also complete with subtitles so you can actually read what they said, and finally a small animation of the LM picture in frame to see the attitude of the LM at any particular moment. It is Truly amazing!
On the EVA, there is the whole 90 plus minutes of the 16mm again synced up with the audio...no mean feat! The timeline includes the NTSC picture in frame as well as High res photo pop ups that appear at the moment they were actually taken.
This is the best rendition of the Apollo 11 mission I have ever seen on film. I might be biased but I think Rob has raised the bar once again for us Space aficionados.

It is meant as no disservice to say that the accompanying DVD will be the reason for many buying this book. I would rate this book and DVD much higher if I could: for Godwin's dedication to the entire series, for the the book itself and for a unique and amazing DVD.

The book is what we've grown to expect from Godwin: in this case a thorough treatise centred on the Apollo 11 post-flight mission report. In it you'll find details of mission anomalies: the Program Alarms that threatened the landing are covered in definitive detail and interestingly an anomaly with an oxygen tank in the Service Module that sounds awfully like Apollo 13...

But it is the DVD that truly excels. And what a package this is! After 30-odd years you can now appreciate seeing the moon walk nearly perfectly synchronised from the LEM window on colour film and from the monochrome TV camera. In addition the panoramae and stills pop-up at the time they were taken. An unbelievable achievement for Godwin for which I suggest he receives a NASA award (if such exist for maximum dedication). I hope that I am not considered too churlish in saying that the monochrome surface video isn't the best quality version I've seen, but please note, that is a minor comment.

The pleasant surprise is that the DVD is double-sided... And on the flipside you'll be treated (amongst a wealth of 16mm silent footage) to the onboard tape recorder and Earth-Moon comms spread across the stereo soundstage, synchronised with the entire powered descent from around 50000ft. This shows to me - a true space devotee since the early 1960s - for the first time a major appreciation of what the landing was like. Now you can see what the crew saw as they landed within 20 seconds of an abort. It would be nitpicking to say I would have liked the audio from the flight-director's loop in the back channel of Dolby 5.1.

In summary, if you have a DVD player and you have an interest in Apollo, I cannot recommend strongly enough - BUY THIS BOOK. You won't regret it!

As has been noted by the other reviewers, a prime reason to get this book is the included DVD. The editor, Robert Godwin, has given all of us space historians/enthusiasts a remarkable gift. With great care, he has created real-time video of the lunar landing and walk. These help clarify this first exploration of the Moon. Besides that, the DVD includes typical tourist-type video taken by three men out on an adventure without their wives. Somehow the reality of the mission is intensified by the markedly amateur use of the video and movie cameras -- the jerky movements, the too-fast pans, etc. Video from lunar orbit is also included. To watch the lunar landscape roll beneath you in DVD-quality adds a sense of truly being there and understanding the awe that the astronauts must have felt. May this book be the first of many more Mission Reports which include a DVD. Many thanks to Robert Godwin.

Robert Godwin and Apogee Books have, over the past three years, compiled a variety NASA documents, press kits, crew interviews and the like, which recount the early days of the space race, focusing on the Apollo missions. This time, they have released a third volume of information dedicated in the first lunar landing of Apollo 11, which includes a DVD of the lunar EVA and an excellent companion NASA publication. Apollo 11 was the only the third manned mission to the moon. This mission was commanded by Neil Armstrong who was accompanied to the surface by Buzz Aldrin with Michael Collins as the Command Module pilot. This latest entry deserves at least 6 stars and two thumbs up.

As is evident from this reviewer's comments as well as all of the other reviewer's comments, the primary reason to purchase this book is the DVD. This two-sided DVD contains the entire video and 16mm footage, plus many still pictures of the first moonwalk on one side and the entire 16mm camera footage on the other. It is clear to me and I'm sure from anyone who has watched this DVD, that this compilation was clearly a labor of love and to date is the most impressive video of any of the lunar EVA explorations that I have ever seen. What makes this DVD so impressive is that the producer has combined the video, 16 mm camera footage and audio transmission into one single presentation. This combined presentation, clearly allows the viewer comprehend all the activities that were undertaken during the Apollo 11 moonwalk. Furthermore, when one of the astronauts takes a still picture, the image appears on the screen and gives the viewer a clear idea of how, by whom and where the picture was taken. Regardless of whether or not you were alive to see the first moon landing live on TV, you definitely can relive the excitement of that wondrous time by watching this DVD.

The book that accompanies the DVD is a reprint of the Apollo 11 Mission Report prepared by the Mission Evaluation Team from the Manned Spaceflight Center in Houston. This report is essentially the scientific and engineering evaluation of the Apollo 11 flight. In these pages, there are many figures that show a comparison between a predicted value and an actual flight value (how much was used vs. how much was estimated). The lengthy report is over 200 pages long and covers all aspects of the mission, from liftoff, lunar landing, the moonwalk, the experiments, and the return to Earth. It also contains a fairly long chapter describing all of the flight anomalies (problems). Even though I've studied this mission and its moonwalk in depth, I was amazed at the number of problems that occurred during the flight to the moon. While some readers may the report's writing a bit dry in some places, they are actually getting a view of how NASA operates and why their exploration programs for the most part are quite successful.

Some general information that might be useful.

1) This report is a scanned-in documents from a previously released NASA document. In order to preserve the spirit of the original reports, all typographical and grammatical errors have NOT been fixed.

2) Proceeds from the book goes to "The Watch" an asteroid impact research project of the Space Frontier Foundation. In other words, Apogee Books is making very little off the sale of US government produced books and documents.

This latest addition to Apogee Books' brilliant NASA Mission Report series is a must-have supplement to the first two volumes on this historic flight. The book contains lots of obscure information on the mission, and I particularly liked the map of EVA photography and the rundown of equipment anomalies. However, the DVD that accompanies the book is quite amazing. Included is all of the 16mm film taken during the flight, which has been altered to run at normal speed and is presented as the astronauts saw it (when shown in documentaries, the images are usually reversed). The presentation of the landing from shortly before PDI (with accompanying stereo audio and subtitles) lends new drama to the event. And the full coverage of the EVA with a blending of TV, 16mm movie, and 70mm still footage, is stunning. This package represents true value for money.

The book is what I've come to expect from Apogee. But the CD Rom included with this is worth twice the price of the whole package. I feel like I've just seen the landing for the first time. The EVA also is just wonderful. What brilliant use of technology Apogee.
My hat is off to you once again.
PS Please do the same with Pete Conrad's mission!!!!

This 3 volume series on Apollo 11 is a treasure of information on this historic flight of the Apollo Program. The CDs are a wonderful addition with incredible resources for use in the classroom. As a high school science teacher, it is wonderful to have these great resources!

For producing the DVD alone, which includes rare NASA film footage, much of which has never been viewed before, Robert Godwin deserves some sort of award for this. It's absolutely brilliant.

As the others point out here - the included DOUBLE SIDED (flip it over for more!) DVD is worth the price of admission and more!

There is a lot of raw 16mm onboard film footage that is interesting including, docking sequences and orbit shots but the fully synchronised sequence of the first ever moon EVA is good. The whole of the powered descent - it is FANTASTIC. Watch them practice in the simulators in the Tom Hanks series "From the Earth to the Moon" (the only place I know where you can get a sense of how hard a moon landing was) then listen to the real Armstrong's telling comment "This is harder than the simulator" on this DVD.

The only thing missing from the powered desent commentary is the full mission control loop - and really it has to be for clarity - leaving just Charlie Duke as CapCom as the voice of Mission Control set against Armstrong and Aldrin. The only thing you can do to better this is to actually visit the Apollo exhibit at NASA in Florida where you get a snip of the powered descent in an AV display and you DO get the control room loop which includes Gene Kranz's call - "if we lose comms or get that program alarm again - call an abort". They didn't - and you can't help but get the feeling that if Kranz had called an abort at 100ft Armstrong would have just kept going. Mission Control were already having kittens about how long he had flown on manual, the comms breaking up (listen to the "Switch to Omni and set it in slew" - on the DVD for a clue - if you ever hear the Mission Control loop it sounds much worse!) and how low the fuel really was - and on this DVD you can almost hear Aldrin saying on the cockpit loop "Damn Neil PUT HER DOWN" (he doesn't but you can hear it in what he does say).

Yep the book is good too (as are the other two that make up the Apollo 11 report) and for the Apollo buff you must have all three. If you jut want to know what the first moon landing and moon walk were like - buy volume 3 - for the DVD