Apollo 8 : The NASA Mission Reports With CDRom [Paperback]

Robert Godwin (Author, Editor), Robert Godwin (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1896522505 | ISBN-13: 978-1896522500 | Publication Date: November 1, 1998

On December 21st 1968 the United States' National Aeronautics & Space Administration sent three men to orbit the moon. It was the boldest step yet taken in the quest to fulfill President John Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the moon by the end of the decade. This book finally puts in one place four of the most important documents from this triumphant odyssey, The Apollo 8 Press Kit, The Apollo 8 Pre-mission Report and Objectives, The Apollo 8 Supplemental Technical Report and The Apollo 8 Post Flight Summary. Includes: Windows CD-ROM featuring: 850 - 70 mm images taken during the mission; The film "Go For TLI" - over 21 minutes of full screen, full color MPEG video. The NASA Mission Reports is a series of books that will include all of the Apollo missions from Apollo 8 to Apollo 17 and all of the Mercury, Gemini and Skylab missions. All books will have CD-ROMs included.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Likely to appeal to someone who likes to delve deeply into the workings of NASA..." -- Astronomy Now, August 2001. "An essential read, Apogee should be applauded for producing this material in such an attractive format..." --Spaceflight, August 2002.

About the Author

Robert Godwin, Editor

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Apogee Books (November 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1896522505
• ISBN-13: 978-1896522500
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 6.8 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,546,286 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't miss the point: this is a collection, not an edition., March 9, 2000

By 

Evan Machlan (New Jersey) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Apollo 8 : The NASA Mission Reports With CDRom (Paperback)

Reading these Apogee books is like leafing through a thick stack of mimeographs. Robert Godwin's decision to leave the documents essentially "as-is" (leaving spelling and punctuation errors, for example) and to publish as much relevant material as he could find in the archives (similar, but not identical reports) allows you, the reader, to process the information yourself, as if you had gone to the archives to do research. If as a reader you are uncomfortable with the idea of developing the narrative on your own out of this raw material, these books may not be for you.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A MUST FOR ANY SPACE HISTORY BUFF!, July 6, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Van Nuys, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Apollo 8 : The NASA Mission Reports With CDRom (Paperback)

The APOLLO 8 MISSION REPORT ... published by Apogee Books, are an excellent source for Space History buffs. The book includes a press kit from the flight, pre and post mission summaries, and a fabulous bonus CDROM which has the official NASA mission report movie lasting about 17 minutes or so. The CD also has some GREAT color and black and white photographs.

All in all, these books are a must. I recently got the mission reports for Apollo 8,9 and 10 (10 has TWO movies and some stunning moon photography). I just found out that the Apollo 11 Mission report has just been released and is a TWO volume set (with Volume 2 released next week).

I wholeheartedly recommend it!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Puts you right in the middle of Apollo, June 25, 1999

By 

Thomas E. Brown (Easton, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Apollo 8 : The NASA Mission Reports With CDRom (Paperback)

Back in the thrilling days when we were about to see science fiction dreams come true [and foolishly believed that we were taking the "first steps out of the cosmic cradle", who could have believed that we would simply drop the ability once we acieved the goal] the news people would have all sorts of information at their finger tips, which would [often inaccurately] be distilled in newspapers and magazines. This book [and the available books on Apollo 9 and 10] contain the press kits and other material which the general public didn't have. The are full of technical information which you simply can't get anywhere else, and if you are a real space fan, they are absolutely invaluable. While general readers would find this material "dry" and "overly technical" [to say the least- e.g. did you wonder about the function of each of those "service arms" which retracted from the Saturn V at launch? you'll find that kind of thing here] space fans will find this a treasure trove. Sure the formatting is sloppy, no slick presentations here, but this is a reproduction of the actual material NASA produced, and I don't think the quality of the pictures [which have an early xerox look to them] was ever better in the press materials. If you want great pictures get "Full Moon," if you want the personal stories of the astronauts, get Andrew Chaikin's A Man on the Moon, this material is different and valuable in a different way [and if you're a space nut you'll want all of these and more.

The CD ROMs in each of these books are the "official" NASA films on the missions and have the pompous feel of such material, [they're shown endlessly in off times on the NASA channel, incidentally]. They are a good companion to the technical material in the books. Incidentally the books say the CD ROMs only play on Windows machines, but if you have a Mac with up to date web browser, and Quick Time you can play these as well.

The thing which really gets me about these is that they place you back in those days, most of the posts are pre-launch material talking about the missions in future tense. If you think these missions were routine, just check out the material on the different aborts and "alternate missions" which might have taken place if something had gone wrong.