Apollo to the Moon (World Explorers) [Library Binding]

Gregory P. Kennedy (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5 Up-- Two disappointing efforts. Both are attractively laid out, with plenty of black-and-white photos scattered throughout and an inset section of color photos. However, neither has a much-needed map. More basic is the fact that DeSomma appears to have done his writing in 1990 and not to have touched it since, so that while there is some interesting material on how earlier space programs might lead into a trip to Mars, his extensive predictions have no validity in a world without a Soviet Union. Kennedy makes the sort of errors that suggest that he did not live through the Apollo era himself; he speaks of Cape Canaveral when it was Cape Kennedy. He starts his book with the Apollo fire and lingers on other problems encountered, decrying delays and investigations but omitting anything learned or improved as a result of these painful lessons, and shows no understanding of the other shocks the U. S. experienced, from Sputnik and Gagarin through the time of assassinations, which kept the Apollo fire from being the overwhelming watershed he depicts. Outbound (Time-Life, 1989) offers a more balanced overview of these subjects, with less false pretence of being up-to-the-minute. Flying to the Moon (Farrar, 1976) by Michael Collins ends with Apollo 11 but puts readers truly into the time. Exploring Mars (Rourke, 1987) by David Baker concentrates in full color on the U. S. space program, where the changes of the past years have been less draconic. --Margaret Chatham, formerly at Smithtown Library, NY
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 11 and up
  
• Library Binding: 112 pages
• Publisher: Chelsea House Pub (L) (January 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0791013227
• ISBN-13: 978-0791013229
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,056,864 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Welcome to my author page. To give you a little background about me -- I am one of those seemingly rare individuals who was actually born in Washington, D.C. One of the great things about growing up in DC was the Smithsonian Institution. As a teenager, I used to hang out there whenever I had off from school. This led to my first job in the museum field, at the National Air and Space Museum. After 14 years there (with a three year break to serve in the US Army) I headed west to New Mexico. At the Air and Space Museum, I was Associate Curator for Manned Space Flight -- in New Mexico, I became Executive Director of the International Space Hall of Fame.

I've managed other museums in Texas, Kansas and Pennsylvania, all of them related to aviation and space flight. Along the way, I developed a deep appreciation for the achievements and sacrafices made by the early pioneers of space flight. Two years ago, I decided to leave the museum field (after 37 fascinating years). Today, I live in Philadelphia and work at The National AeroSpace Training and Research (NASTAR) Center in Southampton, PA.

My other interests include skydiving, model building and, or course, writing. About the picture -- I was sitting in the gondola of the centrifuge at the former Naval Air Develoopment Center in Johnsville, PA, less than five miles from Southampton. The original Project Mercury Astronauts trained in the NADC centrifuge. The NADC centrifuge is no longer in use, but there is one at The NASTAR Center, where space flight participants are being trained for commercial suborbital space flights.