Customer Reviews

Building Moonships: The Grumman Lunar Module (Images of America: New York)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If you grew up in the 50s or 60s and liked all the space stuff back then (all the different toys, tv news images, magazine articles, etc) then you'll like this book. It has great behind the scenes photos at Grumman and of the people who built the LM. Lots of info that probably no one ever knew unless they were there.

A great gift for someone who worked on the Apollo projects. Also a great history reference for anyone born after those glory days.

A terrific book about the 1960's NASA technology used to build and fly the Lunar Module to the moon. This book conveys the pride of the workers and company that built these wonderful and unique vehicles. Great mix of photos and text. I have many space books but still learned new things from this book. Highly recommended.

This is a must have for the serious space flight history buff. Although light on text, this photographic history is rich in information about the development and preparation of the Lunar Modules produced by Grumman at Bethpage, New York. As a space flight historian, I was surprised that included in this small book were a number of photographs that I had never seen before. For something of this size it packs a great deal of space flight history into a small book. Highly recommended.

... and I bought this book hoping that maybe I could find him in one of the photos. I DID! He died when I was young, so I don't know much about his work, but I remember seeing pics of him coming out of the LM and him bringing me home bits of the gold foil they used for the skin. Great book.

Being an 'project Apollo junkie', my great blind spot was the famous LEM.
This book gave me an unseen look behind the scenes of this unique flying apparatus, the only true spaceship man has ever made.
When one looks at these pictures now, one can only be amazed by the engineering beauty of it, and even more by the claustrophobic confinement of its cramped space inside. I just couldn't believe how two grown up persons in full space suit had to exit and enter this tiny cabin by an even more tiny hatch (that even swung inward !).
The only part I missed was some more text, maybe even some anecdotes.
All in all, I love this book, it sits there on my bookshelf and from time to time I like to browse it again and again, a bit in disbelief about the technological marvel of a spaceship with less computer memory than the most tiny pocket calculator you can find today.
A deep bow for the people that designed and built this machine !

This is a good pictorial history of the development of an amazing flying machine. I would have liked more text as the only writing is captions on each photo, some of which have not been well edited. If you want to know more about the technical side of Apollo read 'Apollo' by Charles Murray and Catherine Bly Cox.

I liked this book. It had a lot of pictures I've never seen before and went into the places at Grumman that you never see in other places.

This relatively small book packs within it's pages a wealth of images of one of the twentieth century's masterpieces of aerospace egineeering: The Grumman Lunar Module, built at the Bethpage 'Ironworks' that saw the birth of generations of the US Navy's most capable aircraft, and, this 'funny looking spider'.

The bulk of the book consists of photos, drawings and plans of thee Lunar Module from initial conception to the final moon landing and those machines now in museums. Besides the machines themselves, many of the photos show the men and women who created, tested and prepared the LM's. It may just be me, but I believe that the dedication and commitment of each of them can be seen in these photographs.

In conclusion, a book of value to any one with even a passing interest in the space program and a fine tribute to the men and women of Grumman and the Apollo program.

When I received this book I was disappointed. I really expected something else.
I wanted a well documented manual digging into the "behind the scene" of such an enterprise of building a LEM.
Instead, all I got was a booklet of pictures with notes. Not a single story, not a single tale or interview, nothing written.
It's just a collection of pictures, period.
Then after someway I changed my mind because those pictures are something rare, but I don't think this book is indispensable. Eventually is a nice to have book, but it costs too much for what you get.
What's more, some of those pictures are not fine printed (you'll see picture boundaries cut off at the borders of the page et similia).
All in all there's nothing much to say: if you want a series of (rare and good) black and white pics about the LEM construction and concept, each one coupled with a brief note about the image, and you think the price is fine for you, go for it.

Given as a gift to a family member who actually worked on the Lunar Module. He was impressed and has reread it a number of times, I had looked through it as well and must say it was a nice piece of history. Buying it here and having it shipped was so easy!