A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: lunar landing date, walkback limit, final moonwalk, Pete Conrad, Deke Slayton, Jim Lovell (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A decade in the making, this book is based on hundreds of hours of in-depth interviews with each of the twenty-four moon voyagers, as well as those who contributed their brain power, training and teamwork on Earth. In his preface Chaikin writes, "We touched the face of another world and became a people without limits."

What follows are thrilling accounts of such remarkable experiences as the rush of a liftoff, the heart-stopping touchdown on the moon, the final hurdle of re-entry, competition for a seat on a moon flight, the tragic spacecraft fire, and the search for clues to the origin of the solar system on the slopes of lunar mountains.

"I've been there. Chaikin took me back."--Gene Cernan, Apollo 17 astronaut

From Publishers Weekly

Scheduled to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the first lunar landing on July 20, 1969, this chronicle offers a comprehensive, often penetrating look at NASA's Apollo program. Originating in 1961, when President John Kennedy told Congress that the U.S. should attempt to land a man on the moon "before this decade is out," the program's last mission ended in December, 1972, with the splashdown of Apollo 17. Diary-like reports mix with first- and third-person accounts as Chaikin, an editor at Sky & Telescope magazine, delivers a chronological view of the missions and those who planned and flew them. Focusing closely on the Apollo astronauts, including Buzz Aldrin, Pete Conrad and Neil Armstrong, Chaikin gives his topic a sense of immediacy. But his treatment, lengthy as it is, reads more like an extended magazine article. Missing is a view of Apollo in a wider context, one that captures the mythos of our efforts to land on the moon. 40,000 first printing.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 704 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult (June 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670814466
• ISBN-13: 978-0670814466
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (123 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #884,999 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best One Volume Book on Apollo, December 18, 1999

By	Concerned Consumer "DD" (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Man on the Moon (Paperback)

I've read this book numerous times since the first hardcover edition in 1994, and I never fail to learn something new. While there on many books on Apollo that a serious enthusiast should read, this is easily the SINGLE best book yet written.

Chaikin is the only person to interview all 12 moonwalkers and get their personal feelings about everything from astronaut & crew selection, training, peer relations and best of all; orbiting and walking the moon. This is not a technical or scientific history, but an account of how the astronauts FELT about their entire Apollo experiences. You can easily "walk in their shoes" and "see through their eyes" with this book.

He writes in a way all persons can understand, and simplifies the engineering and scientific aspects so you can understand what the astronauts were dealing with. Not only does he avoid getting bogged down in techical speak, but actually makes the technical parts fascinating to learn!

If you want a good summary of Project Apollo, I'd recommend three books:

"To A Rocky Moon: A Geologist's History of Lunar Exploration" - by Don Wilhems. This is the science side of the story, and quite fascinating!

"Full Moon" by Michael Light. A beautiful coffee table book with pictures that take your mind to the moon. With this you can almost see what the astronauts did!

And lastly, and most important of all, this book. . ."A Man on the Moon." It will almost make you feel like you were the fourth crewman.

The three together will give you the best sense of what happened at that fascinating time in history!

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Without a doubt, THE book to read about the Apollo program!, December 18, 1999

By	Chuck Johnson (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Man on The Moon: 3 Volume Illustrated Commemorative Boxed Set (Hardcover)

I was 2 years old when Neil Armstrong placed the first boot print on the lunar surface, and after watching Apollo 13, I became curious as to what exactly it was that got us to the moon in the first place. In 6 months time I read "Lost Moon" by Jim Lovell, "Last Man on the Moon" by Gene Cernan, "The Race", "Schirra's Space" and "Deke!".

A Man on The Moon was the last book I read, and I can speak from firsthand experience when I say that if I would have read it up first, I would have had no need to read the others. That is NOT to say that all of the other books are not good, quality reads (with maybe the exception being Schirra's book), because they certainly are, but Andy Chaikin left absolutely nothing to the imagination and almost no stone unturned when he penned this exciting and informative book.

Even though I was just a toddler when our exploration of the lunar surface began, thanks to Andy Chaikin, I don't feel that I missed a single thing.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From the page to your mind!, June 13, 2000

By	Mitch Reed (Washington DC, United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: A Man on the Moon (Paperback)

If you liked the HBO series "From The Earth To The Moon", you must read this book. Such a detailed account of the astronauts and the missions does not exist else where. Each mission is described separately, in great prose. A must buy for all serious space readers.