The Apollo Missions: The Incredible Story of the Race to the Moon (Sirius Visual Reference Library, 4) Hardcover – June 29, 2019

Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the first landing on the Moon, The Apollo Missions recalls the effort and tenacity involved in the US space programme as it rose to meet unprecedented technical, practical, and physical challenges. The “Space Race” between the United States and the Soviet Union began from the moment President John F. Kennedy made his historically bold claim on 25 May 1961: “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”

Two presidents later, astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, and Michael Collins turned Kennedy’s dream into a reality, gently touching down on the Sea of Tranquillity on 20 July 1969. Armstrong famously reported to Houston, “The Eagle has landed,” and a few seconds later Mission Control replied, “Roger, Tranquillity, we copy you on the ground. You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue. We’re breathing again. Thanks a lot.”

The successful landing didn’t come easily or without tragedy, however. There were eight missions prior to the successful Apollo 11 landing, including the first one that went disastrously wrong on the launch pad and resulted in the loss of three astronauts. The programme continued with unmanned missions for a while, then dress rehearsals began for the real thing.

Written by a former member of NASA, this book chronicles Apollo missions 1–11 in detail. It is filled with magnificent photographs of the spacecraft and astronauts as well as stunning images of the Earth and the Moon; annotated technical diagrams of rockets, Command Modules, Lunar Modules, and the Apollo 11 spacesuit; and NASA flight plans and operations plans booklets. Also included are special features on key events and people, plus tables of facts and figures, detailing the names and ages of the astronauts, their flight dates and durations, what Armstrong ate while he was in transit, and where you can see the Apollo spacecraft today.

Dr David Baker has had a lifelong involvement with the NASA space programme. He helped to send men to the Moon in the 1960s; worked to develop the re-usable Shuttle in the 1970s; aided countries around the world to use space applications in their everyday lives during the 1980s; advised on space policy during the 1990s; and is now a lecturer and historian. David is also the editor of Spaceflight, the magazine of the British Interplanetary Society, and a multiple award-winning author and writer. His previous titles have covered subjects such as aviation, space, defence, and astronomy, as well as the development of the technologies and politics that underpinned the Cold War. He won the Rolls-Royce Award in 1998, the 2005 Sir Arthur C. Clarke Award for his work as editor of Jane’s Space Directory, and he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from NASA and the American Astronautical Society in 2017. He lives in Sussex in the UK.