From Kirkus Reviews
The story of America's space race with the Soviet Union and the scramble to put a man on the moon, by two who were there. Shepard and Slayton, both Mercury Seven astronauts, begin with a long, panting account of the Eagle's landing on the moon's surface, then backtrack to the beginning of the superpower missile competition in the late 1940s. They point out that the US at that time had no missile expertise whatsoever; the program was set up in Huntsville, Ala., by Wernher von Braun, the German missile genius captured from the defeated Third Reich. A German team constructed the Redstone and Jupiter rockets, but Eisenhower, who distrusted ex-Nazi scientists, eventually grounded von Braun and his German team--until the Soviets launched a basketball-sized satellite called Sputnik. The American public was traumatized by a 1,000- pound satellite zooming across its airspace, and von Braun got the green light to launch a smaller American satellite at once. After summarizing this early history, the authors turn to the later Apollo missions, which they cover in detail (Slayton was one of the program's masterminds), as well as the eventual Soyuz-Apollo mission, a Soviet-US cooperative effort. Interesting historical material is related in a hard-boiled style, complete with dramatic re-enactments, as if the writing committee--counting the folks who worked on the companion Turner Broadcasting documentary scheduled for fall, there are at least four authors--had decided they needed swashbuckling prose to enliven the material. Do we really need to be told that the countdown seconds to a missile launch ``fell like withered leaves''? Still, when its corny style doesn't get the better of it, Moon Shot has its moments, and it's quite readable and detailed. (32 pages of b&w photos, not seen) (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
“Swashbuckling.” —The New York Times “Breathtaking.” —Entertainment Weekly “A must read . . . an insight into the wonders of space flight, yes. But more important, readers come to know Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton, and come to respect their courage and feel genuine affection for these two American heroes.” —President George H. W. Bush “Gripping, authoritative . . . and skillfully told, this is the ultimate inside story of the U.S. space program. “ —Walter Cronkite “From the early Cold War days of the Space Race through the beginnings of the ‘thaw,’ Moon Shot comes alive.” —Senator John H. Glenn
About the Author
As one of the original seven Mercury astronauts, Alan Shepard (1923-1998) became the first American in space on May 5, 1961, and a decade later took, with his partner Edgar Mitchell, the longest walk-two miles-on the moon before hitting a golf ball for miles and miles across the lunar landscape.
Jay Barbree is in his fifty-fifth year with NBC News. He is the only reporter to have covered all 166 American astronaut flights and moon landings, and the only reporter to be awarded NASA's highest medal for public service. He received an Emmy for his coverage of Neil Armstrong's first walk on the moon, broke the cause of the Challenger accident on Tom Brokaw's Nightly News, and he's still on the job covering space for NBC's five television networks while writing space stories for NBCnews.com. Barbree was also the lead writer for the New York Times bestseller Moon Shot with astronauts Alan Shepard, Deke Slayton, and Neil Armstrong.
Christopher Grove is an actor, writer, and audiobook narrator. His narrations include Eye of the Storm, The Quantum Enigma, and the Right Kind of Crazy.
Mercury astronaut, Deke Slayton (1924-1993) was meant to be the second American in Earth orbit, but was grounded because of an irregular heartbeat. He stayed on at NASA to supervise his fellow astronauts and was returned to flight status in 1972. In 1975, after sixteen years as head of the astronaut office, Slayton made it into space for the historic first docking of an American and a Russian spacecraft, a step that was a long stride on the road to end the Cold War. Despite playing a former astronaut on the TV show Northern Exposure, actor Barry Corbin doesn't seem capable of giving this saga of American space exploration an effective reading. But his drawl perfectly embodies the testosterone-heavy world of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. Moon Shot relates the story of those seminal projects as told through the experiences of two of the original seven Mercury astronauts, Alan Shepherd and Deke Slayton. Some sections, especially those involving training, don't have the riveting quality of the space missions, but Corbin keeps the story on track. He provides us ready access to the guarded thoughts of action-oriented men who often find themselves overcome by their emotions when faced with the overpowering beauty of space. D.A.W. An AUDIOFILE Earphones Award winner (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine
