posted 05-26-2011 02:20 PM               

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
Just out of idle curiosity, does the poster belong to a cS member/reader?

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posted 06-12-2011 07:22 AM            

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Originally posted by AJ:
That belongs to my dear friend Michelle.

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posted 06-14-2011 01:54 PM               

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Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
According to the publisher, the on sale date is July 26.

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posted 06-20-2011 11:01 PM            

If you go to this web page, you'll find a fascinating selection of unique, rare photos of Al from childhood up to the present day.

We'll be sharing some on the book's Facebook page too. Enjoy!

posted 07-07-2011 03:28 PM            

Avi: Could you tell us a little about your autobiography

Al: Most of the book is about where I come from, how I grew up and how I selected the career path that I did and going through school and all that.

The first part of the book is about spending the days on the farm with my granddad and learning how to be responsible. You got dumb animals out there that rely on you to do everything for them. That's a thought process that I've kept all my life. But I decided when I was a kid that I would not spend the rest of my time on a farm so that's why I pursued going to college and eventually to the Air Force.

But then we get into the space program and the aftermath of our flight. As you know our flight was kind of singled out back in the day because we carried some postal covers that created quite a stir. The last part of the book is about how I sued the US Government. They had asked us to turn all of these thing in while they investigated the incident, then they didn't want to return them. So I sued them back in the 80s on behalf of all the astronauts and we took that through the Department of Justice and got everything back.

And what I've done since then because I've applied myself to helping charities and working with kids I think to try and get some respect back.

posted 07-19-2011 05:36 PM            

"The command module pilot (CMP), the second in command of an Apollo spacecraft, was the least understood and least appreciated crew member by the media and the general public. In Falling to Earth, Al Worden, CMP of Apollo 15, clearly and candidly recounts the wonder, the challenge, the triumph, and the pitfalls of flying to the moon."

— Neil Armstrong, Gemini 8 and Apollo 11 astronaut

"Ever wonder what it would be like to spend several days orbiting the moon— alone? Al Worden's expressive description of his Apollo 15 mission takes you there, and then on the 250,000-mile return, falling to Earth. This is not just another space mission book. In his intense, tell-it-as-he-sees-it style, Worden details what led to that wondrous experience and all that followed."

— John Glenn, first American to orbit the Earth

"The space program first rewarded, and then punished, Al Worden — and he is better for it, as this exceptional book reveals. It's the full story, told with clarity, insight, and humor, altogether a wonderful read."

— Michael Collins, Gemini 10 and Apollo 11 astronaut, author of Carrying the Fire

"Very few of us flew to the moon, and the stories we brought back with us are special, treasured, and unique. Al is both a pilot and a poet, and his honest portrayal of our exhilarating adventures will move and excite a whole new generation."

— Buzz Aldrin, Gemini 12 and Apollo 11 astronaut, author of Magnificent Desolation: The Long Journey Home from the Moon

"A rip-roaring adventure— a wry and fascinating chronicle of a time when we actually knew how to fly people to the moon."

— Tom Jones, space shuttle astronaut, author of Sky Walking

"Al Worden does a fine job telling his interesting life story, his important role as the command module pilot for the highly successful Apollo 15 flight— and his abrupt firing as a NASA astronaut. The ins and outs of this latter story and his personal fall to Earth make for especially fascinating reading."

— William Anders, Major General USAF (ret), Apollo 8 astronaut

"The talented men who made the pioneering flights to the moon were test pilots and scientists, team players and egomaniacs, goodie two-shoes and skirt-chasers, all driven by a shared goal— to go higher, faster, further than anyone in history. Al Worden was one of the best of this elite group: the first rookie astronaut to be entrusted with the tricky job of flying an Apollo command module, and ultimately a member of Apollo 15, the most scientifically productive lunar mission. His story, written with noted space historian Francis French, is a worthy companion to Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff.

— Michael Cassutt, co-author of Deke! and We Have Capture

posted 07-28-2011 08:37 PM               

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Originally posted by Michael Cassutt:
Clear?

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posted 08-02-2011 10:05 PM               

"Falling to Earth" - An Appreciation

The short of it: Beautifully written. Brutally honest. A good read. Destined to be remembered as among the best of astronaut autobiographies.

The long of it: Apollo 15 command module pilot Col. Alfred Worden tells the story of his life starting as a poor farmboy in Michigan, his path to become one of only 24 humans who have gone to the Moon, his fall from grace over a scandal that was only partially his fault, and his redemption helping deserving young men and women attend college.

Worden is scrupulously honest in this recounting — hard on both himself and his Apollo 15 crew-mates for their faults (as well as praising their virtues). He describes how his own first marriage fell apart over time because of his long absences and his single-minded attention to his work. While he became close to the late Jim Irwin, Worden faults him for being a "yes-man" to their commander Col. Dave Scott.

One of the important themes of the book is the very ambiguous relationship between Worden and Dave Scott, who was the "fair-haired boy" of the astronaut office who many predicted would become a general (like his father) and a future Chief of Staff of the Air Force. Worden admired Scott's flying skills, his leadership abilities, and his total dedication to the success of their mission, but Scott had an ethical lapse which cost them dearly.

The crew of Apollo 15 "fell to earth" after their flight because of a scandal involving philatelic covers. Dave Scott made an agreement before the flight with a German friend, Horst Walter Eiermann, to carry envelopes to the Moon on behalf of German stamp dealer Hermann Sieger. The agreement was that the covers would not be sold until after the Apollo program, and then only privately. In exchange, each astronaut would receive $7,000, deposited into a bank account. However, shortly after the mission, Sieger sold some of the covers publicly, breaching the agreement.

The problem with this affair was that the astronauts were personally profiting from their flight by commercializing the covers. Now previous crews had signed "insurance covers" left on the ground to be sold in case they died to help their families (insurance companies would not cover them). And a few covers were carried to the Moon by previous crews as personal mementoes. But the Apollo 15 Sieger covers, arranged by Dave Scott, were an immediate quid pro quo for cash. Worse, Scott did not list the covers on the required written notification to chief astronaut Deke Slayton of items to be carried aboard their spacecraft.

When word of the sale of the Sieger covers spread, the Apollo 15 crew was called on the carpet, fired from the Astronaut Office, and called to testify before Congress (ironically a year after they were honored to speak at a Joint Meeting of Congress following their mission).

Worden faults his commander Dave Scott for not taking full responsibility for the Sieger covers, which Scott had arranged. Worden acknowledges that he acquiesced to the plan at a meeting and also signed the covers after the flight. But as has been suspected for years, Dave Scott was the one who organized the agreement to carry the covers in exchange for cash, described as for their kids' college educations, and for keeping it secret from Slayton. Ironically, until the facts came out, Worden was the prime suspect of NASA management because they knew he had been a stamp collector.

After word leaked out of the scheme, the Apollo 15 crew returned the money and fully cooperated with investigations by NASA, the Justice Department, and Congress. They were never charged with any crime and years later received the seized covers back.

The affair was akin to a Greek tragedy for all three astronauts, but especially Scott and Worden (Irwin had already decided to resign from NASA). Scott's fatal flaw in the tragedy was to agree to accept cash for the covers and then not disclose that the covers were to be carried in his personal preference kit (PPK) to the Moon. As a result, Scott lost the opportunity to fly in space again (commander of ASTP was a possibility) and his Air Force career was ruined by the letter of reprimand all three men received. He was, however, years later appointed director of NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center where the space shuttle was tested in the ALT flights.

Besides the Sieger covers, Worden had agreed to carry other covers with a "phases of the Moon" design for an acquaintance, F. Herrick Herrick. However, Worden reported the covers in his PPK list and never received any money for them. In exchange for carrying them on Endeavour, Worden received a portion of them.

Slayton, Chris Kraft and other astronauts ostracized Worden and he was given a deadline to get out of the Astronaut Office. A sympathetic Hans Mark arranged for Worden to go to Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California where he eventually headed a NASA aircraft research program.

Years later, both in this book and in real life, Worden has been ambivalent about his former commander. In this book Worden tells, from his point of view, the full story of the cover fiasco for the first time, and his belief that Scott evaded responsibility for the scheme.

Another important theme of the book is the mind-boggling advance of technology. Worden describes growing up poor on farms in Michigan during the 1930's. At times he lived in houses with no indoor plumbing and no telephone. He was fascinated by electronics (a trait from his father) and especially by cars. It was a big leap for the farmboy to go to the University of Michigan for a year but he could not afford further college. He found a new life on the strict grounds of West Point. Worden was not a pilot at a young age, such as other astronauts; in fact, he did not choose to go into pilot training until the end of his West Point stay.

One of the best parts of the book is his description of his wild pilot and test pilot training days and how he developed a love of flying. However, he had an engineer's mentality which stood him in good stead as his career advanced. Technology was also speeding along. and Worden soon flew jets and other advanced aircraft, both in the U.S. and in Britain. He was chosen as an astronaut in 1966 and soon the farmboy was enmeshed with the Apollo command module, upon which he became an expert.

The book gives an excellent description of what astronauts do long before they fly. He spent over a year at the California factory that built the Apollo command module, doing detailed and boring engineering work. While the astronauts were able to fly T-38 jets and go on survival training missions, much of their job was tedious — developing written procedures, flipping switches in spacecraft to test them, attending meeting after meeting.

Worden was among the first in his 1966 group to get an assignment on a support crew and then a back-up crew. With Apollo 15 he got his first (and what turned out to be only) space flight assignment on the first and longer"J mission" to the Moon — which emphasized science more than previous missions. While Scott and Irwin were to land, Worden would remain in orbit alone for three days.

Worden's description in the book of his time in orbit around the Moon is true poetry — how the Moon looked and his own reactions to the experience. He was the most alone person in the universe for those three days, especially when he was in orbit behind the Moon and cut off from communication with the Earth. He tells of how his view of Earth from lunar orbit changed his perspective — there were no borders, just a bright, blue, small ball in space.

The mission was a resounding success and the crew received accolades around the world. Yet months later Worden was an outcast, reminiscent of the old saying "The higher they go, the harder they fall."

The last part of the book tells how Worden redeemed himself. Staying at NASA Ames for a while and then going into private industry. An unsuccessful run for Congress. A second marriage, to his wife Jill. And gaining satisfaction and respect by his leadership involvement in the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, which awards $10,000 college scholarships to deserving students in science and engineering.

posted 08-03-2011 09:50 AM               

I found it very interesting that Al did not yearn to fly as a kid. This is the first astronaut biography where flight was not a big part of the young person's life. He goes so far as to say "I hope I like flying" when he chooses to sign up for the Air Force.

posted 08-03-2011 12:30 PM               

He is also very open about the origins of the postal cover scandal, the aftermath, and the long term effects on the three crew members. I own one of the Sieger covers, and I feel that it is even more special to me now since I know some of the details of its history.

posted 08-08-2011 05:10 PM               

Many perceive being a CMP as something of a consolation prize for Apollo-era astronauts: yes, you get to go to the Moon, but you get left behind in orbit while your crewmates walk on the surface. Worden writes that it was a tradeoff: yes, as lunar module pilot you got to walk on the Moon, but that position was more of "system engineer" role since it was the mission commander who was actually flying the spacecraft.

posted 08-09-2011 04:15 PM               

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Originally posted by garymilgrom:
If I might add a small criticism - this is also the first astronaut biography that makes a big deal of the support crews

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