July 16, 2019 will be the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, celebrating an incredible decade in science history. In Eight Years to the Moon, unique personal stories of NASA engineers and MIT computer experts are interwoven with Nancy's gripping style to tell the story of Apollo 11 in a fresh and riveting way. Despite incredible hurdles and catastrophes, Apollo 11 launched a successful mission within President Kennedy's proposed timeline. The employees of NASA made the impossible possible ― creating new technology and completely reimagining space travel. In Eight Years to the Moon, readers are transported into the space race of the 1960s.
Nancy begins in 1962 ― when NASA had to build the Manned Spacecraft Center and space exploration first became a priority ― and spans to the successful Apollo 11 mission. With firsthand accounts from Henry Pohl (director of engineering at Johnson Space Center), Glynn Lunney (Apollo flight director), and Frank Hughes (lead test engineer for the Apollo command and lunar module simulators), it's easy to get wrapped up in the excitement of what it was like. In the words of Henry Pohl when he saw his first rocket test launch, "When that thing lit off I had never seen such power in my life... I decided right then and there that's what I wanted to be part of..." And he was far from alone.
Filled with stories from those involved and interviews with other Apollo experts, Eight Years to the Moon is a book that will delight anyone who has ever looked up at the moon and wondered how we got there.
Hardcover: 256 pages
Page Street Publishing (July 2, 2019)
ISBN-10: 162414490X
ISBN-13: 978-1624144905
Buel Member
Posts: 654 From: UK Registered: Mar 2012
posted 06-22-2019 09:18 AM
Here is the wonderful trailer for "Eight Years to the Moon":
David C Member
Posts: 1051 From: Lausanne Registered: Apr 2012
posted 06-22-2019 10:14 AM
Hope its got loads of people pictures.
OLDIE Member
Posts: 274 From: Portsmouth, England Registered: Sep 2004
posted 04-10-2020 01:45 PM
I came across this book whilst browsing Amazon.
It seems to be background stories of the Apollo programme. Maybe I missed it, but has anyone in the collectSPACE community read it, and is it worth adding to my collection?
Paul78zephyr Member
Posts: 680 From: Hudson, MA Registered: Jul 2005
posted 04-28-2020 11:07 PM
I’m reading my local library's copy now (which I can keep indefinately until they re-open). I’m about two-thirds through it and I can say its a good book.
It tells the stories of the Apollo program 'through the eyes' of various ordinary people who worked for NASA or their contractors — an interesting approach which I think works for the most part. I was not familiar with this author and I’ve found a few fairly minor errors but it’s mostly well written/researched with some information on things I had not read about before. Many pictures, some I’ve seen before, some not. So far, so good. Hope this helps.