posted 11-28-2018 12:48 AM               

In conducting his deep research over the past several months, Geoffrey has gained the support, trust and assistance of Evans' family, friends, fellow pilots and other astronauts, and with their cooperation has been putting together a truly masterful and very readable manuscript, which I am thoroughly enjoying. It certainly shines a light on an intriguing aviator/astronaut about whom so very little is known.

posted 07-09-2019 06:00 PM            

I confess I am a few months behind schedule on the manuscript, but for the best of reasons: when I started this deeply satisfying project, I had not expected to find so many willing sources of information. I have also found that a one-hour interview takes at least six hours to transcribe... and that's after setting up and conducting the interview!

I think I can promise a few revelations and surprises to satisfy the space aficionados, but mostly I'm hoping to show what it took for one man to travel from the dustbowl era of rural Kansas all the way to flying a spaceship in lunar orbit.

posted 11-03-2019 09:46 AM               

Former solicitor Geoffrey Bowman has always been fascinated by space travel, met Neil Armstrong and is now the biographer of Ron Evans who was involved throughout the Apollo programme. Ivan Little reports.

posted 11-04-2019 05:45 PM            

Former solicitor Geoffrey Bowman has always been fascinated by space travel, met Neil Armstrong and is now the biographer of Ron Evans who was involved throughout the Apollo programme.

posted 01-07-2020 05:57 PM            

As with any book, there will now be a long period of proof-reading, corrections and filing-off of rough edges. However, the story is "in the can."

This has been a fascinating experience which opened many doors. I have received contributions from two schoolfriends of Ron's, ten naval aviators who flew with him, astronauts from Groups 2, 3 and 4; and from every surviving member of Group 5. There are also contributions from many key figures associated with Apollo 17, some of whom I have met before and was able to meet again at Spacefest last August. A definite highlight of my visit to Arizona was meeting and having dinner with a remarkable lady, Jan Evans, together with her daughter Jaime and son-in-law Lamar.

posted 04-14-2021 04:36 PM               

As command module pilot of Apollo 17, the last crewed flight to the moon, Ron Evans combined precision flying and painstaking geological observation with moments of delight and enthusiasm. On his way to the launchpad, he literally jumped for joy in his spacesuit. Emerging from the command module to conduct his crucial spacewalk, he exclaimed, "Hot diggity dog!" and waved a greeting to his family. As a patriotic American in charge of command module America, Evans was nicknamed "Captain America" by his fellow crew members.

Born in 1933 in St. Francis, Kansas, Evans distinguished himself academically and athletically in school, earned degrees in electrical engineering and aeronautical engineering, and became a naval aviator and a combat flight instructor. He was one of the few astronauts who served in combat during the Vietnam War, flying more than a hundred missions off the deck of the USS Ticonderoga, the same aircraft carrier that would recover him and his fellow astronauts after the splashdown of Apollo 17.

Evans's astronaut career spans the Apollo missions and beyond. He served on the support crews for 1, 7, and 11 and on the Apollo 14 backup crew before being selected for Apollo 17 and flying on the final moon mission in 1972. He next trained with Soviet cosmonauts as backup command module pilot for the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz mission and carried out early work on the space shuttle program. Evans then left NASA to pursue a business career. He died suddenly in 1990 at the age of fifty-six.

• Hardcover, 424 pages
  
• Nebraska (Nov. 1, 2021)
  
• ISBN-10: 149621319X
  
• ISBN-13: 978-1496213198

posted 04-15-2021 05:40 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Rick Mulheirn:
Pre ordered!

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posted 05-01-2021 11:34 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by Blackarrow:
If you want to try writing children's books...

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posted 10-05-2021 06:16 PM            

I have received a series of marketing advice emails today and have a few points to follow up, but for any of you in the UK and Ireland who have been kind enough to ask about signed copies, I am looking at several options, but there is always the option of posting a copy to me with a return SAE.

For anyone in the United States, I have been approached by an on-line bookseller, and we are considering options which would minimize the transatlantic transport costs. More on this shortly.

posted 11-13-2021 04:59 PM            

It was a great feeling cutting the tape, peeling back the cardboard... and seeing Ron Evans smiling up at me.

posted 12-01-2021 02:12 AM               

With thanks.

posted 12-02-2021 12:41 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by spacehiker:
Geoffrey, would you be willing to sign my copy of "A Long Voyage to the Moon?"

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