“Apollo: The Mission to Land a Man on the Moon” by Al Cimino

 

192 pages, Chartwell Books, ISBN-13: ‎ 978-0785837039

Chartwell Books is one of these publishers that produces big, splashy, colorful and informative books for the general reader that I get for cheap from the Barnes & Noble overstock shelves or from Ollie’s book section or even from 2^nd & Charles when I’m in the mood. Apollo: The Mission to Land a Man on the Moon by Al Cimino came from the Barnes & Noble overstock shelf and is everything you’d expect from a Chartwell production: while less than 200 pages it’s a big book, and each and every one of those pages is packed with pictures, text, graphs, informational boxes and so on. Again, just what you’d expect from Chartwell.

While there are a wide range of subjects and events covered in this book – all of the Apollo missions are discussed, as are the Astronauts, engineers, technical aspects of the missions and so forth – this is not what I would call an in-depth study of Apollo. It is, rather, a splashy overview of the American achievement of putting men on the moon and bringing them back again, if only for a few years. Not uninformative in the least, just more of an introduction to the Apollo program. There are, however, several problems with this book, for I think the editors were asleep at the wheel when it was produced. These include, but are not limited to (*ahem*):

• pg. 6 – Werner Von Braun was not captured by the US Army; he surrendered
• pg. 16 – 8000 meters isn’t 2500 feet and 2500 feet isn’t 1.5 miles
• pg. 21 – the Thor rockets were IRBMs (Intermediate-Range Ballistic Missiles) not ICBMs (Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles)
• pg. 21 – the Jupiter rockets were single stage rockets, not two; the September 20^th flight referred to as a “Jupiter” was a Jupiter-C which was based on the Redstone rockets
• pg. 21 – the Vanguard rockets were not developed as military rockets, as implied
• pg. 26 – the Vanguard was described by Khrushchev as a “grapefruit”, not Explorer 1
• pg. 45 – while Deke Slayton was one of the original Mercury 7 Astronauts he in fact was medically disqualified to fly, as stated
• pg. 48 – the Mercury-Redstone rockets had solid retro rocket motors not retro-rocket thrusters
• pg. 48 – the Atlas rockets did not use liquid oxygen as a fuel but as an oxidizer
• pg. 57 – Huntsville, Alabama, was home to the Marshall Space Flight Center, not the Manned Space Flight Center
• pg. 60 – the Apollo 1 cabin pressure was only slightly higher than atmospheric pressure, not 1.5 times higher, so that the engineers could check for leaks
• pg. 68 – he Saturn V rocket was assembled next to the launch umbilical tower, not atop it
• pg. 73 – the on the Couch-Restraint System were on the side panels, not on the couch itself
• pg. 78 – Conrad’s full name was in fact Charles “Pete” Conrad, Jr.
• pg. 88 – Cimino states that “Two of the 2nd stage engines gave out during liftoff” on Apollo 4, which is incorrect: the 2^nd stage engines were not burning at liftoff and when they did fire, they worked properly (he is perhaps confusing Apollo 4 with Apollo 6)
• pg. 88 – Apollo 4 did not “keel over”
• pg. 92 – there was no Lunar Module on Apollo 7 as stated
• pg. 92 – Apollo 7 did not fly over terrain that “had never been seen before”
• pg. 108 – the astronauts did not wear “metallic suits” as stated
• pg. 110 – the text has the Rocketdyne J-2 engines firing before the ullage rockets
• pg. 111 – the Lunar orbit insertion burn occurred behind the moon, not on approach
• pg. 111 – no explosives were involved in LM/CSM separation
• pg. 140 – the flotation collar was applied by the recovery team swimmers, not by Collins
• pg. 169 – text states Scott cut the descent “engines” when there was only one

I stopped counting after that. So, what to do? If you get it cheap – like I did – then this is a good buy, but under no circumstances pay full price for this thing. Maybe check it out if your local library has it, and then just look at all of the pictures.