Books on the Moon Landing

[Mr Shifty]

Anyone know of a really good book on the moon landings? I'm particularly looking for technical detail: how it was done. I've heard Andrew Chaikin's A Man on the Moon is good, but are there other opinions/suggestions?

[DerekL1963]

The best place to start if you want technical is the Apollo Flight Journal and Apollo Surface Journal websites. Beyond that, well there... isn't anything really. Lots of books have technical details embedded within a non technichal framework, but there's very little on the engineering why and how.

[kujuman]

I'm reading "Moon Lander" by Thomas J. Kelly right now. He worked for Grumman doing engineering management, so was involved both solving engineering problems as well as involved with other contractors. I don't know how technical it gets later on (only about a 1/3 of the way through), but it provides an interesting perspective about what it is like being a contractor for such a major project. It might be able to answer some of the "why were things done like they were" type questions for you.

[Boffinbox]

Moonshot by Dan Parry (this one answers your question. read it myself, would recommend definitely.)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Moonshot-Inside-Mankinds-Greatest-Adventure/dp/0091928370

Dark Side of the Moon by Gerard DeGroot (i've been recommended this one, haven't had time recently to read it)

http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Side-Moon-Magnificent-American/dp/0814719953

Another two that i've read which aren't necessarily about the Moon landings but are good space books anyways:

The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe (lets you know more about what's going on in the minds of the Mercury 7)

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Right-Stuff-Tom-Wolfe/dp/0099479370

Sputnik to Space Shuttle by Iain Nicolson (it's a good read, but the technical terms are a bit basic and it's also dated - i remember one passage informing me of a new type of rocket set to come out in "late 1983")

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sputnik-Space-Shuttle-Iain-Nicolson/dp/0283988916

[PakledHostage]

Again not an über-technical book, but Michael Collins' Carrying the Fire is a very good read.

[Mr Shifty]

Thanks all for the suggestions! I've got a few books now to add to my reading list.

[MajorThomas]

You've got to read this one:

Apollo by Charles Murray and Catherine Bly Cox.

It's all about the engineers, their stories. The cast of characters includes the famous folks (Flight Directors, managers), Designers (Max Faget et. al.), Engine developers (the F1 stability story is particularly memorable...they had to set a bomb off within the thrust chamber and have the flow/vibrations stabilize within milliseconds), mission control guys, back room experts, and so on. This one book gives perhaps the best cross section of the engineering effort involved in developing the entire program that I've ever read. The Astronauts are mentioned but they're not the stars of the show here.

I can't recommend the book highly enough. It's not just informative and technical, but it reads very easily, just the right tone. (I am easily turned off by overly-academic, dull technical writing. Also, on the other hand, by overly sentimental works on the space program. I can't stand bad writing.)

Edited January 27, 2014 by MajorThomas

[General Rarity]

U.S. on the Moon

What it means to us

Published 1969, sometime before July. Has illustrations, and how the staging went. Hope you can find it at your library, my copy is old and was discarded from a library. One page missing, but who cares about that!