Overview
On July 20, 1969 more than 500 million people across the globe watched as the first man in history stepped onto the face of another planet. The triumph of the Apollo 11 mission was a momentous pinacle that followed years of construction, planning, and training, all of which is conveyed in this captivating history that uses official accounts to tell the real, untold story. The background of the space race is retold in full detail, including the role of the Cold War and America’s desire to flex its international muscle. The fraught and often bitter relationships between the three men destined to make history—hot-headed Buzz Aldrin, easygoing Michael Collins, and the inscrutable Neil Armstrong—are also addressed, as is the nail-biting moment when, just minutes before Armstrong and Aldrin were about to reach the surface of the moon, their equipment failed. This is an engaging account of a mission that could easily have gone terribly wrong, but instead turned into an American triumph.
Synopsis
A thrilling and revealing account of one of the defining moments in human history — the 1969 moon landing.
In 1969, people across the globe gathered around television sets to witness one of mankind’s most historic moments — the first moon landing. Following this epic undertaking from its very beginning — a product of the Cold War and America’s desire to flex its international muscle — through to its aftermath, Moonshot goes beyond official accounts of the Apollo 11 mission to tell the real, untold story of an event known the world over.
From the fraught and often bitter relationships between the three men destined to make history — hot-headed Buzz Aldrin, easygoing Michael Collins, and the inscrutable Neil Armstrong — to the moment when, just minutes before Armstrong and Aldrin were about to reach the surface of the moon, their equipment failed and alarms rang out, Dan Parry reveals how the mission could so easily have gone terribly wrong, and America’s great triumph have become a national disaster.
Based on extensive research and interviews with many of the leading participants, Moonshot describes in nail-biting, page-turning detail every step of a remarkable and perilous mission that has captured the imagination of generations then and since.
Sarasota Herald Tribune
Corrects . . . some of the bigger misunderstandings about the Apollo 11 mission.