Aldrin, Edwin E. “Buzz,” and McConnell, Malcolm. Men from Earth. New York: Bantam Books, 1989. This useful recent memoir and history by one of the first two humans on the Moon and his co-author, who himself wrote a book on the Challenger disaster, discusses the Moon race, Aldrin’s flight during Gemini as well as the one to the Moon, and subsequent space efforts by NASA and the Soviets.
Aldrin, Edwin E. “Buzz” with Wayne Warga. Return to Earth. New York: Random House, 1973. As the title would suggest, this book is more autobiography than account of the trip to the Moon on Apollo 11. It discusses Aldrin’s bouts with alcoholism and depression following his famous voyage to a greater extent than it covers the Moon landing and his experiences in NASA. Not as well written as his later book, this one nevertheless reveals a good bit about the character of one astronaut and the perplexities that he and others faced as they became famous public figures.
“All we did was Fly to the Moon”. By the Astronauts as told to Dick Lattimer. Foreword by James A. Michener. Alachua, FL: Whispering Eagle Press, 1983. This little picture book contains photos of astronauts, insignia, and the like plus comments by astronauts. Covers Mercury through Apollo-Soyuz.
“Apollo 8, Astronauts Report on Their Flight Around the Moon.” Interavia. 24 (February 1969): 186-90. An abridged version of a press conference the Apollo 8 astronauts held on 9 January 1969. Includes photos and diagrams to illustrate the mission.
Armstrong, Neil; Collins, Michael; and Aldrin, Edwin E. Jr. First on the Moon: A Voyage with Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr. Written with Gene Farmer and Dora Jane Hamblin. Epilogue by Arthur C. Clarke. Boston: Little, Brown, 1970. This is the “official” memoir of the Apollo 11 landing mission to the Moon in 1969. It was prepared by the ghost writers Farmer and Hamblin from information made available exclusively to them through a somewhat infamous Time-Life/Field Enterprises contract that excluded the rest of the media from contact with the astronauts’ families. Contains much personal information about the astronauts that is not available elsewhere.
“The Astronauts—Their Own Great Stories.” Life. 22 August 1969, pp. 22-29. 6 color, 3 B&W photos. The first personal accounts of the Apollo 11 lunar landing as told by the astronauts. Also, “The New Priorities in Exploring Space,” p. 30, cartoon. An editorial about what the next steps in space should be. Also, “Were You an Eyewitness?” p. 49.
Atkinson, Joseph D., Jr., and Shafritz, Jay M. The Real Stuff: A History of the NASA Astronaut Requirement Program. New York: Praeger Pubs., 1985. The authors present a solid overview of the selection of the NASA astronauts and their development. It presents an overview of the selection of the first ten groups of NASA astronauts through 1984, then concentrates on covering the watershed selections of 1959, the first group; 1965, the first scientists that flew on Apollo spacecraft; and 1978, the first Shuttle selection including women and minorities. Places heavy emphasis on the criteria for selection and the procedures used in selected astronauts.
Borman, Frank. Countdown: An Autobiography. New York: William Morrow, Silver Arrow Books, 1988. With Robert J. Serling. Written to appear on the twentieth anniversary of the first lunar landing, this autobiography spans much more than the Apollo program. It recounts Borman’s life in aeronautics, first as a military flier, then as a test pilot, and finally as president of Eastern Airlines.
Collins, Michael. Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut’s Journeys. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1974. This is the first candid book about life as an astronaut, written by the member of the Apollo 11 crew that remained in orbit around the Moon. The author comments on other astronauts, describes the seemingly endless preparations for flights to the Moon, and assesses the results. He also describes what he thinks of as the most important perspective that emerged from his flight, a realization of the fragility of the Earth. He wrote that “from space there is no hint of ruggedness to it; smooth as a billiard ball, it seems delicately poised on its circular journey around the Sun, and above all it seems fragile.... Is the sea water clean enough to pour over your head, or is there a glaze of oil on its surface?... Is the riverbank a delight or an obscenity? The difference between a blue-and-white planet and a black-and-brown one is delicate indeed.”
Cooper, Henry S.F. Apollo on the Moon. New York: Dial Press, 1969. In this book Cooper predicts, before the landing of Apollo 11 astronauts on the Moon in July 1969, what they would encounter. More important, he follows the preparations for the mission with great skill and recounts them in his personal and scintillating style. A small work, this book is barely 140 pages and is taken almost verbatim from two of Cooper’s New Yorker articles.
Cox, Donald W. America’s Explorers of Space: Including a Special Report on Project Apollo. Maplewood, NJ: Hammond, 1969. This collection of popular biographical sketches of astronauts and such other “explorers of space” as Wernher von Braun and William H. Pickering also contains an overview of Project Apollo.
Cunningham, Walter, with Herskowitz, Mickey. The All-American Boys. New York: Macmillan Co., 1977. This candid memoir by a former Marine jet jockey with a Ph.D. in physics who became a civilian astronaut is critical of “the myth of the super-hero astronaut.” Aided by Texas newsman Herskowitz, Cunningham says the astronauts were “all too human” in both their strengths and their weaknesses. Cunningham relates his flight on Apollo 7, which followed the Apollo 204 fire and became the first successful Earth-orbiting mission. He also provides valuable insights into “astropolitics,” the way the astronaut corps functioned.
El-Baz, Farouk. Astronaut Observations from the Apollo-Soyuz Mission. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1977. This volume consists partly of text, partly of extensive photographs and maps of the Earth taken by astronauts on their training flights for the mission or taken on board the spacecraft to support the Earth Observations and Photography Experiment conducted during the mission. Another portion of the text consists of verbal comments made by American astronauts regarding that experiment. The remaining 122 pages of text consists of discussions of the scientific objectives of the mission, astronaut training, flight planning, mission operations, and a summary of the scientific findings of the mission in the areas of geology, oceanography, hydrology, meteorology, and environmental science.
Farmer, G., and Hamblin, D. First on the Moon. Boston: Little, Brown, 1970. See under Armstrong, Neil.
“For the Heroes, Salute and Farewell.” Life. 10 February 1967, pp. cover, 20-31. 20 color photos depict the funerals of the Apollo 204 astronauts; also, 3 B&W photos of the burned capsule and interior.
Frank, Joseph. The Doomed Astronaut. New York: Winthrop Publishers, 1972. This book documents that flying has been a human obsession since antiquity, and that commentary on it has been notoriously pessimistic. Then the author argues that continued flights in space by astronauts are doomed to failure. He uses mythological figures, especially Icarus, to make this case repeatedly in the book, and uses transcripts from Walter Cronkite’s broadcasts of the Apollo 13 near-disaster as modern evidence of his position.
Goldstein, Stanley H. Reaching for the Stars: The Story of Astronaut Training and the Lunar Landing. New York: Praeger, 1987. This is a detailed account of the development and management of the astronaut training program for Project Apollo.
Grissom, Betty, and Still, Henry. Starfall. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1974. This account co-authored by the wife of Astronaut Vergil I. “Gus” Grissom with a veteran journalist and aerospace executive recounts the astronaut’s career and tragic death in the Apollo 204 fire. The book naturally devotes a good deal of attention to the fire. Betty’s lawsuit against North American Aviation, builder of the command and service module in which the fire occurred, for the damage to her and her children also forms part of the story, resulting in her out-of-court settlement for $350,000.
Irwin, James B[enson], with Emerson, William A., Jr. To Rule the Night: The Discovery Voyage of Astronaut Jim Irwin. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1974. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co., 1973. This readable autobiography of an Air Force pilot turned astronaut recounts his astronaut training and trip to the Moon on Apollo 15 together with his other experiences in life to that point. Stronger on impressions than details, this book nevertheless provides his personal perspective on flying in space.
Kozloski, Lillian D. U.S. Space Gear: Outfitting the Astronaut. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994. This extensively illustrated, large-format book follows the history of space suits from flying suits and the development of the pressure suit through Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz, through the shuttle era, concluding with a chapter entitled “Space Suits in the National Collection.” There are 11 appendices, a glossary, reference notes, a select bibliography, and an index. Much more than a coffee-table decoration, this is a valuable reference source.
Lovell, James A., et al. “The Three Astronauts Tell What Happened Aboard the Crippled Apollo 13.” Life, 68 (1 May 1970): 24-33. An account in the astronauts’ own words of what happened on Apollo 13, accompanied by the usual number of photos.
MacKinnon, Douglas, and Baldanza, Joseph. Footprints: The 12 Men Who Walked on the Moon Reflect on their Flights, their Lives and the Future. Washington, DC: Acropolis Books, 1989. An illustrated history, this book tells in narrative and photographs the story of Project Apollo. It emphasizes the stories of the astronauts, printing twelve interviews with those who walked on the Moon. Unfortunately, the book fails on several levels. The authors make no attempt to tie the interviews together, and the astronauts provide no revealing insights. The lode of astronaut impressions was exhausted long before this book was compiled.
Mailer, Norman. “The Psychology of Astronauts.” Life. 14 November 1969, pp. 50-60, 62-63. 1 color, 1 B&W photo. Part II of Norman Mailer’s “A Fire on the Moon” examines pre-flight training and astronaut philosophies. Also, “Saturn 5,” p. 9. Color ad by Monogram models showing a Saturn 5 and U.S. Space Missile models.
“The Moon Men Now.” Life. July 1979, pp. 76-84. 15 color and B&W photos. A good article on what many of the Apollo astronauts were doing ten years after the first Moon landing.
“The Old Pro Gets His Shot at the Moon.” Life. 31 July 1970, pp. 48-56. 2 color, 5 B&W photos. A biography or Alan B. Shepard who was to be commander of the Apollo 14 mission—his life since his first flight in 1961.
“The Old Pro Goes All the Way.” Life. 19 February 1971, pp. 32-35. 2 color, 4 B&W photos on the flight of Apollo 14. Highlights Alan Shepard.
O’Leary, Brian. The Making of an Ex-Astronaut. Boston: Hougton Mifflin Company, 1970. This is an acidic look at the astronaut selection process inside NASA, as well as a bitter memoir of the politics of flight assignments.
. . . On Course to the Stars: The Roger B. Chaffee Story. Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1968. As told to C. Donald Chrysler by Don L. Chaffee and Family. A very moving personal account of the life of Astronaut Roger Chaffee and his death in the Apollo 204 fire.
“Our Journey to the Moon.” Life. 17 January 1969, pp. 26-31. 4 photos, 3 in color. Personal accounts by the three Apollo 8 astronauts.
“Put Them High on the List of Men Who Count.” Life. 3 February 1967, pp. cover, 18-27. 15 B&W photo essay on astronauts Grissom, White, and Chaffee killed in the Apollo 204 fire.
Schirra, Walter M., Jr. Schirra’s Space. Boston: Quinlan Press, 1988. With Richard N. Billings. Another astronaut memoir, this one is filled with practical jokes and anecdotes about mundane training. It also offers some revealing new details of the spaceflights, particularly the shakedown flight of Apollo 7 in Earth orbit in October 1968.
“Schirra’s Team Carries on for Apollo.” Life. 19 May 1967, pp. cover, 32-39. 21 color photos mainly of astronauts Schirra, Eisele, and Cunningham relaxing with their families.
Wilson, Andrew, and Shayler, David J. “Return to Apollo.” Spaceflight. 22 (January 1980): 7-21. This article provides a retrospective look at the astronauts who flew on the Apollo lunar missions.