posted 01-20-2006 10:56 PM               

This book is 'new news' to all those who followed Apollo- including me. It not only captures the sense of team spirit and a desire to assure success, but it really brings out the human interest side of the program and highlights the contributions of those removed from the "firing line." It's a winner! Fred Haise

Open up the pages of Watkins' in depth view of the unsung heroes of the Apollo mission, and you will get a clear idea of why the Apollo Program was so successful. Meet the people behind the scenes of our journey to the moon as Billy Watkins magnificently portrays the human dedication of many people to achieve man's greatest adventure. - James Lovell

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy issued a challenge: the United States would land a man on the moon and return him safely to Earth before the end of the decade. It seemed like an impossible task and one that the Russians--who had launched the first satellite and put the first man into Earth orbit--would surely perform before us. The ingenuity, passion, and sacrifice of thousands of ordinary men and women, from all walks of life, enabled the space program to meet this extraordinary goal. In all, six crews would land on the moon before Congress withdrew financial backing for the program. This is the story of those men and women who worked behind the scenes, without fanfare or recognition, to make these missions a success. Thirty years later, they still speak of Apollo with pride, sometimes even awe.

After Apollo moonwalker John Young told journalist Billy Watkins in a 1999 interview that "nobody knows anything about the people who helped make those flights so successful," Watkins made it his mission to identify the unsung heroes and learn their stories. His subjects include:

• Julian Scheer (NASA publicist): Argued for and won the inclusion of a television camera on Apollo 11, enabling Armstrong's walk on the moon to be broadcast and recorded for posterity.

• Sonny Morea, lead designer of the Lunar Rover.

• Hugh Brown, one of the few African Americans who worked on the Apollo program, helped monitor for Russian submarines trying to jam NASA communication during launches, and later went on to become head of the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta.

• JoAnn Morgan, launch control: One of the few women involved in the space program, Morgan was designated the "lightning specialist." Her knowledge was crucial when the Apollo 12 spacecraft was struck by lightning only seconds after liftoff, nearly causing an abort. She was one of the few specialists allowed in the "firing room" during liftoff.

• Joan Roosa, widow of Apollo 14 astronaut Stuart Roosa, talks about the sacrifices of the families and their devotion to "The Program."

• Joe Schmitt, veteran suit technician was responsible for making sure the suits were leak-proof and hooked up correctly--knowing any mistake would mean instant death in space.

• Forward by Fred Haise
  
• Preface
  
• Acknowledgements
  
• History of Apollo

posted 01-21-2006 09:27 AM              

It is cool to read books that are about people who worked on Apollo other than astronauts. I've enjoyed Kranz' Failure is not an Option, the Murray/Cox book, and of course, Sy's Apollo EECOM: Journey of a Lifetime.

posted 01-22-2006 09:19 AM               

While I agree The Race to the Moon is an important read and a must for any serious student of space program history - I think it is important to read as many accounts as possible.

For example Chaikin's "A Man on the Moon",
Shepard, Slayton, Benedict & Barbree: "Moon Shot" and Slaytons autobiography, "Deke" are IMHO equally important because together they fill in the story more completely.

"The Race to the Moon" and "The Unsung Heroes" should be read together for the same reason.

posted 02-05-2006 08:30 AM              

In Apollo Moon Missions: The Unsung Heroes, author Billy Watkins delivers 14 accounts of little known people from the Apollo program. For those of us who read a lot about Apollo, this book adds some well-needed alternative views of the program. I’ve read most of the astronaut biographies and many of the histories of Apollo—after a while I’m looking for some nook or cranny of information that I did not know already.

The chapters in Apollo Moon Missions are similar to the wonderful 12 page riff in Stages to Saturn about the Super Guppy aircraft that was used to transport the Saturn S-IVB stage. In Stages to Saturn, this story is told partly by profiling flamboyant entrepreneur John M. Conroy and his company Aero Spacelines that built the Super Guppy. I like this kind of story because it personalizes the Apollo program. The accounts in Apollo Moon Missions of people like Sonny Morea, the lead designer of the Lunar Rover, Julian Scheer, the NASA publicist who got TV cameras onto Apollo 11, and Joe Schmitt, suit technician, who was often the last person the astronauts saw before the hatch was closed on the launch pad are fun and unusual.

posted 03-03-2006 04:19 PM               

"Hugh Brown, one of the few African Americans who worked on the Apollo program, helped monitor for Russian submarines trying to jam NASA communication during launches, and later went on to become head of the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta."

posted 03-03-2006 04:37 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Dwayne Day:
It's not like he was a sonar operator or anything.

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posted 03-27-2006 03:12 AM               

There is not much new information in the chapters on Steve Bales and Gerry Griffin, who have already received a fair amount of public attention. (At least compared to other non-astronauts who worked on Apollo.) Most of what is recounted about them can already be found either in Murray and Cox or in the JSC Oral Histories, although there are some interesting details here and there. For example, I didn't know that Steve Bales had been a summer intern at JSC prior to being hired there.

Where this book shines is in profiling people like Joann Morgan, who was the only woman in the firing room during the Apollo 11 launch, but who probably wouldn't be considered important enough to be mentioned in most histories. Compared to her, people like Bales and Griffin are "sung heroes".

posted 04-06-2006 11:31 AM               

From Sy: I was unaware that my original outburst had “legs.” (See page 131 of my book, “Apollo EECOM”.) I checked with Gerry Griffin, who was a flight director on the Green team and he wrote: “I think there is an explanation...I believe someone on my team heard about your "exclamation" (it made the rounds) and put it up on the screen later...shifts later. I remember seeing it, it was in the middle of the night and was hand written, and remained on the screen for a very short time...and that's all I can remember about it. I never who did it.”
Sy Liebergot
"Apollo EECOM: Journey Of A Lifetime" www.apolloeecom.com