posted 10-31-2008 11:07 AM               

by Rod Pyle

From the beginning of recorded history man has gazed into space and yearned to explore. Missions to the Moon tells the compelling story of mans journey to the moon and the stunning photographs and facsimile documents make it essential reading for everyone interested in science and exploration, as well as anyone who lived through the momentous Apollo 11 landing in 1969.

Beginning with the Space Race between the Soviet Union and the United States during the Cold War, this unique book traces our quest to reach the moon. Through the inclusion of 200 stunning photographs and at least 15 beautifully recreated rare facsimile documents you will witness the first human spaceflight by Yuri Gagarin in 1961, experience the terrifying failures and stunning triumphs of the Apollo Missions, marvel at the first manned landing on the moon by Apollo 11, and gaze into the future of space exploration.

About the Author
Rod Pyle is a producer, writer and director of documentary programmes that have been shown around the world, including Modern Marvels: Apollo 11 and In Their Own Words: The Space Race. Rod was formerly the Vice President of Communications for the World Space Foundation and the senior editor and contributor to their two publications, the Astronautics Journal and Foundation News. He also worked at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, California and produced Launchlink, a public celebration of NASA's Space Shuttle. Rod has been a consultant for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Battlestar Gallactica. He wrote Destination Moon for Carlton Books, published in 2005. He lives in the US.

• Hardcover: 64 pages
  
• Publisher: Carlton Publishing Group; Ill edition (May 1, 2009)
  
• ISBN-10: 1847322522
  
• ISBN-13: 978-1847322524

posted 12-06-2008 12:23 PM               

If you love Apollo (and space flight for that matter), this book should be fun. I scoured the JSC archives for material, and one of my favorite finds was a memo from Gilruth wanting to change the name of "Project Mercury" to "Project Astronaut"! Also included are some neat old Apollo planning trajectory drawings and a few pages of Kranz's Apollo 13 logbook, among other items.

posted 05-26-2009 11:06 AM               

Anyway its a great, I hesitate to call it a "book" as it more than that, a great item. It reminds me of the Apollo 11 museum thing that was put out by the Smithsonian (I believe) a few years ago.

posted 05-26-2009 09:51 PM               

The text is well done and all the collectibles inside are great. Many even I haven't seen before. Included are lunar maps, A TASS newspaper about Soyuz 4-5's flight, an Apollo-7 AP news crew photo and many more -- even the CM's main panel, at about 1/2 size.

posted 05-27-2009 05:09 AM               

Thank you s much for the kind words! It was a heck of a lot of work to put this together (more than it would appear when one leafs through just 64 pages!), but truly a labor of love. I'm now thinking of ways to share the approximately 600 other images and documents I gathered but was unable to use.

Doing one of these "multimedia" books is kind of like building a really complex model... by the time you're done, you never want to see it again. Then, in about a week, you can't wait to start over!

Currently awaiting word on two more titles in the space genre. I'll post here if I get any news, because you guys have been great.

posted 07-29-2009 08:32 AM               

Indeed this looks like a fun book to read with the different facsimile reproductions! A very nice coffee-sized table book and... it comes in a slipcase! This is really neat! I wish similar books had slipcases too! It's a great idea.