posted 11-25-2013 08:48 AM               

The definitive biography of Neil Armstrong by Jay Barbree, the Emmy Award-winning space journalist who knew him for nearly 50 years. Timed to coincide with the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch, the book is packed with never-before-seen photos and personal details written down for the first time — like what that giant step for mankind really felt like.

To date, everything written about Armstong's life and flights has been written from the outside looking in; Barbree is the only person whom Armstrong trusted to share close personal details about his inspiring life story.

Working from his years of notes, and with the full cooperation of the Armstrong family, Barbree has written the definitive biography of America's most famous astronaut and one of our greatest modern heroes. Much has already been written about Armstrong and the major players who helped him fly to the moon, but he wanted this book to emphasize his two passions — family and flight. Barbree and Armstrong discussed everything, from his two marriages and the death of his baby daughter, to his love of flying, the war years and of course, his time in space.

The book, timed to coincide with the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch and full of never-before-seen photos, includes many personal details that have never before been written, such as what Armstrong really felt when he took that first step on the moon, what life in NASA was like, his relationships with the other astronauts, and what he felt the future of space exploration should be.

In the course of his 55-year career with NBC News, Jay Barbree is the only reporter to have covered all 166 American astronaut flights and moon landings. He received an Emmy for his coverage of Neil Armstrong's first walk on the moon, broke the cause of the Challenger accident, and he still covers space for NBC's TV networks and NBCnews.com. Barbree was also the lead writer for the New York Times bestseller Moon Shot with astronauts Alan Shepard, Deke Slayton, and Neil Armstrong.

• Hardcover: 320 pages
  
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books (July 8, 2014)
  
• ISBN-10: 125004071X
  
• ISBN-13: 978-1250040718

posted 07-09-2014 12:48 PM               

Lovell: "This is a great book and does much to preserve Neil's legacy."

posted 09-04-2014 05:14 PM            

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Originally posted by David C:
Despite comments to the contrary from all official sources over the years, I'd long ago deduced (not suspected) the same answer — so it was nice to see it "confirmed".

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posted 09-05-2014 09:17 AM            

As you know Deke and our man Harold Williams are fishing buddies, and he told Harold straight out he wanted you first, and if you had to abort he knew Conrad could handle the job on Apollo 12, or if not Conrad, Jim Lovell could get it done on 13.

posted 09-10-2014 05:12 PM            

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Originally posted by robsouth:
It was a complete lottery.

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For various reasons, the "it was pure luck" explanation has always been the official line. Pre-mission, any other line would have been divisive; post-mission it could be seen as unnecessarily demeaning to others who had worked hard in the service of their country.

Fortunately for all, in Armstrong, you have an individual who resisted all efforts to single him out as special — for very good reasons. The relevant NASA managers have also continued to exercise an admiral degree of discretion on the subject. Things are also complicated by the fact that the first landing attempt pilot (commander), and the first person out of the hatch (at one stage a single man EVA was planned) were by no means obviously going to be one and the same.

For argument's sake, let us say that the Space Age began on 3rd October 1942 when A-4 number V-4 was launched from Peenemünde and reached 85-90km. Back then such a height was quite ample to be considered space, which had yet to be formally defined. At that time the date of the first moon landing and nationality of the first person on the moon were impossible to predict. Say around 1980 and a citizen of any one of maybe 7 or 8 nations would have been reasonable guesses.

So from a 1942 perspective the identity of the future first person on the moon is probably any one of, pick a number — 100,000 future individuals of the correct age, nationality and background, some of which had yet to be born. Definitely a lottery.

Move forward to the early '50s. America has launched fruit flies on a suborbital spaceflight in 1947 and several primates since 1948. Test pilots are riding rockets out at the recently renamed Edwards AFB. The Cold War is in full swing, Korolev is running the Soviet rocket program and is catching up. They have launched dogs on suborbital spaceflights and just tested their first H-bomb. The pace of rocket development is such that a human in space within 10 years is likely, and we're down to only two nations with both the technology and money to do it. A future moon landing however still seems a pretty distant dream and the identity of that first individual has not really narrowed much further.

On 25th May 1961 that all changed with President Kennedy's announcement to Congress. Overnight the pool drops from thousands to not more than a couple of hundred Soviet and American men — at the very generous outside. Every year after that the cone narrows.

By the end of 1966 the pool is down to 19 Soviets and 23 Americans. Preliminary Apollo planning does not designate a first landing attempt crew, or a "first out of the hatch" but does aim to produce an Apollo qualified pool of man power. Slayton certainly had in mind a small number of potential commanders headed by Grissom and including Armstrong. The landing was the focus not the walking. For the Soviets the lander would be the walker since LK only carried one man.

The Apollo 1 fire removes Grissom from the list of potential commanders and White and Chaffee from potential walkers. A compressed schedule is completely re-written and by the end of that year Williams' death means that the American pool is down to nineteen possible first walkers. By then the Soviet pool of walkers is down to just five. Now you can call 1/24 a lottery if you like, I'll have some of those odds please.

Slayton's choices for landing attempt commander after Grissom have been stated by him as being Borman and McDivitt. This was to be achieved by breaking the crew rotation and recycling both crews to prime on Apollo 11 and 12. This thinking seems to have applied prior to the Apollo 8/9 crew swap and Apollo 8 mission change. (Michael Cassut may wish to step in here). Concurrent to this several astronauts flew familiarisation flights in the Lunar Landing Research Vehicle (since the LLTV was not ready). However, serious exposure was pretty much confined to the back-up commanders for those missions — Conrad and Armstrong.

Apollo 8 resulted in the Soviet withdrawal from the race. Also, Schirra and Borman had withdrawn themselves. By then an LLRV and LLTV had been lost, emphasising the tricky nature of these vehicles and by implication the LM as well. December 1968 is Slayton's last chance for considered crew selection for the first landing attempts, to allow a "normal" training schedule.

Now at this stage I suggest it would be naive to assume that either Slayton or NASA program management were content to let this rest on the roll of the dice or a "lottery." Nor is it believable that a decision of this magnitude on a program of this scale came down simply to how the "boys in the ready room" or their boss (Slayton) felt about it. There is no doubt in my mind that the announcement of the Apollo 11 crew was very carefully considered in advance. To say that was not the case is tantamount to stating that all those responsible were basically derelict in their duty.

So for command Schirra and Borman were out. Cooper, Stafford and Armstrong were available, though Cooper seems to have been unacceptable to management. So was Lovell but he was never seriously considered for prime commander. Obviously Young wasn't available. McDivitt and Conrad were training for a mission in three months. I do not know if McDivitt was offered 11, but I've never heard he was. It would have been a tough business getting his crew ready for 11 in only four months, and not necessary. Such thoughts may have played a part in his decision to enter management. Conrad, who had considerable LLRV/TV experience could probably have been fitted in.

So, in December 1968 the crews of Stafford, Armstrong and Conrad were really the only ones left in the running to make the first landing attempt. The fact that these crews stayed with the established rotation should not be construed as no decision. We know that Slayton was quite prepared to break the rotation if required, and that higher management would make their disapproval clear if necessary. So, effectively, when the decision had to be made to select the commander for the first landing attempt a decision was made, and that selection was Armstrong. Feel free to speculate on the reasons.

Yes, many events happened over the years to put him in consideration for selection, most of them beyond his control. However, when a decision had to be made it was and he was selected. Even that was no guarantee of actually being first, there was the hatch decision to make (and here again we know, despite technical face-saving excuses that Armstrong was selected over the EVA experienced Aldrin) — and three successful missions to be flown (including 11's landing).

So yes, lots of luck was involved. Yes NASA could only select men to attempt missions, not guarantee success. Yes the number of men in the final running was small. But selection was also involved, so to call it a "complete lottery" is simply not true. It was no more of a "complete lottery" than for example Grissom commanding Gemini 3 or Schirra commanding Apollo 7, where luck also played it's part. Luck played a part in every Apollo crew selection, but none of them were pure luck, including Apollo 11.

posted 09-10-2014 05:58 PM               

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Originally posted by capoetc:
True, but as you know, McDivitt was slated to fly Apollo 8 in earth orbit with a LM... that would have put Conrad's crew into the catbird's seat on 11.

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This always intrigued me when thinking about altrnative crew assignments. If McDivitt had not "turned down" the Apollo 8 flight, causing the crew order to swap, Dick Gordon would have been the CMP available to back up Al Shepard as CDR on his crew.

posted 09-11-2014 01:32 PM            

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Originally posted by David C:
But selection was also involved, so to call it a "complete lottery" is simply not true.

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Despite your indepth reply, several key players, including Slayton and Kraft, have said that any number of men could have been picked for that mission. Even Armstrong said, 'My being selected is a matter of coincidence rather than plan.'

There were numerous prime, backup and support crew changes and shuffles between 66 and 68 that meant that it was a real lottery as to who flew on which mission. An indepth study of the crew changes during that time highlights just what a merry go round it was.

posted 09-11-2014 04:15 PM            

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Originally posted by robsouth:
Even Armstrong said, 'My being selected is a matter of coincidence rather than plan.'... Finally, just because it was unplanned luck that Armstrong's crew got the first landing attempt

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The fact that the final result was not predictable at an early stage does not make it "unplanned luck." In the same way that "no plan survives first contact with the enemy," no air plan survives the application of real world engineering, schedule, weather, accidents, human factors, etc. Running the plan is a process, otherwise fantasy ball game enthusiasts would be employed rather than managers.

posted 09-11-2014 04:45 PM            

The twists and turns of who was on which mission, who was available when a crew was being formed, who was removed from or swapped from a particular mission all led to the December 68 crew selection.

Armstrong's own crew selection to the Apollo 9 backup crew came after a years absence from being on a crew following his stint on the dead end role of Gemini 11 backup commander and following crew selections of nearly all his peers. He was chosen because there wasn't anyone else, apart from Lovell, available. Following on from his late selection to Gemini, one of the last from his group to be chosen, it does make you wonder how highly he was rated by Slayton.

posted 09-11-2014 05:25 PM            

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Originally posted by robsouth:
He was chosen because there wasn't anyone else, apart from Lovell, available.

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Rob that isn't true, Slayton himself has stated that he was quite willing to break the crew rotation if required to make people available.

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Following on from his late selection to Gemini, one of the last from his group to be chosen, it does make you wonder how highly he was rated by Slayton.

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To think that this was just Slayton's decision is naive, do you really think that Mueller, Phillips, Gilruth, Low etc had no input? In what way does being trusted to command a mission with a junior astronaut get you ranked lower than flying earlier as a co-pilot? Are you suggesting that Slayton recommended a commander whom he didn't rate capable?

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He wasn't in the top four of Slayton's picks for the first landing commander so he did benefit from the lottery that was Apollo crew selections.

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At what stage? The selection was made in December 1968, and remained alterable for a period beyond that. People who had died or resigned at that stage are not relevant to the decision, no matter what views Slayton may previously have held. That is simple logic.

posted 09-11-2014 07:10 PM               

I do believe that because of Armstrong's later position as backup commander for Apollo 8 since 1968, by Slayton's crew rotation selection process, put Armstrong in line to fly Apollo 11 along with Aldrin and Collins. It was definitely, in my opinion, the main primary factor that enabled Armstrong to lead the first manned lunar landing mission in 1969.

It just so happened that Armstrong's crew (but earlier with Anders instead of Collins) were next in line after Apollos 8, 9, and 10 had been flown. As it turned out, mission 11 became the first to touch down on the moon with prior lunar module flight tests of 9 and 10 achieving their mission goals without any major problems or delays encountered.

The decision for Apollo 11's crew selection was made by Slayton in Dec. 1968, but not made public until Jan. 30, 1969.

posted 09-11-2014 07:34 PM               

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Originally posted by Ken Havekotte:
There was also a meeting in March 1969...

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posted 09-11-2014 10:14 PM               

In Hansen's book, "First Man," the same meeting is referred to after Apollo 9's successful flight ending. It was described as an "informal meeting" at MSC/Houston with Low and Kraft more in favor of Armstrong becoming the first lunar explorer. If I recall, it was Kraft himself that provided the interviews and notes to Hansen.

I do recall reading another account of the incident in an Apollo 11-related feature story by veteran aerospace journalist Mary Bubb. Unfortunately, at the moment, I don't have the actual published account in front of me, but will try to locate it soon.

posted 09-12-2014 05:32 AM            

As for recommending a commander that Slayton did not rate, he did choose See for Gemini 9, a selection that he later regretted, as noted in his excellent book, ‘Deke’.

David it is true that when Armstrong was chosen for the Apollo 9 backup commander’s role in 67 there wasn’t anyone else available apart from Lovell, unless he chose Cooper or dipped into the Group 3 astronauts or assigned an already assigned astronaut to two missions at the same time. Remember that it was the 67 crew assignments that saw Armstrong enter the crew rotation and put him in a position to get an early landing mission. The December 68 decision saw its roots back in 67, and before, and was possible because of the Apollo 8 and Apollo 9 mission swap.

Consider this when it comes to whether the first landing crew selection was a lottery. In 1967 would Armstrong have been chosen as the Apollo 9 backup commander if another Group 2 astronaut had been available? Would Collins have been on Apollo 11 if he hadn’t have been medically removed from Apollo 8 and would Aldrin have been on Apollo 11 if the prime crew of Gemini 9 hadn’t of been killed. Not until December 68 was the final crew selection for the first landing made, and this selection was of a direct result of the many twists and turns in the crew selections that preceded it.