Moonbound: Apollo 11 and the Dream of Spaceflight

It begins with the tense, suspense-filled descent of the spidery Lunar Module, which transported Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the surface of the moon; the narrative offers a close-up view of the action. Then the story splits to an examination of the history of man’s fascination with space—from the earliest observers of the moon to the clear-eyed descriptions recorded by such visionaries as Galileo—and continues into the modern era, from Nazi atrocities and Soviet intrigues to square-jawed astronauts and a revolving cast of space-age dreamers. The narrative returns to July 20, 1969, the moment when our heroes made their historic moon walk, and finally moves on to the Space Shuttle program, the cosmic ambitions of deep-space probes, and the aspirations of companies like SpaceX.

Written by Jonathan Fetter-Vorm, Foreword by Michael Collins. Published by Hill & Wang, 2019. Paperback, 256 pages.