An Annotated Bibliography of the Apollo Program. J. D. Hunley
vice president for development at Boeing; G. E. Mueller, then vice-president of general dynamics but previously NASA associate administrator for manned space flight; and Lee B. James, director of lunar operations at the Marshall Space Flight Center, dealing with U.S. spaceflights, including accounts of the development of the Saturn launch vehicles and the Apollo spacecraft, astronaut selection and training, the individual Apollo missions, their scientific results, and their impact on Earth plus projections for the future. Intended for advanced high school students, the prose is pedestrian but clear with numerous black and white illustrations.
Milne, Donald Stewart. Footprints on the Moon. Auckland: Wilson & Horton, 1969. This cheaply-produced volume by a journalist from New Zealand covers the background to space exploration, the Soviet space program, and Project Apollo. One of many popular accounts with numerous newsprint-quality photos.
Moore, P. Moon Flight Atlas. Chicago: Rand McNally, 1970. This 64-page "atlas" contains many photographs as well as maps and descriptive materials describing what was known about the Moon shortly after the first lunar landing. It also contains material and diagrams about the Apollo program and its hardware, followed by run-downs of Apollo missions.
Murray, Bruce. Journey into Space: The First Three Decades of Space Explora- tion. New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1989. This highly personal account by a former director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory makes only occasional reference to Apollo but does have some interesting reflections about it and its legacy for NASA.
Murray, Charles A., and Cox, Catherine Bly. Apollo, the Race to the Moon. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989. Perhaps the best general account of the lunar program, this history uses interviews and documents to reconstruct the stories of the people who participated in Apollo.
NASA. America's Next Decades in Space: A Report for the Space Task Group. Washington, DC: NASA, 1969. Mostly about the future after Apollo, this report contains a lengthy chapter on "Current Program and National Capabilities" that gives considerable attention to Apollo and its infrastructure.
NASA History Office [authors vary, with many of the volumes sponsored by the NASA Historical Staff but prepared by the Science and Technology Division of the Library of Congress], Astronautics and Aeronautics . . . [title varies]. Washington, DC: NASA SPs-4004 to 4020, 1963-1975. This series--which was preceded by NASA reports for 1961 and 1962 to the Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives, published as committee prints entitled Astronautical and Aeronautical Events of . . . --does not focus exclusively on Apollo by any means. But the annual chronologies do contain much information about specific events relating to Apollo and provide a handy reference tool.
NASA Office of Manned Space Flight. Apollo Reliability and Quality Assurance Program Plan. Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1966. This document, prepared by the Apollo Program Office, outlines the require- ments for hardware development under the Apollo program. While it makes dull and bureaucratic reading, it outlines the procedures followed until the Apollo 204 fire the following year and thus provides a baseline against which to measure the changes introduced in reliability and quality assurance in its aftermath. (See Apollo Accident Report and the congressional committee prints [listed under U.S. House below in Chapter 5] on that incident and its results for NASA procedures.)
NASA Office of Manned Space Flight. Apollo Terminology. Washington, DC: NASA SP-6001, 1963. A glossary of terms used in the program with their definitions. In view of the inclination of even popular accounts of the program to use acronyms and technical terms, this is a virtually indispensable reference work for those not already familiar with the terminology.
NASA Office of Manned Space Flight. NASA's Manned Space Flight Program. Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 29 April 1969. Describes the efforts of NASA to place men in orbit and on the Moon. It also discusses the next phase of manned flight, the development of a reusable spacecraft for movement of people and supplies to and from orbit. A reprint of part of NASA testimony to Congress during budget authorization hearings for fiscal year 1970.
NASA Office of Public Affairs. "In this decade . . .": Mission to the Moon. Washington, DC: NASA, 1969. This public relations brochure with lots of photos and a somewhat breezy style nevertheless provides considerable information about the Apollo program on the eve of the first lunar landing.
NASA Space Task Group. The Post-Apollo Space Program: Directions for the Future. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, September 1969. Mostly about the future, this report includes background material on Apollo and its effects.
The Next Decade in Space: A Report of the Space Science and Technology Panel of the President's Science Advisory Committee. Washington, DC: President's Science Advisory Committee, March 1970. This important report reviews the development of the space program in the United States through the Moon landing and projects some future objectives for the President.
Newman, Joseph. U.S. on the Moon. Washington, DC: U.S. News and World Report Inc., 1969. This popular account of the Apollo program through Apollo 11, with coverage of its background and of the race with the Soviets, provides a fair summation in understandable language of what was known at the time.
One Giant Leap for Mankind, with Introduction by Eugene Cernan. Largo, FL: Rococo International, Inc., [1994]. This glossy 25th anniversary publication contains a series of articles by Karl E. Kristofferson and others dealing with NASA's Centers, "The Rocket Meisters," projects Mercury through Apollo, Apollo-Soyuz, "Buggy On The Moon," "The Lunar Machines," "How Television Made it to the Moon," and several other non-Apollo-related topics. Without notes or other scholarly apparatus, this is intended for a popular audience.
"One Last Fiery Hurrah for Apollo." Life. 19 December 1972, pp. 6-8C. Includes several entries covering not just Apollo 17 but the Apollo program as a whole, including hardware.
Ordway, Frederick I., III, and Sharpe, Mitchell R. Foreword by Wernher von Braun. The Rocket Team. New York: Crowell, 1979. This is an important, popularly- oriented, and somewhat apologetic discussion of the activities of the group of German engineers under the leadership of Wernher von Braun who developed the V-2 in World War II, came to the United States in 1945, and worked at the Marshall Spaceflight Center at Huntsville, Alabama, to develop the Saturn V launch vehicle used in Project Apollo.
______; Adams, Carsbie C.; and Sharpe, Mitchell R. Dividends from Space. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1972. This is an attempt to show that the costs of the space program have been more than returned in benefits to humanity, both tangible and intangible. The authors discuss at length the use of space systems to improve weather forecasting, facilitate communications, and inventory Earth resources. They also emphasize the development of the technological base with such major programs as Project Apollo.
Peterson, Robert W. Space: From Gemini to the Moon and Beyond. New York: Facts on File, 1972. A now obviously dated reference work summarizing events related to space from 1965-1971 in a topical format with each section organized chronologically. Does provide the perspective as of nearly the end of the Apollo program.
Peterson's Book of Man in Space. Los Angeles, CA: Petersen Pub. Co., 1974. 5 volumes. In essentially magazine format with lots of photos, this series of articles carries the story of humans in space from accounts of the spaceflight pioneers Robert H. Goddard and Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky through Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo.
Petroski, Henry. To Engineer is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1985. This books offers a series of reflections upon the relationship between engineering and risk. The author comments on the development of a special faith attached to modern technology in the public mind, and the effect recent disasters, from Three-mile Island to Chernobyl, had on that confidence. This book is not simply a chronicle of accidents, but seeks to look at the process of engineering and its creative aspects apart from its scientific ones. Petroski notes that the design process accepts failure and seeks to test and gradually develop a system, whatever it might be, that has an acceptable level of risk to operate. He cautions that nothing is error free. He ends with a discussion of structural failures and their causes, dividing them into several categories. He notes that many recent failures are not due to engineering but to poor construction, inferior materials, inadequate attention to detail, or poor management and oversight.