Often lost in the shadow of the first group of astronauts for the Mercury missions, the second and third groups included the leading figures for NASA’s activities for the following two decades. “Moon Bound” complements the author’s recently published work, “Selecting the Mercury Seven” (2011), extending the story of the men who helped to launch human spaceflight and broaden the American space program. Although the initial 1959 group became known as the legendary pioneering Mercury astronauts, the astronauts of Groups 2 and 3 gave us many household names. Sixteen astronauts from both groups traveled to the Moon in Project Apollo, with several actually walking on the Moon, one of them being Neil Armstrong.
This book draws on interviews to tell the astronauts’ personal stories and recreate the drama of that time. It describes the process by which they were selected as astronauts and explains how the criteria had changed since the first group. “Moon Bound” is divided into two parts, recounting the biographies relating to the nine astronauts from NASA’s Group 2 in the first part, and the fourteen finalists in Group 3 in the second part.
The stories of both selection groups are narrated through the experiences of four finalists with interesting backgrounds. One of these men is Al Rupp of the USAF who, as a West Point cadet, cheekily helped to steal the Navy mascot goat prior to the annual Army versus Navy game in 1953, thus achieving legendary status in the game’s history. Rupp was killed in a plane crash just two years after being named as a finalist for Group 3. The service career of naval aviator John Yamnicky was also very much the equal of other finalists, but he was killed on September 11, 2001, as he was a passenger on hijacked Flight 77, which was flown into the Pentagon.
At the end of the work there are several chapters on how these candidates were prepped for their missions.
Spis treści
Part I Announcements and volunteers.- Screening the applicants.- The finalists.- The 'Next Nine’.- Settling in.- Part II The boy from Barren Run.- Answering the call.- A few exceptionally good men.- The Fourteen.- Patience and Persistence.- 'Before this decade is out’.- For some, the glory.- Appendices.- Bibliography.- Index.
O autorze
Colin Burgess has had a strong interest in the history of space exploration since the age of 14 in 1962. He also has an interest in Australian military history, and particularly the Australian POW experience. His first few books – the first published in 1985 – reflected this latter interest, but in the 1990s he began writing increasingly more magazine articles and books on his principal interest, spaceflight. Mostly biographical, his books have filled an information niche that had previously never been explored in print. He has been writing books for Springer-Praxis since 2006 with his title “NASA’s Scientist-Astronauts.”
The majority of his research and writing is carried out at his home in Sydney, Australia. He does attend astronauts events overseas and conducts interviews with many space explorers relevant to the project he has at hand. Overall, he is author to over 26 titles, including four titles with Springer. He most recent work, “Selecting the Mercury Seven” was published in the fall of 2011.
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