The Ever-Changing Moon: Book One: First Footprints

by Rob Bailey

The Soviet Union shocks the world by placing a satellite in orbit and accomplishing many impressive feats high above Earth. The United States must prevent its Cold War rivals from controlling space, so President John F. Kennedy gives a transcendent challenge to the nation—land a man on the Moon by the end of the decade. NASA gathers talented engineers and astronauts to achieve the audacious goal.

The Ever-Changing Moon tells the story of three astronauts—John Young, Ken Mattingly, and Charlie Duke—who fly on Apollo 16, a mission that changes the way we understand the Moon. They are integral to many historic moments during Apollo. Book First Footprints examines their contributions to the first lunar landing. Experience the triumph and tragedy of human spaceflight and discover why Apollo flight controller Jerry Bostick says about the book, “There is nothing out there like this.”

“I believe you have captured the details about the Apollo 11 descent operations better than anything I have read previously. Very unique approach, and I am glad you are drawing in many names that otherwise might not be in a book.”
- Steve Bales, Apollo Flight Controller

“Yours stands as the best description I have seen to date of the mission rules/simulation process.”
- Doug Ward, NASA Public Affairs Officer

398 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 16, 2023

Reviews

[Jennifer Ritchie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome! I’ve read many Apollo books, and this is one of the best. It gives many details and explanations that I’ve never come across in the umpteen other books I’ve read about the topic, and it is meticulously researched and well written. It’s important to keep in mind that this is a two-volume work, and that it is mainly focused on the crew of Apollo 16. (That alone makes me really happy. So few books about the space program give the later lunar missions any real coverage, with Andrew Chaikin’s as the one exception.) This, the first volume, covers the early space program up to the first part of the Apollo 13 mission (talk about a cliffhanger—volume one ends right when Apollo 13 suffers their explosion). The missions involving the future Apollo 16 crew are covered in much more detail than the other missions. So, for example, Gemini X is covered in detail because John Young flew on that mission, and Apollo 11 is covered in great detail not only because of its historic importance but also because of Charlie Duke’s role as CAPCOM at Mission Control during the most important parts of that mission. If you are interested in learning about how things worked in the space program, rather than hearing salacious stories about astronauts’ personal lives, you’ll like this.