Fallen Astronauts: Heroes Who Died Reaching for the Moon, Revised Edition

by Colin Burgess, Kate Doolan

Near the end of the Apollo 15 mission, David Scott and fellow moonwalker James Irwin conducted a secret ceremony unsanctioned by they placed on the lunar soil a small tin figurine called The Fallen Astronaut, along with a plaque bearing a list of names. By telling the stories of those sixteen astronauts and cosmonauts who died in the quest to reach the moon between 1962 and 1972, this book enriches the saga of humankind’s greatest scientific undertaking, Project Apollo, and conveys the human cost of the space race. Many people are aware of the first manned Apollo mission, in which Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee lost their lives in a fire during a ground test, but few know of the other five fallen astronauts whose stories this book tells as well, including Ted Freeman and C.C. Williams, who died in the crashes of their T-38 jets; the “Gemini Twins,” Charlie Bassett and Elliot See, killed when their jet slammed into the building where their Gemini capsule was undergoing final construction; and Ed Givens, whose fatal car crash has until now been obscured by rumors. Supported by extensive interviews and archival material, the extraordinary lives and accomplishments of these and other fallen astronauts—including eight Russian cosmonauts who lost their lives during training—unfold here in intimate and compelling detail. Their stories return us to a stirring time in the history of our nation and remind us of the cost of fulfilling our dreams. This revised edition includes expanded and revised biographies and additional photographs.   Purchase the audio edition.

Genres: Space, Nonfiction, Science, History, Biography

416 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Bon Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting, informative, humbling reading through and through. Because, fate is a strange thing. It doesn't give a fresh fig for our plans, predispositions, our glorious potentials. It, seemingly, gives and takes like wild animal you're desperately trying to domesticate and put under some control, only to realize you can just helplessly watch how it cuddles you and purrs under your feet one day, and bites you in the ass the other.

It's not the thing to be played with, that's for sure. That's why we should pay some respect to people who had audacity to do so, if only for the reason they've never outgrown their boyish dreams of flying and greatness. They never did, or even attempt, what the rest of us do: failing the attempt to control the uncontrollable, we become docile citizens, doing secure, sometimes menial jobs.

Nope. These brave men couldn't settle for less but trying to reach that big ball of silver smiling at us from the above at night. I'm especially touched by the circumstances around Ed Giwens and his family, who never got all the due credits from their own country for stupid beaurocratic reasons. Knowing how important the recognition of one's life is to the closure for those who stay behind, it rips my heart. It moved me so much that I searched everything I could on the internet to find out more about him, as well as picture of his grave.

The treatment of Russian astronauts by the hideous communist regime was even more brutal. The commies never seemed to have realized they made a switch from Leika to human space travelers at some point.

The Amazon blurb of this book nicely lists the names of fallen astronauts. No doubt I'll be referring to it time and again, as a reminder.

Thank you all, fallen astronauts!

[kris · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Apollo 15 moonwalkers (David Scott and James Irwin) left behind a secret memorial on the lunar surface as an homage to the astronauts and cosmonauts who had died while contributing to the exploration of space. This memorial consisted of a tin figurine called The Fallen Astronaut and a plaque bearing a list of 14 names.

Fallen Astronauts expands that memorial by exploring the life and careers of each of the NASA astronauts listed, and expanding its list to include several cosmonauts who died unrecognized, both in the USSR as well as in the West.

1. Overall, this book seems to do a good job of balancing the stories of these astronauts, even with the Apollo 1 tragedy right smack in the middle. I appreciated that the other men were given equal weight, delving into their contributions to the space program, even if they did not make it to space.

2. It was also kind of shocking to me how little information was available about most of the cosmonauts; even those who flew to space had narratives so tightly controlled that it's hard to know who they were amid their legacy and their lore. It was also interesting how many cosmonauts were erased from the narrative of the USSR's space program: if they failed or fumbled, it was if they'd never contributed in any way.

3. I do have to acknowledge that there were a few copy-editing errors in my version that were a little frustrating. For example:

Kerwin and Graveline were physicians and Schmitt a geologist, while Garriott, Gibson, and Michel were physicians.

........so what you're saying is that everyone but Schmitt was a PHYSICIAN? (I am fairly certain the last one should be "physicists" but....seriously.)

[Ishmael Soledad · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thought provoking and overdue treatment of NASA astronauts who died up until the end of the Apollo program. Sweep aside the flag waving and US patriotism and the lives and deaths of some very high achieving yet familiarly ordinary human beings come through (I couldn't take my eyes away from the photo of Ted Freeman and his family at home). Added to this the story of more than six Soviet cosmonauts who died in the race against the USA.

It served to bring home the human face of spaceflight.

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 4 out of 5]

As must be clear to anyone vaguely literate, this is a volume of tribute honoring the astronauts and, even better, the cosmonauts who died in the respective US/Soviet races to the the moon in the 1960s with a little spillover into the 1970s in the Soviet case.
If you're well-versed in this kind of history, as I consider myself to be, a lot of these stories will be very familiar, since other volumes in this series also included them. What you'll get here is a bit more in-depth detail on the lives and careers of the lost would-be explorers. On the US side, with the exception of Apollo 1, most of these deaths occurred outside the purview of their astronaut training, mostly while flying, with one automobile accident. The chapter on the Apollo 1 fire goes into much greater detail, often harrowing, of the accident that claimed the lives of three astronauts.
Of great historical interest are the chapters dealing with the deaths of Soviet cosmonauts, again a few in actual mission flights, others, like Gagarin, in other accidents. There is much cleared up here about the mythical "lost" cosmonauts of the early Soviet space program while giving proper due to those who did actually lose their lives in the process.

[Jerry Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had the potential to be a real downer. It focuses on the life stories of those astronauts that died in the development of the Apollo program.

Obviously the most well known are those that perished in the Apollo 1 fire in 1967 and, unsurprisingly, the life stories of Grissom, White and Chaffee are given the most coverage. This is appropriate given the gravity and tragedy of the fire and the fact that both Grissom and White had already flown in space (Grissom twice) prior to Apollo.

The stories are actually handled well, although there is some narrative repetition that suggests these are short bios of the astronauts stitched together into a book. This doesn't become an annoyance however.

The tales of these men are both poignant and also somewhat fatalistic. The programs always continued, often without much of a pause (Apollo 1 being the exception) and the reader is left with the impression that the deaths of these men was tragic (particularly for their young families) but somehow "went with the territory". It was a risk they knew and accepted, as did NASA.

Having said that, there were a lot of personal insights in the book that brought it to life and made you care about the astronauts, which is a good thing. Ultimately it is clear that the race to the moon was a worthy, notable, and dangerous undertaking, and some astronauts paid the ultimate price for the success of the program

[s]

all the astronauts have these salt of the earth good ol' american boy backstories and then the cosmonauts were all chased by nazis as children

[Joao Neto · Rating 3 out of 5]

This feels more like a small homag3e and addendum to Shadow of the Moon instead of a fully fledged standalone book. 80% of the book is dedicated to small biographies of the astronauts killed during both space programs. Only a small portion of the book is actually dedicated to the accidents and its causes. As expected, the American part such more detailed than the Russian part, but as an example, Vladimir Komarov accident is described in much more detail in Shadow of the Moon.

If you are interested in learning about the early lives of these astronauts this is the book for you (full of detailed descriptions of 40s/50s Americana).

If you want a book about the perils of space exploration, accidents and technical analysis this is not the book for you.

[Bob Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Fitting Tribute To Pioneers Mostly Forgotten

As a life-long space exploration enthusiast, those remembered in the pages of this book are known and respected by me. For most people in the world, most of them were never known or are long forgotten.
This work isn’t always gripping, but I’m glad these authors have created a record of these brave lives lost.
Expansion of knowledge and breaking down frontiers is historically often costly, and these fliers paid the ultimate price for the journey.

[Michael Kuras · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book was well written and I gained more knowledge about what it took to get into space for both the USA and Russia. Some of the astronauts I read about I knew from reading other books on NASA, but then the others I didn’t even know about until reading this book. If you want a good book to read about what it took to get into space and to the moon read this book.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the few early space-era books to provide details on Soviet astronauts.

I appreciated how the author gave each astronaut a full background, described their place in history, and treated their deaths with respect.

[Ken Hamner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. Very highly recommended.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Astronauts Who Died

This is a sad book of those astronauts who died during the space program on both the USA and Soviet sides. Not sure how I feel about it.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have read many books and seen several documentaries on the early American space programme, Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. There is always some overlap between them which there is with this one. However, this is different in its concentration on those astronauts who didn't come out of it at the end. This tells the story and life primarily of eight US astronauts who were killed during the early years in plane/car crashes or most notoriously in the Apollo 1 capsule fire. There is also a section on the little known fatalities of the Soviet space programme.

The book is beautifully researched with many contributions from the families and fellow astronauts. Anyone interested in this period must read this book to give a bit of balance to the normal euphoria of the successes of early space flight.

[Rose Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comprehensive and well-researched. Nicely-done.