The First Men on the Moon: The Story of Apollo 11

by David M. Harland

This book tells the story of Apollo 11 and dispels the myth that NASA faked the moon landings. The story is brought to life by exploiting the flight plan, mission report, in-flight transcripts (including conversations among the crew in the spacecraft that were not transmitted) and post-flight debriefing. It features scans recently produced by NASA of the original Hasselblad film. The final chapters discuss what was learned of the moon rocks, and reviews the follow-on missions. The author’s impressive expertise and knowledge of the Moon landings shines through and seamlessly unites the myriad details of the mission.

Genres: Space, Science, History, Nonfiction

380 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2006

Reviews

[Robu-sensei · Rating 3 out of 5]

In The First Men on the Moon, David Harland gives us a comprehensive account of the Apollo 11 mission and its preliminaries in a simple, clear narrative. Beginning with brief biographies of the astronauts, he traces the preparations for the mission in the first quarter of the book; the remainder is a detailed account of the mission, with careful treatment of all phases. Harland is careful not to sully the historic occasion with histrionics. He tells it just the way it happened, devoid of embellishment except through the level of detail (the landing phase, for example, is presented almost in real time). I found this no-frills approach to storytelling most refreshing.

[David Vattuone Calle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutly incredible insigh of the apollo 11 mission. The author made and incredibly complete and detailed research of the mission. Also, the pictures are incredible!

It's best quality is that it's incredibly detailed. But sometimes that turns into it worst flaw. Sometimes it felt excecively detailed and was difficult to go throught. But enduring to the final really pays off.

(Just a small suggestion: The dimensions should be given also in international units. I had a hard time trying to mentally convert from feet, miles, pounds, etc to meters, kilograms, etc).

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the closing with the little girl showing Neil her book on the First Man to the Moon, then said, your name is Neil Armstrong too.