First on the Moon : A Voyage with Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, Edwin E. Aldrin Jr

First on the moon. The sound of the words themselves cannot convey their full meaning, the weight of wonder that they bear. The time, money, lives, will, knowledge - the total effort that went into putting man on the moon is beyond measurement. First on the Moon: A Voyage with Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr. is the exclusive story of Apollo 11 and the always thrilling and historic personal experiences of the three astronauts who put man on the moon. It is a voyage in every sense of the word - through time, from President Kennedy's fateful pronouncement on May 25, 1961, that the United States would put man on the moon before the decade was out, and through space, with Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo.

Incredible stories such as this one are rarely described in any way befitting the adventure itself, but with the help of Gene Farmer and Dora Jane Hamblin, First on the Moon has been written with a depth and impact equal in every way to the adventure itself.

First on the Moon is history, but it is also the chronicle of any and all men who unite to meet the unspoken challenge posed by the unknown. It is an exclusive and official account, the way the voyage was, as seen by the men who experienced it.

Life senior editor Gene Farmer and Life staff writer Dora Jane Hamblin have spent many months with - indeed, living with - the astronauts and their families. Not only is the flight excitingly and thoroughly documented, with the astronauts' own thoughts and words woven through the recorded transcript with Houston, but the atmosphere in the astronauts' homes during the flight is faithfully recorded.

The flight of Apollo 11 is of course the essence of First on the Moon and, although it is thoroughly documented, it is written in what Mike Collins calls "agricultural terms". It is always a person account - the astronauts as representative of all mankind, but as individuals with their own responses to each step in the adventure. From the dramatic liftoff and earth orbit through the operation known as translunar injection, the transposition and docking - each mechanized and technical operation becomes a human exploit rivalling the most thrilling moments in the tales told by H.G.Wells and Jules Verne. Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin were chosen to go on the most thrilling of all voyages, but the enterprise was not theirs and theirs alone. Many thousands of scientists, engineering and industrial people were behind them, including eight astronauts who did not live to see the day.

This is the astronauts' own book, the one in which mankind's greatest undertaking of the century is told. The complete story is here, and here exclusively.