MOON SHOT ( THE INSIDE STORY OF AMERICA'S RACE TO THE MOON )

Marking the twenty-fifth anniversary of the first moon landing, two former astronauts tell of the intense human drama behind the lunar race between two superpowers, and of the sacrifices and risks asked of the American crew.

The story of America's space race with the Soviet Union and the scramble to put a man on the moon, by two who were there. Shepard and Slayton, both Mercury Seven astronauts, begin with a long, panting account of the Eagle's landing on the moon's surface, then backtrack to the beginning of the superpower missile competition in the late 1940s. They point out that the US at that time had no missile expertise whatsoever; the program was set up in Huntsville, Ala., by Wernher von Braun, the German missile genius captured from the defeated Third Reich. A German team constructed the Redstone and Jupiter rockets, but Eisenhower, who distrusted ex-Nazi scientists, eventually grounded von Braun and his German team--until the Soviets launched a basketball-sized satellite called Sputnik. The American public was traumatized by a 1,000- pound satellite zooming across its airspace, and von Braun got the green light to launch a smaller American satellite at once. After summarizing this early history, the authors turn to the later Apollo missions, which they cover in detail (Slayton was one of the program's masterminds), as well as the eventual Soyuz-Apollo mission, a Soviet-US cooperative effort. Interesting historical material is related in a hard-boiled style, complete with dramatic re-enactments, as if the writing committee--counting the folks who worked on the companion Turner Broadcasting documentary scheduled for fall, there are at least four authors--had decided they needed swashbuckling prose to enliven the material. Do we really need to be told that the countdown seconds to a missile launch ``fell like withered leaves''? Still, when its corny style doesn't get the better of it, Moon Shot has its moments, and it's quite readable and detailed. (32 pages of b&w photos, not seen) (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Shepard and the late Slayton, two of the original Mercury astronauts, here team up with two veteran space reporters to produce a firsthand account of the space program's early days. The narrative is at its best when it focuses on the astronauts' flight experiences-Shepard's brief Mercury flight, his lunar landing mission ten years later, and Slayton's long-delayed trip into space aboard the last Apollo mission in 1975. On the down side, its use of re-created conversations that pass as exposition weaken the narrative, making it sound more like a screenplay prospectus than a space history. For example, it is doubtful that John Glenn had to explain to his fellow astronauts what the Saturn launch vehicle was. One comes away wishing for more insight into what it was like to walk on the moon and less about the astronauts' pranks and peccadillos. Still, with the book's publication timed to coincide with this July's 25th anniversary of the first manned lunar landing, this title may see some demand.
--Thomas Frieling, Bainbridge Coll., Ga.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

It's hard to believe, but most teens and people in their early twenties don't remember Americans walking on the moon. This book, written lovingly by two of the most respected astronauts in U.S. history, will remedy that. Journalists Jay Barbree and Howard Benedict organized the material, and they portray Shepard and Slayton as two close friends who shared the dream of many children of the 1960s: to fly in outer space. Sadly, Shepard, after becoming the first American in space in a mere hour's trip, developed inner ear problems that prevented him from going back, and Slayton's irregular heartbeat kept him from going at all. Meanwhile, President Kennedy escalated the space race to get a leg up on the Russians. Despite covering some of the same ground as Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff, Shepard and Slayton vividly portray the great bond uniting the original Mercury Seven. The most terrifying chapter describes the fire on the launchpad that killed three Apollo 1 astronauts, but problems on many flights (unbeknownst to TV viewers) were only solved by the skill of the astronauts as pilots. Shepard and Slayton are emphatic about environmental issues (having seen the Earth from a unique viewpoint), and Shepard's eventual moon shot is only topped by Slayton's emotional reaction to being cleared to fly the Apollo-Soyuz mission to dock with Russian cosmonauts, with whom he became fast friends. Expect much demand. Joe Collins