The Story of Apollo 8

Focusing on the first manned flight to leave the earth's orbit, this book puts the space race in the context of American and world history. Christmas 1998 marks the 30th anniversary of the Apollo 8 flight. Color photos.

The year 1968 is memorable for any number of reasons, science writer Zimmerman reminds us, not the least of which was the historic flight of Apollo 8, the first manned space flight to slip out of Earth's gravitational tethers. Apollo 8, with Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders aboard, blasted off in late December of 1968, its intention to journey beyond Earth's orbit, slip into a lunar orbit, then escape again, and return. Its success was a momentous occasionthe frontiers of space had been effectively pushed out, way outalthough it was overshadowed six months later by the actual lunar landing. Zimmerman, a science and technology writer who has contributed to American Heritage, the Sciences, and other publications, has chosen two aspects of the Apollo 8 mission to emphasize. First, he depicts a space program then still the venue of the hero/ace pilot who, sacrificing family priorities and personal safety, was the Cold Warrior nonpareil. In relating this, Zimmerman situates the flight within the context of that electrifying and appalling yearthe Tet Offensive, the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, student uprisings, the Chicago Democratic convention, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedywhen more than a spacecraft appeared to be spinning out of orbit. Zimmerman keeps in check this potentially hyperbolic drama, giving it a nice steady rhythm, but he loses that touch when he goes after his second theme, attempting to infuse the event with righteousness. It showed the world, Zimmerman claims, an ``American vision of moral individuality, religious tolerance and mutual respect,'' though its difficult to see the space race as an expression of such respect or to decipher the meaning of ``moral individuality'' in this context. Zimmerman does realize that perhaps the most lasting achievement of Apollo 8 is a photograph of Earthrise over the Moon. Never before had our planet seemed so small, so lonely, so vulnerableor so priceless. (photos, not seen) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Zimmerman, who writes for the Sciences, Astronomy, and the Wall Street Journal, tells the story of the three astronauts involved in the "first manned flight to another world" as we approach its 30th anniversary. The story is well told in the astronauts' own words and through interviews with their wives and children. The sections covering selected events and personages of the Cold War and the 1960s provide a unique perspective; the role of religion in the astronauts' lives is an important theme not found elsewhere. While Apollo 8 is included in many other books on the Apollo program, Zimmerman's work is the first to cover this flight alone and to stress its monumental significance as the most important Apollo mission. A strong purchase for all academic and public libraries.?Dale Ebersole, Carlson Lib., Univ. of Toledo, OH
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.