Mission to the moon

Alan Dyer, 1953-

Book - 2009

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Subjects
Published
New York : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers 2009.
Language
English
Main Author
Alan Dyer, 1953- (-)
Edition
1st U.S. ed
Item Description
"Conceived and produced by Weldon Owen Pty Ltd"--P. facing t.p.
"Originally published in Great Britain in 2008 by the Templar Company Limited"--P. facing t.p.
Physical Description
80 p. : ill. (chiefly col.) ; 31 cm. + 1 DVD (4 3/4 in.)
Format
The accompanying DVD contains actual moon landing footage and highlights from later Apollo missions.
Bibliography
Includes index.
ISBN
9781416979357
Contents unavailable.
Review by New York Times Review

THE early space race was really a chase, with the United States trailing its superpower rival - the Soviet Union - badly. The Soviets took a strong lead by tossing Sputnik 1 into Earth orbit in 1957 and smacking the moon in the face with the Luna 2 probe in 1959. Although the United States launched its first Earth satellite in 1958, its less powerful rockets had a tendency to detonate on the launch pad like short-fused bombs or break up after takeoff and sizzle like Fourth of July fireworks, or veer off course. "T-Minus: The Race to the Moon," a graphic novel written by Jim Ottaviani, tells the story of America's come-from-behind victory in the space race's main event - a manned moon landing. Ottaviani takes minimal liberties with the actual events to compress the great race into 124 pages: he deftly reimagines and expands the roles played by a few real-life aerospace engineers and contractors and imagines plausible dialogue for places where the historical record is incomplete. The illustrations by Kevin Cannon and Zander Cannon (no relation) capture both the inky vastness of space and the glory of the big flying machines, but the book's primary subject is human emotions, not rockets or the heavens. Again and again, "T-Minus" - rocketeer lingo for time until takeoff - relies on close-ups to dramatize the life work of rocket visionaries from both nations' space programs, like Robert Goddard, Wernher von Braun and Sergei Kqrolev. It's about time the people who designed and built the spacecraft got top billing over the flyboys. The Soviet Union's first firsts were followed by still more: first to put a live animal into orbit (Laika the space dog in 1958); first to put a man into orbit (1961); first to put a woman into orbit (1963); first to conduct a space walk (1965). By the mid-1960s the Soviets owned all of the space endurance flight records, too. The gap between the two programs seemed to widen in 1967 after Gus Grissom and his two crew mates died in a fire during a launch-pad practice session of their Apollo 1 capsule. NASA, which ran the space program, suspended Apollo flights while it made the craft safer, and President John F. Kennedy's goal of landing on the moon by the end of the 1960s appeared unreachable. But then the Soviets stumbled. Korolev, a top rocket designer, died unexpectedly during surgery in 1966, and the Soviet cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov was killed during the emergency landing of the Soyuz 1. These events helped to sidetrack the Soviet program and create an opening for the Americans. A series of successful Apollo missions in the late 1960s restored confidence at NASA and provided the steppingstones for an American moon landing. Just before Christmas 1968, in a preview of what was to come, the re-engineered Apollo 8 left Earth's gravity and orbited the moon. "T-Minus" treats this flight to as many pages as the moon landing mission itself. In March 1969, Apollo 9 practiced docking with the lunar landing vehicle in Earth orbit; two months later Apollo 10 did the same in moon orbit; and on July 20, 1969 - 40 years ago - Apollo 11's Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon at Tranquillity Base while Michael Collins orbited above in the mother ship that would ferry them back home. "T-Minus" captures the optimism and courage of both countries' space pioneers, making it an ideal entry point for new readers intrigued by the topic. Space know-it-alls will learn something, too. Who knew that the Apollo's Saturn V launcher was delivered from Huntsville, Ala., to its Florida launch pad by barge? This is a well-researched book. In its constellation of useful facts, dates and figures, I found just one error: it wrongly states that John Glenn's Friendship 7 orbited the Earth in 1961. As the authors know, Glenn's flight came in 1962. THE slickly produced "One Small Step: Celebrating the First Men on the Moon" purports to be a space-race scrapbook assembled by a young boy named Mike, who is pictured on its opening page and whose mother is a NASA scientist. Any reader inquisitive enough to enjoy "One Small Step" will quickly figure out that the annotated photos, insignias, lists, engineering diagrams and artwork taped and paper-clipped into place were assembled by the professionals listed on the book's copyright page, none of them named Mike. Awkward as this approach is, don't let it keep you from appreciating "One Small Step." The book's scrapbook format invites readers to explore the concepts, technologies and personal stories behind manned space flight. Flaps open to chart the space race's timeline or to explain the functioning of a piece of space hardware. A postcard with Laika the space dog begs to be peeled off the page and mailed. There's even a detachable "First Man on the Moon" mini-pennant. "Mission to the Moon," by Alan Dyer, celebrating the Apollo 11 anniversary, covers much of the same area but does so with a straight documentary approach supplemented by a bonus DVD of Apollo footage (which works on a computer disk drive but not on a TV): If "One Small Step" is big fun, "Mission to the Moon" is serious fun, trusting the material instead of flaps and human drama to sustain reader interest. It should go without saying which book I'd pick to spend an evening with and which book I'd choose to add to my library. These three books remind us of the time when the moon was a place people actually visited, a time of science fact that eclipses every volume of science fiction ever written. As any 12-year-old can tell you, the long-ago years of the space race still feel more like the future than anything on the horizon. Jack Shafer writes about the press for Slate.

Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [October 27, 2009]
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

Sporting a highly visual encyclopedic format, this informative book features 200 photographs documenting early research into mankind's history with the moon, early space exploration and the space race, and the Apollo missions. Detailed cross-sections of modules, space suits and other equipment offer a sound technological overview, while information on the phases, structure and surface of the moon provides added insight ("The Moon's strong gravity stabilizes our planet's spinning axis. Without the Moon, Earth would wobble wildly over millions of years"). A DVD and poster are included. Ages 8-12. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review

Gr 5-7-An outstanding array of archival photos and art, along with flashy packaging, will propel this celebration of the first Moon landing's 40th anniversary into the hands of readers, and viewers too, as a DVD containing about an hour of video clips is tucked into the front cover. The single-topic spreads open with looks at the Moon in myth and prehistory, then go on to trace the development of the space race, the selection and training of astronauts, the Apollo missions from 11 on, and, best of all, recent signs (finally!) of renewed interest in revisiting our nearest neighbor in space. Each spread is bright with pictures, from depictions of cave paintings and early rockets to large cutaways of a Saturn V rocket, an Apollo Command and Service Module, and an "extravehicular mobility unit" (aka a space suit). The visuals are interspersed with informative leadoff introductions, captions, and floating blocks of text. The writing isn't as animated as in Catherine Thimmesh's Team Moon (Houghton, 2006), but the dramatic pictures more than compensate, and eight closing pages of basic Moon facts and figures tack on additional value.-John Peters, New York Public Library (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review

This well-organized book moves from early attempts to understand the moon through rocket development and Soviet Union space efforts, to concentrate on U.S. moon missions. Astronaut equipment and training, along with ground support, are detailed in text, captions, and numerous diagrams and archival NASA photos. A projection for future exploration is followed by moon facts. Book includes a poster and DVD. Glos., ind. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

Attractively packaged by the same publisher of the INsiders series, this oversized volume is one of the many moon books coming out in anticipation of the Apollo 11 anniversary. But while it may lack originality of subject, its visual appeal and vast scope are hard to beat. Covering a wide rangefrom the beginning of the space race to subsequent lunar landings and facts about the moon in generalDyer looks at the topic from a variety of perspectives. Some 200 photos from the NASA archives, along with large, detailed illustrations of rockets, space suits and other equipment, add to the presentation. Interesting facts are highlighted on torn pieces of paper, scattered scrapbook-style throughout, with corners taped down. A lunar module poster and bonus DVD containing footage from the first moon landing are included. For children growing up in a world where many rockets quietly launch to little fanfare or acclaim, this work recaptures the magic and determination of early space exploration. (glossary, index) (Nonfiction. 8-12) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.