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Title: Apollo 13: The NASA Mission Reports (Apogee Books Space Series) by Robert Godwin ISBN: 1-896522-55-6 Publisher: Collector's Guide Pub Pub. Date: 22 March, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.86 (7 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: The Technical Side of the Apollo 13 Mission
Comment: Over the past few years the saga of Apollo 13 has been recounted in several books (Jim Lovell's Lost Moon, Gene Kranz's Failure is Not an Option and Chris Kraft's Flight) and the Blockbuster movie, Apollo 13. While these books and movies have provided an excellent overview of this "Successful Failure," and the role that Mission Control played in it, technical details associated with the explosion of the spacecraft are not discussed in any great detail. This latest volume from Apogee does just that.
Apollo 13 was planned to be NASA's third lunar landing and the first one dedicated to scientific exploration. The Lunar Module was scheduled to land at Fra Mauro with commander Jim Lovell who making his fourth space mission and second to the moon and rookie Lunar Module Pilot Fred Haise. Jack Swigert, who was the Command Module Pilot, replaced Ken Mattingly only days before launch remained in orbit.
Like most of the other volumes in this NASA Mission Report series, the book opens with the usual NASA mission press kit. This press kit is more detailed than the previous mission, Apollo 12, because it contains detailed information about the lunar surface activities and experiments. It is interesting to note that due to late addition of Jack Swigert to the crew, Ken Mattingly is still listed as the Command Module Pilot. The next of the book contains the Post Launch Mission Operation Report, which is essentially a moderately technical summary of all the highlights of the mission.
The next section of the book, contains the crew debrief section, and covers about 25% of the book and is 67 pages long. This debriefing was conducted only a few days after the splashdown. As one would expect, much of this section deals with the accident and their flight around the moon and back to earth; however, there many portions devoted to crew training, launch, observation of the moon and more. This section maybe difficult for many to follow, since there are numerous undefined NASA acronyms and references to specific pieces of equipment in the Command Module (individual switches) which probably only the astronauts and the designers of the Apollo capsule know.
The final section of the book is the transcripts of the House Committee on Science and Astronautics Hearings and the report that was submitted to this committee. It is in this portion of the book that contains the most technical descriptions of the accident. There are detailed timelines of the mission and accident, documentation related to the construction of the oxygen tank and numerous photographs.
As usual in all the Mission Reports series, the book contains a CD that includes additional material. The CD contains all the 70mm Hassalblad photographs which includes some spectacular views of the far side of the moon and the crew before and after the oxygen tank explosion. Also included on the CD is an interview with Jim Lovell, the post landing press conference (over an hour long) and several NASA videos.
Some general information that might be useful.
1) These reports are just scanned-in documents from previously released NASA press kits, etc., In order to preserve the spirit of the original reports, all typographical and grammatical errors have NOT been fixed.
2) Proceeds from the book goes to "The Watch" an asteroid impact research project of the Space Frontier Foundation. In other words, Apogee Books is making very little off the sale of US government produced books and documents.
Rating: 5
Summary: Apollo 13
Comment: Godwin continues his sequence of material from NASA Archives, presenting details related to the highly dramatic flight to the moon of astronauts Lovell, Haise, and Sweigert, which prompted the popular film Apollo 13. He includes 79 pages of details of what should have happened on the flight, followed by what actually happened when an electrical short circuit caused an oxygen explosion in tank no. 2, aborting the mission. Though the book is not as dramatic as the film, it provides the technical details that explain the good engineering design and system redundancies built into spacecraft components. As important were the resourcefulness, training, experience, and talent of crew, engineers, and technical support personnel who worked around the clock, solving problem after problem in real time, trying to assure that the astronauts would return safely to Earth. The calm, precise reactions of each crew member, coupled with the magnificent support of earthbound colleagues, led to a safe return. Extensive, 67-page crew debriefing; PC-compatible CD-ROM. An excellent backdrop to the movie and a vivid reminder that it is hard to achieve, and even harder to maintain, perfection. Recommended for all readers, particularly those who enjoy the technical details of spaceflight. All levels.
Rating: 5
Summary: Ever wonder what REALLY happened on Apollo 13?
Comment: This is the definitive answer to what happened on Apollo 13. The result, in readable form, of NASA's investigation and review of the entire flight.
Detailed analysis of what chain of little mistakes culminated in the explosion. Details of the recovery plan. And even some insight into the astronauts like part of the debriefing where they tell what they thought of the razors supplied by NASA.
Technical details and analysis into an exciting episode of the manned space program.
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Title: Apollo 11: The NASA Mission Reports, Volume 3 (Apogee Books Space Series) by Robert Godwin, United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration ISBN: 1896522858 Publisher: Apogee Books Pub. Date: March, 2002 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: Apollo 11: The NASA Mission Reports, Volume 2 (Apogee Books Space Series) by Robert Godwin ISBN: 1896522491 Publisher: Collectors Guide Publishing, Inc. Pub. Date: 29 July, 1999 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Apollo 11: The NASA Mission Reports, Volume 1 (Apogee Books Space Series) by Robert Godwin, United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration ISBN: 189652253X Publisher: Apogee Books Pub. Date: July, 1999 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Apollo 13 : Lost Moon by Jim Lovell ISBN: 0671534645 Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: 01 July, 1995 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Apollo 12: The NASA Mission Reports (Apogee Books Space Series) by Robert Godwin ISBN: 1896522548 Publisher: Apogee Books Pub. Date: October, 1999 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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