Product Description

Eugene Cernan is a unique American who came of age as an astronaut during the most exciting and dangerous decade of spaceflight. His career spanned the entire Gemini and Apollo programs, from being the first person to spacewalk all the way around our world to commanding Apollo XVII, man's last mission to the moon. Between those two historic events lay more adventures than an ordinary person could imagine as Cernan repeatedly put his life, his family and everything he held dear on the altar of an obsessive desire. Written with "New York Times" bestselling author Don Davis, this is the astronaut story never before told - about the fear, love and sacrifice demanded of the few men who dared to reach beyond the heavens for the biggest prize of all: the Moon.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #60467 in Books
• Published on: 2000-07-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

From the Author
The development of this book, The Last Man on the Moon
Greetings, Reader: On a bright Florida morning in 1969, I watched in wonder as a huge, magnificent Saturn rocket took off – Destination: Moon. That was Apollo 10, doing a dress rehearsal for the Apollo 11 landing, and the lunar module pilot aboard that spacecraft was a crew-cut astronaut named Gene Cernan. Although I was one of the reporters covering the launch, I had never met the guy. But almost 30 years later, we have formed a firm friendship, because Gene let me write this book about his incredible life. Neither of us wanted it to be just another astronaut memoir, so we decided from the start to minimize technology and emphasize people. As we worked, I realized it had taken 30 years before one of those pioneer astronauts would break the code of silence and really talk about the sacrifice, the pain, the obsession and the problems of earning a walk on the Moon. Gene’s single rule was that he wanted to put the reader on top of the rocket and on the Moon, right along with him. So if you are looking for a tech manual about how such machines fly, this is not the book for you. We have some that, of course, because we couldn’t tell the story without it, but we kept it to a minimum. I guarantee that you will come to the last page very tired and weary and delighted to have survived so many close calls and to have lived on the Moon for three days. He wrote this with his poet’s heart, not with his engineer’s brain, and result is different than any space book I’ve ever read … and I’ve read them all. You’ll meet the original astros, the wives and children who carried such a lonesome load while their men were gone, thrill at the race with the Soviet Union in the troubled Cold War days, laugh in triumph and grieve in defeat with the people in the early, dangerous days of space exploration as somehow this nation accomplished the impossible, and sent a dozen men to walk on the Moon. And you’ll get a great trivia question answered. Everyone knows what Neil Armstrong’s FIRST words on the Moon were, but what were the LAST words said there by an astronaut, Capt. Gene Cernan, commander of Apollo 17? So, strap on a Saturn V, enjoy the ride and let us hear from you. Don Davis

Customer Reviews

Enthusiasm and candour. Among the best atronaut books.
Up there with the Michael Collins biography as one of the best astronaut books, this first-person tale of Gene Cernan's NASA career engages not least because of the drama of his three famous missions.

Co-author Davis has helped Cernan tell a complicated story in easy to understand language. Throughout, one picks up on the sheer enthusiasm of this astronaut: his awe and wonder at what he was lucky enough to do. Often self-depracating, he admits difficult moments - the horror of the spacewalk outside Gemini 9 and the frightening malfunction as he approached closer to the Moon than anyone before during Apollo 10, but conveys extremely well the controlled elation of the triumphant Apollo 17, including his and mankind's last steps on the Moon ... for now.

There are thirty-seven photos, the usual mix of family and space-related, the latter set containing little new for the Apollo enthusiast but no less relevant for that.

Do give this book a try. It's clear, interesting and bubbling over with enthusiasm.

An excellent insight - read it and share in the wonder!
Forget the "attacks" on some other astronauts (and in my reading I found no attack on Jack Schmitt, quite the opposite). Forget just wanting to read about Apollo. DO read this book for a personal and honest account of how one man felt and how he journeyed from his roots to another world.

I grew up watching the space race from the UK and this account of it from the inside strikes true. I have read some other readers comments, who seem to think it was Captain Cernan's job to agree with them rather than say how he felt. I don't understand their desire for this.

I don't care that the author didn't get on with some of his colleagues - I don't get on with some of mine! For a truly genuine and exciting read, telling it from the heart and not from the populist point of view I have read little better about the USA space programme.

A Revealing And Intense Insight Into America's Space Program
Eugene Cernan flew in space three times,twice to the moon. He was pilot of Gemini 9, Lunar module pilot of Apollo 10 and commander of Apollo 17. This is a book charting his missions and experiences from the early days of Gemini to the ultimate goal of landing on the moon. Bieng the last person to step foot on the surface.
It's one hell of a book! exiting and well written. Another book you won't be able to put down.
Only downside, picked up by other readers, is the lack of pictures from the missions and especially the final landing.
I didn't buy the book for the pictures. If you want pictures buy "A MAN ON THE MOON" the 3 volume set,but i'm not reviewing that. If you want a truly exiting,wild ride of book buy this one!!!!