Product Description

CD-ROM and Book. After the unfortunate accident which befall Apollo 13 the job of getting NASA back to the moon fell on the shoulders of America's oldest astronaut Alan B. Shepard. Shepard had been grounded since the flight of Freedom 7 in 1961 due to an inner ear disorder. After undergoing treatment the 'Icy Commander' was bumped to the top of the flight roster and appointed to command the flight of Apollo 14 to the Fra Mauro highlands of the moon. Spending nearly ten hours on the moon in February 1971 Shepard and Lunar Module pilot Edgar Mitchell conducted a wide range of scientific experiments including Shepard's unplanned test of the flight of a golf ball in lunar gravity. Once more the world sat and watched in awe as the United States successfully put two more men on the moon's surface while Stuart Roosa orbited above in the Command Module Kitty Hawk. Shepard and Mitchell hiked almost to the top of a 400 foot crater before running out of time and returning to the Lunar Module Antares. Apollo 14 returned to the Earth with a treasure trove of lunar data and over 100 pounds of moon rocks. In this book, some of the rare official documentation of the voyage of Apollo 14 is collected and made commercially available for the first time.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #403965 in Books
• Published on: 2001-01-20
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 332 pages

Review
"Likely to appeal to someone who likes to delve deeply into the workings of NASA..." -- Astronomy Now, August 2001. "An essential read, Apogee should be applauded for producing this material in such an attractive format..." -- Spaceflight, August 2002.

About the Author
Robert Godwin, Editor

Customer Reviews

AMAZING VALUE
I have eagerly awaited this volume in the "NASA Mission Reports" series, and I was not disappointed. I was particularly keen to see the content of the CD which accompanies the book, and I once again found myself wondering how they can produce such a detailed package for such a modest price. (No, I am not related to the author!) Almost the entire Apollo 14 EVA television record is somehow crammed into the CD, together with the complete Hasselblad camera record (in orbit and on the Moon). The quality of the TV coverage is necessarily compromised to fit it all in, but it is undoubtedly an important historical record. The book itself is in the usual format (reprints of original NASA reports all conveniently gathered together) and the Crew Debriefing Report (only declassified in 1983) is particularly interesting.... Few of the NASA astronauts made a greater contribution to the Apollo programme than Alan Shepard, and if he was more an aviator/pioneer than a geologist, far better to give him command of one of the early pioneering Moon-landing missions, leaving the extended missions for the astronauts who were keen on geology. Edgar Mitchell may have been a "rookie" but he was also one of the two most skilled lunar module pilots, having specialised in the development of the LM and its many systems (along with Apollo 13's Fred Haise). Less knowledgeable astronauts might not have solved the technical problems which almost scuppered the Apollo 14 landing. And "rookie" Stuart Roosa was good enough to be reasigned as back-up command module pilot on Apollos 16 and 17, and would almost certainly have commanded Apollo 20 had it not been cancelled.

To sum up: "APOLLO 14" is unbelievably good value, and would still be at twice the price!

More Detailed History From Godwin
Those of you who have read my other reviews in the Godwin series will know that I quite like has books!

This one is , however , slightly overshadowed (for me) by the fact that we know that many in NASA thought that Al Shepard had muscled himself and his crew into a position that they really didn`t deserve on merit - Shepard had only had 15 minutes in space in Freedom 7 in `61 and Mitchell and Roosa were complete rookies (neither of whom flew again). Apollo 14 is noteable for being the only mission in the series without a Gemini veteran aboard.

Also, the other well known books which comment on the mission give one a feeling that more could have been achieved, but wasn`t. Shepard (unlike the commander of the next mission, Dave Scott) was not known for his love for the more academic side of the space business, vis, geology etc.

Nevetheless, the mission was a success in it`s achievements, although it was soon eclipsed by the scientific, technical and PR successes of Apollo 15 and the following missions.

Godwin`s treatment of the subject allows those familiar with his books to find what interests them fairly quickly and, again, the book adds detail generally to my burgeoning space-related library.

In short, if you liked the others, you`ll enjoy this!

A great series of books
Well reccomended this book is an excellent insight into something which future generations will look back with awe, and wonder how did they do that all those years ago. Well this has the answers.