Product Description

In fiction, spaceships are either flying saucers or large, sleek aerodynamic bullets. In the real world, humanity's first true spacecraft was an unpresupposing cylinder, barely large enough to accommodate three astronauts. The Command and Service modules made up the Apollo spacecraft - an integration of more than 3 million precision components, comprising the most intricate machine ever created by mankind. Each Apollo spacecraft was an amazing amalgamation of state-of-the-art high technology and hand worked craftsmanship. During each Apollo mission attention was focused on the astronauts, with their marvellous spacecraft impinging on the public's awareness only at take-off and splashdown. But during all the days of each mission the Apollo Command and Service Modules performed faithfully and almost flawlessly, 24 hours a day, keeping three men alive and comfortable, maintaining communications, and monitoring themselves, as well as the astronauts, the Earth and the Moon. With this book, for the first time the public can become acquainted with the Apollo spacecraft in detail and learn the story of its design and construction. Full colour drawings in exacting detail provide and inside and out views of the Command and Service Modules complete with details of construction and fabrication. The Apollo spacecraft is the most intricate and exacting machine ever built, and it had to be as near to perfect as it could be made, every time. With over 3 million components, a performance record of 99.9 per cent would still leave 3,000 parts that could fail - any one of which might result in the deaths of the crew. With the exception of Apollo 13, the spacecraft lived up to expectations on every lunar mission, and even Apollo 13, after a major explosion, managed to circle the Moon and bring its crew home safely. This is a book long overdue; the care and completeness with which it has been created speak for themselves. Thanks to the dedication and hard work that have gone into this book, we can now truly appreciate the magnificent machine that was the Apollo spacecraft and marvel at the achievements of the many thousands of engineers and technicians who stayed on Earth but were on the mission every step of the way.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #253078 in Books
• Published on: 2004-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

Review
"This is an informative book with very good clear illustrations. Space enthusiasts will want a copy on their reference bookshelves..." -- Spaceflight, December 2003. "...a remarkable little book...full of fascinating detail..." -- The Observatory, February 2004.

Customer Reviews

Virtually complete !
Big on pictures, short on words. For those interested in the construction and details of the Apollo Command/Service Modules, this book is amazing. Full of computer generated images of every aspect of the CSM it is a modellers heaven.
The author must have spent hundreds of hours painstakingly entering numbers to render these images.
If I only have one critisism of this title, it is the fact that I was left wanting a "Virtual Apollo" on CD-ROM to explore for myself ! Had the CD-ROM completed the package, this would have been a five star item !

I pray that the author is working on a Lunar Module version at this very moment.

Excellent engineering images of the Apollo CM and SM
A truly superb book which shows a tremendous amount of technical detail on the Apollo Command and Service modules.
I hope the author is doing a similar treatment of the Lunar Module. My recommendation? If you are a space tech enthusiast this book is a must have. Buy it and enjoy the many pictures. If you need further descriptions get it from the NASA web sites but these pictures are unique.

A must-have for space technology buffs
This is a marvelous compendium of drawings, as is the companion volume on the Lunar Module. Three quibbles only: some of the drawings could use a scale indicator (say, a virtual rod with a standard length) and astronaut figures would be helpful sometimes. I was a bit disappointed at not being able to read the markings on the CM control panels (as you can in the LM volume). But these are minor points.

Looking at these books really took me back to the days of Apollo. I can't help thinking that a similar effort today would not be workable, and not just in terms of funding/organisation/motivation, but in terms of technology as well!