First Man vividly re-creates Armstrong's life and career.

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Product Description

On 20 July 1969, the world stood still to watch 38-year-old astronaut Neil Armstrong become the first person ever to walk on the Moon. Perhaps no words in recent human history became better known than those few he uttered at that historic moment. Upon his return to Earth, Armstrong was honored and celebrated for his achievement. But he was also misunderstood. As authorized biographer James Hansen reveals in this fascinating and important book, it was the act of flying that had driven Armstrong rather than the pull of the destination, from his distinguished career as a fighter pilot in the Korean War right through to his most famous mission. Drawing on flight logs, family and NASA archives and over 125 original interviews with key participants, First Man vividly re-creates Armstrong's life and career in flying, from the heights of honor earned as a naval aviator, test pilot and astronaut, to the dear personal price paid by Armstrong and, even more so, by his wife and children, for his dedication to his vocation. It is a unique portrait of a great but reluctant hero.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32499 in Books
• Published on: 2006-06-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 784 pages

About the Author
Dr James R. Hansen is Professor of History at Auburn University, Alabama. He is the author of eight books on the history of aerospace including a study of the Apollo program's lunar landing method.

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Customer Reviews

A must for everyone interested in space exploration!
My first memory of watching TV (aged 4) was the lunar landing in 1969. Ever since then, I have been interested in the technology (now seemingly primitave) and characters of the people who made this possible - most significantly Neil Armstrong. This book is long overdue, and portrays Armstrong as a down to earth (pardon the pun) person, who probably finds the adulation rightly accorded to him as difficult to understand as he simply would view being the first man on the moon as fulfilling his job. The book deals in detail with Armstrong's painstaking flight training, including combat missions over Korea in the 50s, and also explores the relationship between him and the two other members of Apollo 11 with interesting insights. The story of how Armstrong became first out of the lunar module in preference to Buzz Aldrin is explained in full. The book only increases my admiration for the first man, and given the thoughtful and precise way in which his story has been told I recommend this book to you.

Fascinating because the subject matter is
Space geeks will adore this book; the non-scientific will sometimes struggle. This is a book packed with scientific, military and aeronautical details that can at times be rather bewildering. The detail of research is verging on the obsessive. But then the point of this authorised biography was to set the records straight (as far as possible - and Armstrong himself read through the various drafts to check facts, but not to change opinions or impressions).

But if you persevere through the occasional fog of stats and details, there is much to enjoy about this. In particular, the few chapters describing (almost minute by minute) the heroic Apollo 11 flight are gripping. One of those instances where knowing what happens doesn't diminish the excitement (especially after knowing what happened to Apollo 1 and Apollo 13). There are also (a few) fascinating insights into the inner-workings and politics of NASA - as well as the rivalries between the various astronauts: eg the impact on Buzz Aldrin of being the SECOND man on the moon. But Armstrong seemed to float in orbit above all of those problems and was just driven 'to get the job done'.

What is striking is how hard Armstrong is a person actually to get to know. An incredibly reserved and private (though not necessarily shy) person he is - reading this book won't necessarily help one to understand what makes the man tick. But then that's probably because few ever have completely. He clearly suffered horribly when his daughter died and his first marriage disintegrated - but they seem to have driven him further into himself and his work, rather than to other people.

So I enjoyed this book, even though i glazed over from time to time because of the pervasive detail and less than felicitous prose. This is an important record of an extraordinary life.

Astonishing
The anticipation of this book made it almost impossible for the book itself to completely satisfy and on many levels the author does seem to fall quite short of the mark.

What is obvious is that Neil Armstrong was, and still is, an intensely private man and also a very humble human being who fully understood and appreciated the enormous effort it took to place he and Buzz Aldrin on to the Moon and return them safely.

History will hopefully remember Neil for the exceptional individual he is and respect, finally, how he has dealt with the fame of being 'The First Man', with quiet dignity.

Maybe it's because of his nature that this book ultimately falls short on the human level. I don't feel as though I know Neil Armstrong any more now then before I read about his quite remarkable life. I still don't know who Neil Armstrong really is, what he actually felt as he planted that first step or how he felt when gazing back at us from the surface of the Moon.

If this to be the only chronicle of Neil's life then it is a tragedy.