Rocket Men

 The first men on the Moon were an odd couple indeed. According to American author Craig Nelson, Buzz Aldrin was told by a superior in the US air force that he was too competitive, too insensitive to others and likely to become “a hot-shot egotist”. Aldrin cried and thanked him for his assessment.

Neil Armstrong fares little better, described as “intense, aloof, enigmatic and unknowable even by the people who know him”. Michael Collins, the third member of Apollo 11’s crew, initially tried to foster some camaraderie but “could only get so far”, claims Nelson in Rocket Men.

Our view of the Moon landings might be very different had the first step been taken by the genial commander of the subsequent mission, Pete Conrad. But America’s Cold War space race with the Russians combined with NASA’s seemingly carefree approach to safety (statistically speaking, 6,000 parts were likely to fail during a launch) ensured that Apollo 11 made history. 

Nelson’s account of this pivotal Apollo mission is a straightforward history, albeit one that’s thoroughly researched and brisk in the telling. Yet he takes an all-too-brief foray into less well-trodden territory.

NASA’s bright young engineers were the natural heirs of those who worked on the atomic bomb in New Mexico a quarter of a century earlier, and the antecedents to Silicon Valley’s computer pioneers. All three engineering accomplishments, he argues, could only have been afforded by “a great nation” and are sadly taken for granted today. 

The book contains few new revelations to excite Apollo obsessives, but for the rest of us this is as good an introduction as any to mankind’s greatest adventure.

Graham Southorn is the editor of Sky at Night Magazine