Apollo 8
The Mission That Changed Everything
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A nation in need of hope, the most powerful rocket ever launched, and the first three men to break the bounds of Earth: Apollo 8 was headed to the moon. In 1957, when the USSR launched Sputnik I, the first man-made satellite to orbit Earth, America’s rival in the Cold War claimed victory on a new frontier. The Space Race had begun, and the United States was losing. Closer to home, a decade of turbulence would soon have Americans reeling, with the year 1968 alone seeing the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy as well as many violent clashes between police and protesters. Americans desperately needed something good to believe in, and NASA’s mission to orbit Earth in Apollo 8 and test a lunar landing module was being planned for the end of the year. But with four months to go and the module behind schedule, the CIA discovered that the USSR was preparing to send its own mission around the moon — another crucial victory in the Space Race — and it was clearly time for a change of plan. In a volume full of astonishing full-color photographs, including the iconic Earthrise photo, Martin W. Sandler unfolds an incredible chapter in U.S. history: Apollo 8 wouldn’t just orbit Earth, it would take American astronauts to see the dark side of the moon.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The Apollo 8 mission unfolds within the broader context of history in this expansive photo-filled volume that focuses as much on the journey into space as it does the events unfolding back on Earth. Sandler provides an overview of world events preceding the mission, including the Vietnam War, the Cold War, the space race, and social and political protests. First-person descriptions from the astronauts recount their lift-off, their first viewing of the Earth rising, and their journey to the dark side of the moon. Beyond the vivid minute-by-minute details of the voyage itself, the volume explores the colossal impact of the mission on the American psyche. For many, Sandler explains, the images of Earth from space served as "a symbol of the Earth's fragility, a reminder of just how small and insignificant the Earth's place in the universe truly is." Ages 10 up.
