The Mission of a Lifetime
Lessons from the Men Who Went to the Moon
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4.3 • 3 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Award-winning former investigative reporter Basil Hero chronicles the life lessons humanity can learn from the twelve remaining Apollo astronauts who went to the Moon.
In rare in-depth interviews, the twelve remaining lunar explorers, for the first time, talk at length about the real right stuff; the true source of courage, leadership, and the quiet patriotism that it took to risk their lives going to the moon. Hero begins each chapter with key life lessons that readers can gain from these honorable men whom he calls the Eagles. He describes how they mastered their emotions and learned to conquer their fears through techniques that can be used from the classroom to the boardroom.
More importantly their voyages to the Moon led them to the most incredible discovery of all: our home planet and its precious place in the universe. They fear for Earth's future and offer sensible solutions to its mounting crises and the path to future space exploration.
In The Mission Of A Lifetime, the Eagles share their wisdom and urge us to reframe our view of Earth to theirs: no identifiable nations, borders, or races; just Earthlings working together as a collective civilization.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hero, a former investigative reporter for NBC, shares stirring reflections from nine of the 12 surviving astronauts, out of 24 in all, who walked on or orbited the moon. Mostly former test pilots, they had to prove themselves, through a battery of tests and interviews, to be brave but not daredevils, confident but not arrogant, and independent but also team players. Hero highlights how they conquered fear during the Apollo 12 moon landing, pilot Alan Bean concentrated on his instrument panel, not the lunar surface outside his window and were irrevocably changed by their experiences. For instance, when the Apollo 8 crew broke away from Earth's gravitational field and looked back on the planet, they had a new sense, in astronaut Jim Lovell's words, of "how insignificant we really are." Hero takes care to give due credit to NASA, for how it "simulated every conceivable scenario" before missions, solved problems (ensuring the Apollo 13 astronauts' survival after an explosion onboard damaged the spacecraft), and handled disasters (the fire on Apollo I that killed three astronauts). The astronauts' humility, leadership, and belief in the common good shine through this lucid portrait, an inspiring book for any earthling.)
