Apollo 8: The NASA Mission Reports [With Windows CD-ROM]

If you're really into the history of space flight (as I am), then this is the first entry in a series that you will love. These aren't really for someone with a casual interest in the subject, but are primarily intended for the dedicated enthusiast who wants to learn more about the missions than can be obtained from more ordinary references. The various volumes in the Apogee Mission Reports series (covering Apollo, Gemini, Mercury and Shuttle flights) reprint a lot of difficult to find NASA documentation for the various flights. For each flight, there are reprints of the original press kits, with biographical details of the prime and backup crews, the planned schedule for the flight, information on the flight plan, etc. One of the things that I find most interesting is that the press kit lists some of the options for the flight in the event that things didn't go entirely to plan. It's interesting to see the advance preparations that were made for in flight emergencies, or for possible alternative missions. Other things featured in the mission reports are the original debriefings of the crews after the flights, where the details of the mission just ended are discussed with the crews and their opinions on how the mission went (and suggestions for future improvements) are solicited. Each book also includes a CD-Rom, with extra material. In the case of the Apollo 8 disk, it includes a copy of the official NASA film on Apollo 8, an interview with Apollo 8 Command Module Pilot Jim Lovell, and scans of lots of pictures from the flight. Similar extras are on the CD-ROMS (or DVDs) on other books in the series. Some of the information in the press kits is slightly repetitive from one flight to the next, but there is plenty of really good stuff here for the enthusiast. Given that the original NASA documents are hard to find (and generally very expensive when they are available), the availability of this range of reprinted versions is a godsend - having a set is like having the NASA archives on your bookshelf! Hopefully, this series will eventually cover the entire history of American Manned Spaceflight. These reprints (together with the availability of the complete film/video from the missions on DVD from Spacecraft Films) are the best thing that ever happened for Space enthusiasts!

Reading these Apogee books is like leafing through a thick stack of mimeographs. Robert Godwin's decision to leave the documents essentially "as-is" (leaving spelling and punctuation errors, for example) and to publish as much relevant material as he could find in the archives (similar, but not identical reports) allows you, the reader, to process the information yourself, as if you had gone to the archives to do research. If as a reader you are uncomfortable with the idea of developing the narrative on your own out of this raw material, these books may not be for you.

The APOLLO 8 MISSION REPORT ... published by Apogee Books, are an excellent source for Space History buffs. The book includes a press kit from the flight, pre and post mission summaries, and a fabulous bonus CDROM which has the official NASA mission report movie lasting about 17 minutes or so. The CD also has some GREAT color and black and white photographs. All in all, these books are a must. I recently got the mission reports for Apollo 8,9 and 10 (10 has TWO movies and some stunning moon photography). I just found out that the Apollo 11 Mission report has just been released and is a TWO volume set (with Volume 2 released next week).I wholeheartedly recommend it!

Back in the thrilling days when we were about to see science fiction dreams come true [and foolishly believed that we were taking the "first steps out of the cosmic cradle", who could have believed that we would simply drop the ability once we acieved the goal] the news people would have all sorts of information at their finger tips, which would [often inaccurately] be distilled in newspapers and magazines. This book [and the available books on Apollo 9 and 10] contain the press kits and other material which the general public didn't have. The are full of technical information which you simply can't get anywhere else, and if you are a real space fan, they are absolutely invaluable. While general readers would find this material "dry" and "overly technical" [to say the least- e.g. did you wonder about the function of each of those "service arms" which retracted from the Saturn V at launch? you'll find that kind of thing here] space fans will find this a treasure trove. Sure the formatting is sloppy, no slick presentations here, but this is a reproduction of the actual material NASA produced, and I don't think the quality of the pictures [which have an early xerox look to them] was ever better in the press materials. If you want great pictures get "Full Moon," if you want the personal stories of the astronauts, get Andrew Chaikin's A Man on the Moon, this material is different and valuable in a different way [and if you're a space nut you'll want all of these and more.The CD ROMs in each of these books are the "official" NASA films on the missions and have the pompous feel of such material, [they're shown endlessly in off times on the NASA channel, incidentally]. They are a good companion to the technical material in the books. Incidentally the books say the CD ROMs only play on Windows machines, but if you have a Mac with up to date web browser, and Quick Time you can play these as well.The thing which really gets me about these is that they place you back in those days, most of the posts are pre-launch material talking about the missions in future tense. If you think these missions were routine, just check out the material on the different aborts and "alternate missions" which might have taken place if something had gone wrong.