Clare L. Deming

I’ve read a handful of books that detail the history of the U.S. space program, and this was one that I picked up on sale some time ago. Moon Shot by Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton (with Jay Barbree) follows the story of these two astronauts through the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs, and a little beyond (paid link). Read on below to see what I thought.

Here is the blurb:

On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, and the space race was born. Desperate to beat the Russians into space, NASA put together a crew of the nation’s most daring test pilots: the seven men who were to lead America to the moon. The first into space was Alan Shepard; the last was Deke Slayton, whose irregular heartbeat kept him grounded until 1975. They spent the 1960s at the forefront of NASA’s effort to conquer space, and Moon Shot is their inside account of what many call the twentieth century’s greatest feat—landing humans on another world. Collaborating with NBC’s veteran space reporter Jay Barbree, Shepard and Slayton narrate in gripping detail the story of America’s space exploration from the time of Shepard’s first flight until he and eleven others had walked on the moon.

The focus of this book was more narrow than some other ones that I’ve read on the history and experiences of the early U.S. space program. While it does outline the larger political environment and events of the 1950s and 1960s that were instrumental in the creation of NASA and the public support of the space race to some extent, someone who isn’t already familiar with the history might not get the full picture from this book. The story follows the two astronaut authors and details their personal challenges as they trained to fly their missions. Other important events are included, but without as many details as might be found elsewhere.

Overall I enjoyed this book because it provided a more personal perspective on that time and even extended into the Skylab and the Apollo-Soyuz projects. The only part that I didn’t like was how the ending cut suddenly to a political rant about the NASA budget and goals from near the time this book was published. The tone of this section was different, and as it turns out, SpaceX and other private companies have made many of these complaints irrelevant now.

If you search for this book, you may find a similarly titled one by astronaut Mike Massimo that is more about what he learned about himself and how to live based on his experiences in space.

Have you read any other books about the history of the space program that you would recommend? Let me know in the comments (above).

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