by Robert Stone
“Victory over space” “Again a Victory over Space,” NYT (November 16, 1966).
The excitement surrounding “Again a Victory,” NYT.
“The months ahead” “Johnson Cautions on Moon Mission: Apollo’s Task ‘Complicated’ He Honors Astronauts,” NYT (November 24, 1966).
CHAPTER FIVE: EARTHRISE
Once each month George Alexander, interview with Robert Stone (June 2, 2015).
The small El Lago suburb Bill Anders, interview with the authors (May 13, 2015).
In the midst of Robert Seamans, interview with Martin Collins and Henry Lambright (December 16, 1988), Glennan-Webb-Seamans Project Interviews 1985–1990, NASM.
NBC’s Hackes explained NBC News Special Report (January 28, 1967), black-and-white kinescope, NBC Universal Archives, clip no. 51A17171_s01.
“This is a time” CBS News Special Report (January 27, 1967), https://www.c-span.org/video/?422730-1/cbs-news-special-report-apollo-1-disaster.
The astronaut families gathered James R. Hansen, First Man: The Life of Neil A. Armstrong (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2005), p. 307.
Anonymous air-traffic controllers Frank Borman and Robert J. Serling, Countdown: An Autobiography (New York: Silver Arrow/William Morrow, 1988), p. 171.
A strong odor of burned paper Alexander, interview with Robert Stone.
“I want you to do it” James E. Webb, interview with T. H. Baker (April 29, 1969), Lyndon Baines Johnson Library Oral History Collection.
When reporters questioned Julian Scheer Mark Bloom, interview with Robert Stone (March 25, 2015).
Deemed the memo not worth pursuing W. Henry Lambright, Powering Apollo: James E. Webb of NASA (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995), p. 158.
“We are the apostles ” James Webb, memo to Robert Seamans (April 1, 1967), in Powering Apollo, p. 159.
“I don’t want you doing anything” Frank Borman, interview with Catherine Harwood (April 13, 1999), NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Program, https://www.c-span.org/video/?293191-1/frank-borman-oral-history-interview.
“You are asking us” William J. Normyle, “NASA Revises Manned Flight Plan,” Aviation Week and Space Technology (April 24, 1967), p. 29; Investigation into Apollo 204 Accident: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on NASA Oversight of the Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives, Ninetieth Congress (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1967), p. 446.
The members were prepared to vote Lambright, Powering Apollo, p, 169.
A West Virginia representative “Calls for NASA Shake-Up,” Virgin Islands Daily News (April 11, 1967); Investigation into Apollo 204 Accident, p. 457.
“Bunch of bums” Thomas O. Paine, interview with Robert Sherrod (October 7, 1971), in “Before This Decade Is Out…”: Personal Reflections on the Apollo Program, ed. Glen E. Swanson (Washington: NASA, 1999), p. 36.
By mid-1967 Kathleen Weldon, “Fly Me to the Moon: The Public and NASA,” Huffington Post (February 25, 2015).
“Do you wish” John T. Dugan (as John Kingsbridge), with Gene L. Coon, Gene Roddenberry, and John Meredyth Lucas, “Return to Tomorrow,” Star Trek, NBC television (February 8, 1968).
But half a century later Dwayne Day, “From the Shadows to the Stars: James Webb’s Use of Intelligence Data in the Race to the Moon,” Air Power History 51, no. 4 (Winter 2004).
Robert Gilruth argued Robert Gilruth, interview with James Burke in The Other Side of the Moon, BBC Two television documentary (July 20, 1979).
Chose to disobey Webb’s request Thomas O. Paine, interview with Burke in The Other Side of the Moon.
Webb could carry on the fight James E. Webb, interview with Burke in The Other Side of the Moon.
The animals were returned “Zond 5,” NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive (March 2017), https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraftDisplay.do?id=1968-076A.
“Three Apollo astronauts may” “Apollo Plans Set for Circling Moon,” NYT (September 15, 1968).
“Program in decline” “Lost: One Space Booster,” Newsweek (September 23, 1968).
A KGB colonel Robert Pear, “Double Agent, Revealed by FBI, Tells of Technique,” NYT (March 4, 1980); Arlin Crotts, The New Moon: Water, Exploration, and Future Habitation (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014), p. 56, n. 30.
Anders dutifully Anders, interview with the authors.
He would rather die than screw up Anders, interview with the authors; Anders, interview with Jim Hartz, in “LBJ Library & Museum Presents Apollo 8 Reunion with Frank Borman, James Lovell, William Anders” (April 23, 2009), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wa5x0T-pee0.
Jules Bergman pressed Borman Frank Borman, comments at NASA press conference (December 7, 1968), KHOU Channel 11 Collection, Box 6804, Reel 23, Houston Area Digital Archives, Houston Public Library.
The political protests seemed Frank Borman, interview with the authors (June 11, 2015).
“It’s unfortunate” Walter Cunningham, The All-American Boys (New York: Macmillan, 1977), pp. 62–63.
Manhattan Project physicist Ralph Lapp “Physicist Asks Delay of Apollo 8,” UPI, Detroit Free Press (December 9, 1968); Ralph Lapp, interview in “The Coming Trip Around the Moon,” The New Republic (December 14, 1968); “Apollo 8 a Death Trap? Borman Denies It,” AP, Tucson Daily Citizen (December 10, 1968).
Option of taking suicide pills “Historic Apollo 8 Flight Perfect in Early Stages,” Calgary Herald (December 21, 1968).
Bill Anders sensed the rocket moving Anders, interview with the authors; Anders in “An Evening with the Apollo 8 Astronauts: Annual John H. Glenn Lecture Series” (November 13, 2008), NASM, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2h_FtLzrrU.
“That’s the big decision!” CBS News Special Report, “The Flight of Apollo 8” (December 21, 1968).
“Jeez, there’s got to be” Michael Collins, interview with Michelle Kelly (October 8, 1997), NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project.
“The Death Watch” Susan Borman, interview in “Astronaut Wives Club,” BBC Radio 4 (November 9, 2007).
Late that evening Andrew Chaikin, A Man on the Moon (New York: Penguin, 1994), pp. 124–125; Borman and Serling, Countdown, p. 295; Robert Zimmerman, Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, the First Manned Flight to Another World (New York: Four Walls, Eight Windows, 1998), pp. 177–178.
Frances “Poppy” Northcutt Poppy Northcutt, interview with the authors (June 10, 2015).
The Moon’s landscape monotonous Anders, interview with the authors.
It had never been discussed Anders, interview with the authors; Apollo 8 Onboard Voice Transcription (Houston: Manned Spacecraft Center, 1969).
Margaret Mead declared Margaret Mead, interview with Wilton S. Dillon (September 13, 1974), Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; Mead made a similar statement in the film Our Open-Ended Future (Moffett Field, CA: NASA Ames Research Center, 1973) as part of a NASA lecture series “The Next Billion Years: Our Future in Cosmic Perspective.”
“Peace on Earth” Billy Watkins, Apollo Moon Missions: The Unsung Heroes (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2006), p 70.
“We’ve got to do it up” Apollo 8 Onboard Voice Transcription, p. 173.
Cronkite momentarily thought Walter Cronkite, interview with Kevin Michael Kertscher, “The Making of ‘Race to the Moon’: Apollo 8 Documentary Producer Tells All,” Space.com (October 20, 2005); “Telecasts from Apollo 8,” http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/moon-telecasts-apollo-8/.
“No. Leave it off. Great.” Apollo 8 Onboard Voice Transcription, p. 196.
“Well…quite a finish” CBS News Special Report, “The Flight of Apollo 8” (December 24, 1968).
Novelist William Styron was celebrating William Styron, introduction in The View from Space: Amer
ican Astronaut Photography 1962–1972 by Ron Schick and Julia Van Haaften (New York: Clarkson Potter, 1987).
Scheer took a call Robert J. Donovan and Raymond L. Scherer, Unsilent Revolution: Television News and American Public Life, 1948–1991 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992), p. 51; Paul G. Dembling, interview with Edward S. Goldstein, Gregory C. La Rosa, and David S. Schuman in “Present at the Creation: Paul G. Dembling, Author of NASA’s Founding Legislation,” NASA 50th Magazine: 50 Years of Exploration and Discovery (2008).
Associated Press released “Space Race,” AP, The Post-Crescent, Appleton, WI (December 27, 1968); Tom Wicker, “In The Nation: Walter Mitty and Mount Everest,” NYT (December 29, 1968).
Time’s editors Zimmerman, Genesis, p. 235.
Northcutt started to receive fan mail Northcutt, interview with the authors.
Featured her in a cover story “Women Arise,” Life (September 4, 1970): p. 20.
CHAPTER SIX: MAGNIFICENT DESOLATION
“We saw the Earth” “3 Moon Voyagers Are Hailed Here in Huge Turnout,” NYT (January 11, 1969).
Struggled with depression Buzz Aldrin, interview with Robert Stone (November 19, 2014).
There was a standoff Aldrin, interview with Robert Stone.
As a compromise Wilson P. Dizard, Jr., Inventing Public Diplomacy: The Story of the U.S. Information Agency (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2004), p. 111; Anne M. Platoff, “Flags in Space: NASA Symbols and Flags in the U.S. Manned Space Program,” The Flag Bulletin 46, no. 5–6 (September–December 2007); Billy Watkins, Apollo Moon Missions: The Unsung Heroes, (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2006), p. 57.
The journals of Lewis and Clark George Plimpton, “Neil Armstrong’s Famous First Words,” Esquire (December 1983): p. 118; Julian Scheer, letter to George Low (March 12, 1969).
“We should dream no small dreams” “3 Moon Voyagers Are Hailed Here in Huge Turnout,” NYT.
Paine had been at Cape Kennedy Thomas O. Paine, interview with Eugene M. Emme (September 3, 1970), NASA Oral History, Folder 4186.
The comments had been made Robert Reinhold, “Kennedy Puts Earth Needs Ahead of Space Program,” NYT (May 20, 1969); “NASA Chief Hits Talk by Kennedy,” The Washington Post (May 21, 1969), p. A12.
Muskie believed “Kennedy Has Inside Track for 1972, Muskie Thinks,” Nashua Telegraph (July 1, 1969), p. 29.
Suggested a symbolic gesture Paine, interview with Emme.
It crashed to the ground “Soviets Suffer Setbacks in Space,” Aviation Week and Space Technology (November 17, 1969), pp. 26–27.
“Unjust, evil, and futile” Martin Luther King, Jr., speech, “Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam” (April 30, 1967).
“God’s children” Martin Luther King, Jr., speech, “Where Do We Go from Here?” (August 16, 1967).
Tom Paine was attending Thomas O. Paine, “We Are Also Americans,” 21st Century (May–June 1989), pp. 30–31; Julian Scheer, “The Sunday of the Space Age,” The Washington Post (December 8, 1972), p. A26.
Position paper “The Space Program,” Southern Christian Leadership Conference Position Paper (July 14, 1969), SCLC Records 1964–2003, Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University.
Paine said he had come CBS News, 16mm film footage of Poor People’s Campaign protest (July 15, 1969).
“Watching Columbus” John Logsdon, interview with authors (May 11, 2015).
He boldly predicted “Lovell Says Soviet Attempts to Extract Specimens of Moon,” NYT (July 16, 1969).
“I suddenly understood” Theo Kamecke, interview with Robert Stone (May 5, 2015).
In newsrooms Walter Cronkite, CBS News, “Man on the Moon: The Epic Journey of Apollo 11” (July, 16, 1969).
Its struggle to escape Earth’s gravity Lyndon Johnson, interview with Cronkite, “Man on the Moon.”
“I really forgot” Al Rossiter, Jr., “Apollo 11 Blasts Off for Historic Moon Voyage,” UPI wire story (July 16, 1969).
“Phooey” “Set Earth Priorities,” Florida Today from Cocoa, Florida (July 17, 1969), p. 11A.
Sargent Shriver “JFK Dream Comes True,” Florida Today from Cocoa, Florida (July 17, 1969), p. 11A; Richard S. Lewis, Appointment on the Moon (New York: Viking, 1969), p. 504.
“Do you think” ACC, interview with Cronkite, “Man on the Moon.”
“The hopes and the dreams” Gene Kranz, Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000), p. 283.
Armstrong later said Neil Armstrong, quoted in Apollo 11: Technical Crew Debriefing, July 31, 1969 (Houston: Manned Spacecraft Center, 1969), p. 60.
“A symbolic act” Lewis Mumford, “No: ‘A Symbolic Act of War…’ ” NYT (July 21, 1969), p. 6.
“How can anybody” CBS News, “Man on the Moon,” (July 20, 1969).
“Old-fashioned humanist” CBS News, “Man on the Moon,” (July 20, 1969).
Astronauts deemed Neil Armstrong, “The Moon Had Been Awaiting Us a Long Time,” Life (August 22, 1969): p. 25. Buzz Aldin, interview with Eric M. Jones (1991), https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/a11.evaprep.html.
He grinned John Noble Wilford, “Apollo Crew Appears Calm 11 Days Before the Mission,” NYT (July 6, 1969).
During a lull Dean Armstrong, interviewed in Neil Armstrong—First Man on the Moon, BBC Two (December 30, 2012).
Truman Capote William H. Honan, “Le Mot Juste for the Moon,” Esquire (July 1969).
“I need you” George Alexander, interview with Robert Stone (June 2, 2015).
“You’re not” George Plimpton, “Neil Armstrong’s Famous First Words,” Esquire (December 1983): pp. 116–118.
Lunar scientists theorized Leonard Reiffel, interview with authors (May 12, 2015).
“I didn’t hear that” Julian Scheer, “What About God? NASA Ignored Nixon’s Order,” Orlando Sentinel (July 20, 1989).
“Neil made me a promise” Kamecke, interview with Robert Stone. Kamecke said, “I never revealed it because I just thought it would be crude. I could imagine what the media would do with such a thing, since the media’s attitude was very weird in those days. A lot of them didn’t think too much about the space program.”
One-fifth of the world’s population Paul Harris, “Man on the Moon: Moment of Greatness that Defined the American Century,” Guardian (August 25, 2012).
Forcefully advised Frank Borman, “Memorandum to the President” (July 14, 1969), Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum; Frank Borman, interview with the authors (June 11, 2015).
“I believe firmly” Ray Bradbury, interview with Mike Wallace, CBS News, “Man on the Moon” (July 21, 1969).
Joyful and in tears Ray Bradbury, speech delivered upon being awarded the National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters (November 15, 2000); see also Bradbury’s public comments during appearance at Comic-Con (July 29, 2009).
“The tune of lunar gravity” Vladimir Nabokov, interview with James Mossman, Review, BBC Two (October 4, 1969).
Pointedly observed Harry Schwartz, “Capitalist Moon or Socialist Moon?” NYT (July 21, 1969).
“If the government” Ayn Rand, “Apollo 11,” Ayn Rand Reader (New York: Penguin, 1999), p. 133.
“It means nothing” “Reactions to Man’s Landing on the Moon Show Broad Variations in Opinions,” NYT (July 21, 1969).
“flying cover” Paine, interview with Emme.
CBS’s Bill McLaughlin 10:56:20 PM EDT 7/20/69 (New York: Columbia Broadcasting System, 1970), pp. 88, 111.
MAROONED! Mark Bloom, interview with Robert Stone (March 25, 2015).
An editorial writer Bob Evans, “Apollo 11 Crew Ready for Moon Landing,” segment for Sunday Morning, Canadian Broadcasting Company radio broadcast (July 20, 1969), archiv
ed: http://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/apollo-11-crew-ready-for-moon-landing.
“They are the sons” Hugh Sidey, “Marshalling the Good Guys,” Life (August 21, 1970): p. 2B.
Cape Town Sunday Times: Carin Bevan, “Putting Up Screens: A History of Television in South Africa 1929–1976,” (MHCS diss., University of Pretoria, 2008), pp. 111–119.
Pro-Soviet news outlets “The Moon Landing through Soviet Eyes: A Q&A with Sergei Khrushchev, son of former premier Nikita Khrushchev,” Scientific American (July 16, 2009); Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1969: Chronology on Science, Technology and Policy (Washington: NASA, 1970), SP-4014, p. 241.
East German television Sven Grampp, “Watching Television, Picturing Outer Space and Observing the Observer Beyond: The First Manned Moon Landing as Seen on East and West German Television,” in Television Beyond and Across the Iron Curtain by Kirsten Bönker, Julia Obertreis, and Sven Grampp (Newcastle on Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016), pp. 80–86.
Concerned about the tremendous expense Asif A. Siddiqi, Challenge to Apollo: The Soviet Union and the Space Race, 1945–1974 (Washington: NASA, 2000), p. 426.
Bill Plante CBS News, 10:56:20 PM EDT 7/20/69 (New York: Columbia Broadcasting System, 1970), pp. 144–145; Art Peters, “75,000 Miss Moon Landing; Rock in Rain to Motown ‘Soul’ Music,” Philadelphia Tribune (July 26, 1969), p. 22.
“The first non-racist moment” Chicago Defender (July 21, 1969).
May have seen Nona Smith’s letter: Nona E. Smith, “Pride in Identifying,” NYT (August 9, 1969).
A reporter present noticed “L.A. State Dinner Enjoyed by Black Figures,” Jet (August 28, 1969), p. 8.
Lawrence’s introduction Gladwin Hill, “Negro Among Four Chosen as Crew of Manned Orbiting Laboratory,” NYT (July 1, 1967).
“The overview effect” Frank White, The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987).
Poppy Northcutt, who served Northcutt, interview with the authors.
