European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - July 17, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                A a Nasa Nell amr>9lfoog Buzz Aldrin sets up the Early Apollo scientific experiments package on the Moon 25 years  uplifting Moon program that hit the ground by Terry Bisson special to los Angeles times a a Man on the Moon the voyages of the Apollo astronauts by Andrew Chaikin Viking. Deke . Manned space from Mer it Cury to the shuttle by Donald k. A de key slay Tan with Michael Cassutt St. Martins press forge. Moon shot the inside Story of Amert cars race to the Moon by Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton with Jay Barbree and Howard Benedict Torii or publishing remember when Man went to the Moon you. May have missed it. Lots of us did the summer of 1969 was tipped steeply toward the future and for those of us who were certain that the . Empire was in its final Days who were making sandwiches for the Radical underground or packing our bags for the Back country communes and for millions of the less alienated As Well Neil Armstrong a first step onto another world seemed already ancient history. A couple of White Guys on the Moon a Flag held out w it i wire it was More artefact than Harbinger and to prove it there was the voice of the trickster himself Richard Nixon looping Back through space congratulating himself on behalf of All humanity. I thought then that the Moon deserved better. I. Think today that Apollo deserved  Andrew Chaikin Points out in. A Man on the Moon a Apollo was the last great act this country played out of optimism of looking Forward to the  but the America that Kennedy pointed toward the Moon in 1961 was not the America that Arr Rived there in 1969. It had been shattered and transformed by youth revolt and racial conflict. The irony of Apollo was that its achievement spanned one of the Century a Pivotal decades and was overshadowed by another of humanity a watershed triumphs Vietnam the first decisive military Victory of a third world people Over a Coco Lornial superpower. A. None of this was the fault of Apollo which was one of the great voyages in human history and we a Are nothing if not a voyaging species. Together with the russians for the cosmonauts provided the stimulus of Competition even if they turned out to have been Only shadowboxing with the Moo Apollo yanked the w orld from suborbital to off planet flight re capitulating aviation a dizzying half Century of Progress in less than a decade. And did it let it be. Said with Grace and style and even a certain uncharacteristic for America and for science humility. It did no to have to turn out that Way. Apollo was a Compromise from the Start a hybrid of nazi rocketry cold War Competition lbs pork barrel politics and Kennedy Glamour with the astronauts As runway models. Yet it succeeded so magnificently because it had unique strengths. The russians failed. Organizationally not scientifically with competing agencies fighting behind a Wall of secrecy. The na-1 tonal aeronautics space administration by contrast not Only with the russians but with our own growing secretiveness operated in the Daylight with an extraordinary clarity of purpose and willingness to Experiment. Perhaps most fortunate Nasa was Independent of the military. By the time Nasa become a proper calcified hypocritical full blown bureaucracy Apollo was history and footprints were on the Moon. A Mercury gemini Apollo is one Story and it was to be expected that the 25th anniversary of Apollo 11 this summer would produce a fresh new spate of books. And i am pleased to note that one of them Andrew Chaikind a a Man on the Moon is More than worthy of its grand subject. A Clu Sikini a eight years of labor and hundreds of. Hours of interviews have yielded what will surely be considered the authoritative history of Apollo. A second newcomer Deke ranks w Ith Michael Collins earlier carrying the fire As one of the most vivid personal accounts. And a third Moon shot Falls Back and Burns in the atmosphere so to speak. All three books claim to Tel the inside secret Story of Apollo. But the real secret of Apollo is that there were no secrets. Indeed one wonders if we would have made it to the Moon on Kennedy a schedule a a before this decade is out a if the. Russians had been As open and we had known How far behind they were there afe details trivia personal glimpses such As astronaut Pete Conradus bet with italian journalist Oriana Fallad As to what his first words on the Moon would debut there Are no shocking revelations. Perhaps that is appropriate for unlike the poles or the upper Amazon the Moon was an explorers goal everyone had already seen. Chaikind a Book belongs to that new Breed of personalized history perhaps Best exemplified by the late Randy Shilts and the band played on or James Gleick chaos making a new science in which the scientific or political adventure is seen through the Lens of personality. Chaikin lets the astronauts a take us through the program and to the Moon but he does no to slight the lesser known characters some with peculiarly american names such As Chuck Berry Tom Paine and Christopher Columbus Kraft who built and ran Nasa Chaikind a a Man on the Moon starts with the Apollo i fire that claimed Roger Chaffee de White and the Man who might have been the first to walk. On the Moon Gus Grissom and ends with the Apollo 17 astronauts disgust at Nixon son the air dismissal of further space travel a this May be the last time in this Century that men will walk on the Moon. Moon shot covers More ground from the Mercury and gemini programs through the Apollo soyuz lineups and it looks promising As its ostensibly at least written by two of the top astronauts Deke Slayton and Alan Shepard. Shepard who was the Only one of the original Mercury seven to make it to the Moon combines in one person the High and sow Points of the program. Landing on the Moon with Apollo 14, he step out looks up at the Earth and surprising himself weeps like a child or rather like a Man. The next Day he t rival i Zes the whole experience by Swa 11 i no a Gol f Ball out of sight. The thing about Asiro bahts is that they All can Fly. The Only o be of the m w to seem s Esse it i Al to the Success of Apollo is the one who never made it to the Moon. It was one of the great fortunes of Apollo that Deke slay ton was grounded w i t h a heart i Arregu la atty. For in a father Slayton Nasa had a Man who could set the rotations pick the terms and make the Ducci Sions the astronauts  have accepted from a bureaucrat or a scientist. If a Man on the Moon is the authoritative Mas tar piece Deke is the Book i read in one gulp. Slay Ion who knew he was dying of cancer when he Starte d writing was Fortuna t e to find As a Coll abort Tor in Michael Cassutt a respected science fiction author Good enough to make himself transparent Dekeni reaches Back the furthest of any of the books. A in to say tones d ays As a 19-y car old Fly ing. B-25s 1 Over Monte Massirio. If Slayton sometimes scans the. Personal he a intimate about the hardware in every area of his life. He discusses with affect Ion and loathing not Only the Saturn and the lunar Landing module but also the f-1q0, the c-47, a Creaky military transport and the Studebaker Light six. One closes these books with regret. Humankind. May yet have a future in space but the Earth tethered shuttle program Isnit it. Mars Calls but no. One is answering. Its As if Columbus instead of returning to the new world had settled for Harbor cruises. As astronaut Stuart Roosa puts it a Apollo was our unfinished obelisk. Its like we started building this Beautiful thing and then we  neither America nor Russia could do it today. The blueprints for the Al engines Are lost and if you want to see the business end of a Saturn rocket you have to look into a Mirror at the smithsonian a air and space museum for even that giant Hall can Only hold half. If you want to watch a Saturn v lift off and hear the Roar As the heavens split open and feel the Earth shake As it slings a Man toward the Moon a wed its too late. You missed it. Terry sigs Cri is the Ault ror of boars disco in or fire and 1/ayago to the red planet