The Last Man on the Moon: Astronaut Eugene Cernan and America's Race in Space by Donald A. Davis & Eugene Cernan

Author:Donald A. Davis & Eugene Cernan
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Technology & Engineering, Space Flight to the Moon - History, Space Flight to the Moon, Cernan, Science & Technology, Space Race - History, History, General, United States, Manned Space Flight - History, Astronautics, Historical, Biography & Autobiography, Project Apollo (U.S.) - History, Astronauts - United States, Astronautics - United States - History, Space Race, Engineering (General), Eugene
ISBN: 0312199066
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 1999-01-02T05:00:00+00:00

THE TOP DOGS OF NASA had been sitting on a secret for more than two months. Armed with readouts that showed Apollo 7 was a total success, they were ready to answer the Soviets and that pesky Zond. Slight change in plans, folks: Apollo 8 is going to the Moon.

The first item was to figure out who would be aboard. Apollo 8 was Jim McDivitt’s flight, but he and his crew had trained long and hard to master every facet of their assigned mission, which was to take the Saturn V up with a complete command and lunar module package and wring it out in a full-bore Earth orbit practice run. Deke gave Jim the first right of refusal on the revised mission, and wasn’t unhappy when McDivitt turned it down, choosing to stay with his original task. The decision surprised the hell out of me. I thought the whole purpose of being an astronaut was to go to the flippin’ Moon, but Jim said “Nope” to the offer of a lifetime.

Deke then asked the next guy in line, Herr Frank Borman, and that tightly wound little sumbitch almost left skidmarks up Slayton’s back in his rush to the launch pad. On Apollo 9, Borman, Mike Collins and Bill Anders were to repeat McDivitt’s CSM-LM workout, but in a deep space Earth orbit, and Frank couldn’t dump that chore fast enough.

So the crews of 8 and 9 were flipped, with one change. Mike Collins had inherited a bad back from a ride on an ejection seat years ago and needed an operation to fix his spine. While he was still wearing a neck brace, wondering if he would ever fly even as much as a Piper Cub again, Jim Lovell took his place on the new Apollo 8 crew. Mike was devastated when he learned that he would miss the first Moon trip.

The choices made at that point also contributed to the string of historic circumstances which led to Neil Armstrong taking the first steps on the Moon. McDivitt’s backup on the original Apollo 8 was Pete Conrad, who would have rotated three missions later to command Apollo 11. Instead, when Jim passed on the Moon ride, and was bumped back to Apollo 9, his backup team, with Pete in command, shifted back along with him. Pete eventually commanded Apollo 12. Neil, who was Borman’s backup on the original Apollo 9, moved ahead by one important notch when Borman did, and three missions later, he flew Apollo 11.

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