Mike Gray (1) (1935–2013)

This was a heavily biased account of North American Aviation's building of the Saturn V second stage and Apollo command and service module. Don't get me wrong, it was quite interesting, but the bias was pretty apparent. I was particularly interested in the account of the Apollo 1 fire, which was is what eventually led to Storm's reassignment away from Apollo. The book seems to indicate that the astronaut's use of Velcro in the capsule was more responsible for the fire than any number of the design and manufacturing defects. And the use of the inward opening hatch? Grissom and NASA demanded it. The book goes to great lengths to paint Storms and NAA in the best light possible.

On a side note, I am very annoyed that the author misspells the name of the SM-64 Navaho missile every single time it appears. Also, why would you misquote Grissom from the night of the fire? I understand this was written in 1992, but I hate that this book doesn't even give us an accurate quote during a pivotal event.… (plus d'informations)

I picked up this book because it was listed as one of the bases for the HBO Series, From the Earth to the Moon about the Apollo program. I'm a space junkie, and loved that series, and I loved this book. It's the story of Harrison Storms, who as an aeronautical engineer for North American Aviation, had a key part in designing and construction the Apollo Command Module. But it's not just a tale of triumph and ingenuity, but the tragedy of Apollo One and how it effected Storms. I absolutely loved this book. Especially since it gave us a view on a perspective usually neglected--not that of the astronauts or even NASA, but those in American private enterprise that built the ships that sent Americans to the Moon and back--sometimes at heartbreaking personal cost.… (plus d'informations)