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INST 154
Apollo at 50
Spring 2020
Required Readings

The principal texts for this course are:

• CHAIKIN: Andrew Chaikin, A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts, Penguin Books, 2007. ($21 in paperback from Amazon).
• COX: Catherine Bly Cox and Charles Murray, Apollo, 1989. ($8 on Kindle from Amazon).

• There are no readings for this session.

• 1,4: Walter A. McDougall, The Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997. This book interprets the space race in the context of the cold war from both the American and Soviet perspectives. Read Chapter 12, which is available on ELMS.
• 2,5: Sidney Lumet (director), Fail Safe, Columbia Pictures, 1964. This film is a dramatization of a fictional nuclear crisis that illustrates the public perception of the nuclear threat highlighted by the then-recent Cuban Missile Crisis. Available on ELMS for two weeks from January 28. Watch at least the first hour of the movie.
• 3,6: John Lewis Gaddis, The Cold War: A New History, Penguin Press, 2005. A comprehensive history of the cold war that in this course we will use to study the origins of the conflict. Read pages 48-60 of Chapter 2, which is available on ELMS.

• 1,4: Read COX Chapter 1. This chapter (but no others from the textbook) is available scanned on ELMS just in case you encounter delays in obtaining a copy.
• 2,5: Walter A. McDougall, The Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997. This book interprets the space race in the context of the cold war from both the American and Soviet perspectives. Read Chapter 7, which is available on ELMS.
• 3,6: Philip Kauffman (director), The Right Stuff, 1983. A classic astronaut-focused depiction (with considerable dramatic license) of the early days of NASA during Project Mercury, and of the test pilot ethos that predates the creation of NASA. Available on Netflix, and available on ELMS for two weeks from January 28. Watch at least the first hour.

• 1,4: John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, Meeting on the NASA Budget (audio recording), November 21, 1962. In this recorded meeting, requested by the NASA Administrator to block a bureaucratic end run by his Manned Spaceflight Director’s campaign in the press and elsewhere for additional funds, President Kennedy explains his reasoning for making Apollo a national priority (and he supports the NASA Administrator, leading the Manned Spaceflight Director to resign).
• 2,5: Dwayne A. Day, Pay No Attention to the Man with the Notebook: Hugh Sidey and the Apollo Decision, The Space Review, 2005. Read both parts and the primary source materials that are linked from the end of the second part. This is an in depth analysis of an early meeting between Kennedy and his advisers at which a moon landing was discussed as a possible response to the Soviet Union’s first human spaceflight, and at which a journalist was present. Seven weeks later Kennedy called for the Moon landing.
• 3,6: Roger D. Launius and Howard E. McCurdy (Eds.), Presidential Leadership and the Development of the U.S. Space Program, 1994, available as NASA Technical Report NASA-TM-1101007. This edited proceedings of a 1994 symposium contains an excellent description of the decision to go to the moon by the Kennedy administration. Read pages 95-112 of Chapter 2.

• 1,4: James L. Kauffman, Selling Outer Space: Kennedy, the Media, and Funding for Project Apollo 1961-1963, Oxford University Press, 1994. This book explores the public and policy discourse regarding the Apollo program during the 1960’s. Read Chapter 1, which is available on ELMS.
• 2,5: Overton Brooks, Recommendations re the National Space Program, Letter to Vice President Lyndon Johnson, 1961. This letter from the Chairman of the House Committee on Science and Astronautics urged that the President do “whatever is necessary to gain unequivocal leadership in Space Exploration.” Three weeks later, the President spoke before a joint session of Congress to call for a lunar landing within the decade.
• 3,6: Eric Berger, A Worthy Endeavor: How Albert Thomas Won Houston NASA’s Flagship Center, Houston Chronicle, 2013. This newspaper article describes both the practical and the political considerations that shaped the decision to build the Apollo mission control center in Houston, Texas.

• 1,4: Carl Alessi, Do we Want to go to the Moon or Not?: Dr. John Houbolt and the Decision for Lunar Orbit Rendezvous (2 parts), The Space Review, 2017. Also read part 2. This is a careful treatment of the “mode decision” that led NASA to bet the entire Apollo program on an approach that required orbital rendezvous at the moon to safely return the astronauts to Earth at a time when no orbital rendezvous had ever been tried anywhere.
• 2,5: Michael Annis, Space Rocket History podcast. This is a comprehensive audio history of the American and Soviet space programs that will at the time of the course is expected to be complete through near the end of the Apollo Program. Listen to episodes 106 and 107. In each case, you an stop listening at the end of the episode (there is more material after the end, but it is off topic).
• 3,6: Read COX Chapter 9 (note that this and subsequent chapters from COX are NOT available on ELMS).

• 1,4: David A. Mindell, Digital Apollo: Human and Machine in Spaceflight, MIT Press, 2008. This book describes the development of the onboard computers used on both the Command Module and the Lunar Module. Read pages 103 (from start of "Guidance to the Moon")-119 (to start of Gimbal Reliability) of Chapter 5, which is available on ELMS.
• 2,5: Mike Gray, Angle of Attack: Harrison Storms and the Race to the Moon, W.W. Norton & Company, 1992. This book provides an inside view of the relationship between the prime contractor and NASA during the development of the Command Module. Read pages 184-194 of Chapter 12, which is available on ELMS.
• 3,6: Christopher Riley, Duncan Kopp and Nick Davidson (producers), Moon Machines, Science Channel, 2008. This six-episode documentary television series describes six major hardware components of the Apollo Program (the rocket, the two spacecraft, the lunar rover, the computer, and the spacesuit). View the episode on the Command Module.

• 1,4: Christopher Riley, Duncan Kopp and Nick Davidson (producers), Moon Machines, Science Channel, 2008. This six-episode documentary television series describes six major hardware components of the Apollo Program (the rocket, the two spacecraft, the lunar rover, the computer, and the spacesuit). View the episode on the Lunar Module.
• 2,5: Thomas J. Kelly, Moon Lander: How We Developed the Apollo Lunar Module, Smithsonian Books, 2009. This is the definitive account of the design and construction of the Lunar Module, written by its lead designer. Read pages 51-70 of Chapter 5, which is available on ELMS. ELMS does not display this docuemnt well, so I recommend you download it and view it in Acrobat reader.
• 3,6: Charles C. Lutz, et al., Development of the Extravehicular Mobility Unit, Apollo Experience Report, Technical Report NASA TN D-8093, 1975. This report describes the development and capabilities of the backpack that provided life support for astronauts during moonwalks. Read pages 1-12 (stop at Integrated Protective Cover Layers), 16 (Atarting at The LCG)-19, and 34-43. Skip the detailed engineering drawings and tables.

• 1,4: Roger E. Bilstein, Stages to Saturn: A Technological History of the Apollo/Saturn Launch Vehicles, NASA History Series, 1996. This book is the authoritative history of the development of the Saturn V that launched the Apollo lunar missions. Read Chapter 7 starting at S-II configuration (which is about halfway down).
• 2,5: Christopher Riley, Duncan Kopp and Nick Davidson (producers), Moon Machines, Science Channel, 2008. This six-episode documentary television series describes six major hardware components of the Apollo Program (the rocket, the two spacecraft, the lunar rover, the computer, and the spacesuit). View the episode on the Saturn V.
• 3,6: Roger E. Bilstein, Stages to Saturn: A Technological History of the Apollo/Saturn Launch Vehicles, NASA History Series, 1996. This book is the authoritative history of the development of the Saturn V that launched the Apollo lunar missions. Read Chapter 2, which is about the evolution of the Huntsville team.

• 1,4: Charles D. Benson and William Barnaby Faherty, Moonport: A History of Apollo Launch Facilities and Operations, NASA History Series, 1978. The authoritative history of the development of the Kennedy Space Center. Read Chapter 6, which desribes the evolution of the mobile concept.
• 2,5: Jonathan H. Ward, Rocket Ranch: The Nuts and Bolts of the Apollo Moon Program at Kennedy Space Center, Springer-Praxis, 2015. This book focuses on the facilities used to prepare and launch an Apollo mission. Read pages 95-102 and 109-121 of Chapter 5 on the VAB and the mobile launcher, which is available on ELMS.
• 3,6: Jonathan H. Ward, Rocket Ranch: The Nuts and Bolts of the Apollo Moon Program at Kennedy Space Center, Springer-Praxis, 2015. This book focuses on the facilities used to prepare and launch an Apollo mission. Read pages 199-214 of Chapter 8 on life at the launch pad, which is available on ELMS.

• 1,4: Read COX Chapter 19.
• 2,5: Sunny Tsiao, We Hear You Loud and Clear: The Story of NASA’s Spaceflight Tracking and Data Network, NASA History Series, 2008. This book is the authoritative history of the NASA tracking network. Read pages 143-165 of Chapter 5.
• 3,6: David Fairhead, Mission Control: The Unsung Heroes of Apollo, Haviland Digital, 2017. This documentary explains the operation the Mission Control center in Houston from which the Apollo program was directed, introducing many of the people who worked there at the time. This is available on Netflix. Watch the first hour.

• 1,4: Kirk Wolfinger (director), Moonshot, TBS Productions, 1994. This five-episode documentary miniseries is based on a book of the same name by the two leaders of the Astronaut office in the Apollo era. Watch at the first hour.
• 2,5: Read CHAIKIN pages 27 to 43 (stop at the three dots) of Chapter 2.
• 3,6: Donald K. Slayton, Deke!: US Manned Space from Mercury to the Shuttle, Tom Doherty Associates, 1994. A memoir by the head of the Astronaut Office, who was responsible for crew selection on the Gemini and Apollo missions. Read Chapter 14, which is available on ELMS.

• 1,4: Manned Spacecraft Center, Gemini Summary Conference, 1967. This edited conference proceedings summarizes different aspects of what was learned in the Gemini Program. Read Chapter 2.
• 2,5: Tom Hanks (producer), From the Earth to the Moon, HBO, 1998. This 12-part television series is a comprehensive dramatization of the Apollo program that is largely faithful to the original events. Watch episode 1, which is available on ELMS (under "Library Streaming Media" in the "Modules" section).
• 3,6: Barton C. Hacker and James M. Grimwood, On the Shoulders of Titans: A History of Project Gemini, NASA History Series, 1977. This book is the official history of the program that preceded Apollo in which American astronauts mastered the critical tasks of rendezvous, docking, and extravehicular activity. Read pages 265-288 of Chapter 12, which describe the world's first rendezvous.

• 1,4: David S. Portree, Spacewalks that Never Were: The Gemini Extravehicular Planning Group (1965), Wired, 2013. This article sets the development of the plan for spacewalks in the Gemini program in the context of competition with the Soviets and preparation for Apollo, it reviews options that were considered but not conducted, and it describes the "EVA Crisis" that resulted from serious problems on three consecutive spacewalks.
• 2,5: Michael J. Neufeld and John B. Charles, Practicing for Space Underwater: Inventing Neutral Buoyancy Training, Endeavour, 39(3-4), 148-159. This journal article examines the “EVA crisis” during the Gemini Program in which astronauts on three consecutive missions were unable to work effectively outside their spacecraft, and how that problem was solved using underwater training.
• 3,6: NASA, Gemini 12 Mission, 1967. This NASA documentary describes the last mission in the Gemini program, when the difficulties encountered with spacewalks on earlier missions were finally sufficiently well understood to be overcome.

• 1,4: Tom Hanks (producer), From the Earth to the Moon, HBO, 1998. This 12-part television series is a comprehensive dramatization of the Apollo program that is largely faithful to the original events. Watch episode 10, which is available on ELMS (under "Library Streaming Media" in the "Modules" section). Note that the episodes in this series are uploaded two to a file, and that eopside 10 starts at 47.5 minutes into the file.
• 2,5: William David Compton, Where No Man Has Gone Before, NASA History Series, 1989. A history of the planning and execution of the scientific activities of the Apollo program. Read Chapter 3.
• 3,6: Charles P. Sonett, Report of the Ad-Hoc Working Group on Apollo Experiments and Training on the Scientific Aspects of the Apollo Program, NASA, 1963. This was the first serious study of what science the Apollo astronauts should perform on the Moon and what they would need to know. Subsequent studies with broader participation largely confirmed these initial ideas. Read through the end of page 16 (Geochemical Activities) and then skim the rest.

• 1,4: Read COX Chapter 14.
• 2,5: Tom Hanks (producer), From the Earth to the Moon, HBO, 1998. This 12-part television series is a comprehensive dramatization of the Apollo program that is largely faithful to the original events. Watch episode 2, which is available on ELMS (under "Library Streaming Media" in the "Modules" section). Note that the eposodes in this series are uploaded two to a file, and that episode 2 starts halfway through the file.
• 3,6: Read CHAIKIN Chapter 1.

• 1,4: Tom Hanks (producer), From the Earth to the Moon, HBO, 1998. This 12-part television series is a comprehensive dramatization of the Apollo program that is largely faithful to the original events. Watch episode 4, which is available on ELMS (in modules, streaming library services, Episodes 3-4). Note that the episodes in this series are uploaded two to a file, and that epside 4 starts halfway through the file.
• 2,5: CHAIKIN pages 56-76 (stop at the three dots) of Chapter 3.
• 3,6: W. David Woods, How Apollo Flew to the Moon (Second Edition), Springer-Praxis, 2011, available online through the University Libraries. This book provides a detailed walkthrough of the mechanics of an Apollo mission. Read pages 151-165 of Chapter 6 about translunar navigation (be sure you have the 2011 version; page numbers are different in the 2008 version).

• 1,4: David M. Harland, Exploring the Moon: The Apollo Expeditions (Second Edition). Springer-Praxis, 2008, available online through the University Libraries. This is the best explanation of the planning and execution of lunar surface activities. Read Chapter 2.
• 2,5: Read COX Chapter 25, which is about the anomalies during the lunar phase of the Apollo 11 mission.
• 3,6: Read CHAIKIN pages 184-204 (stop at 5:57 PM) of Chapter 5, which describes the first Moon landing.

• 1,4: Read CHAIKIN pages 260 (from 5:38 AM)-280 (to Friday, November 21) of Chapter 6.
• 2,5: Tom Hanks (producer), From the Earth to the Moon, HBO, 1998. This 12-part television series is a comprehensive dramatization of the Apollo program that is largely faithful to the original events. Watch episode 7, which is available on ELMS ((in modules, streaming library services).
• 3,6: Read COX Chapter 26, which is about the launch and the precision landing.

• 1,4: Read COX Chapter 27, which is about the accident.
• 2,5: Read COX Chapter 29, which is about the recovery from the accident.
• 3,6: Ron Howard (director), Apollo 13, Universal Pictures, 1995. This is a classic dramatization of the Apollo 13 mission in which the service module exploded during the trip to the Moon that is largely faithful to the original events. This is available on ELMS. Watch the first hour.

• 1,4: MIT, Apollo 15’s Worden and Mission Planner El Baz, 2017 In this recent video, two of the people depicted in the Apollo 15 episode of the HBO Series From the Earth to the Moon reminisce about their actual experiences together. Watch the first hour.
• 2,5: Read CHAIKIN pages 414-433 of Chapter 11, which covers the standup EVA and the first moonwalk.
• 3,6: David M. Harland, Exploring the Moon: The Apollo Expeditions (Second Edition). Springer-Praxis, available online through the University Libraries. This is the best explanation of the planning and execution of lunar surface activities. Read pages 132-163 (to Starting the Final Day) of Chapter 5, which covers the second moonwalk. Be sure to use the page numbers printed on the page; Acrobat numbers the pages differently for this PDF file.

• 1,4: Grant Heiken and Eric Jones, On the Moon: The Apollo Journals, Springer Praxis, 2007, available online through the University Libraries. This book is a narrative recounting of the lunar surface activity that is based on the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal. Read pages 364 (from Shorty Crater and the Orange Soil)-384 (to A Significant Find) of Chapter 8, which describes one of the most significant geology discoveries in the Apollo program.
• 2,5: Harrison Schmitt, A Voyage to the Moon and its Major Discoveries (seminar talk), Lunar and Planetary Institute, 2017. Watch the first hour. This lecture, by the only scientist to walk on the Moon, explains how the operational and scientific aspects of Apollo came together, using the Apollo 17 mission as an example.
• 3,6: Read CHAIKIN pages 505 (from the three dots)-526 (to 10:18 PM) of Chapter 13, which describes the planning for Apollo 17 and the initial EVA activity.

• 1,4: Asif A. Siddiqi, Challenge to Apollo, NASA History Series, 2000. This academic history is the first comprehensive description of the Soviet space program during the Apollo era. Read pages 205-219 and 227 to 236 (stop at The Big Space Plan) of Chapter 6, which are about the key people in the Soviet space program. Note that pages are numbered here as they are on the actual pages; Acrobat counts the pages differently.
• 2,5: Asif A. Siddiqi, Challenge to Apollo, NASA History Series, 2000. This academic history is the first comprehensive description of the Soviet space program during the Apollo era. Read pages 386 (starting at The Decision to go to the Moon)-408 of Chapter 9, which is about the Soviet lunar landing decision. Note that pages are numbered here as they are on the actual pages; Acrobat counts the pages differently.
• 3,6: Rushmore DeNooyer (director), Sputnik Declassified, NOVA, 2007 (this ends at 53 minutes and then repeats). This television documentary provides an inside story of the management of the early Soviet and American space programs.

• 1,4: Dimitriy Kiselev (director), Spacewalker (Russian, with English subtitles), Bazelevs Production, 2017. Watch he first 75 minutes. Available on ELMS (in Modules). This recent cinematic release dramatizes the Voskhod 2 mission that marked the last point at which the Soviet Union clearly led in human spaceflight during the Apollo era.
• 2,5: Boris E. Chertok, Rockets and People, NASA History Series, 2005. This is an insider’s view of the Soviet space program during the Apollo era. Read pages 259-273 of Volume 3, Chapter 9.
• 3,6: Brian Harvey, Soviet and Russian Lunar Exploration, Springer-Praxis, 2007, available online through the University Libraries. This book describes Soviet Moon programs, including unmanned missions, the planned Zond human circumlunar mission and the planned human landing on the Moon. Read pages 128-141 of Chapter 5. Note that pages are numbered here as they are on the actual pages; Acrobat counts the pages differently.

• 1,4: Asif A. Siddiqi, Challenge to Apollo, NASA History Series, 2000. This academic history is the first comprehensive description of the Soviet space program during the Apollo era. Read pages 678 (from The N1 in Flight) to 697 of Chapter 15, which describes the flight history of the Soviet N-1 rocket. Note that pages are numbered here as they are on the actual pages; Acrobat counts the pages differently.
• 2,5: Dan Clifton (director), The Engines that Came In from the Cold, Ideal World Productions, 2001. This documentary describes the development of the rocket engine that had been developed for the Soviet N-1 Moon rocket, which later were sold to an American company for use by the U.S. military.
• 3,6: Boris E. Chertok, Rockets and People, NASA History Series, 2005. This is an insider’s view of the Soviet space program during the Apollo era. Read Volume 4 Chapter 3, which is a personal account from the designer of the control systems for the Soviet lunar landing program.

• 1,3,5: Nicholas de Monchaux, Spacesuit: Fashioning Apollo, MIT Press, 2011. This is a collection of essays that explore Apollo from a design perspective, with the Apollo spacesuit as its central focus and metaphor. Read Chapter 19, which is available on ELMS.
• 2,4,6: Horst W. J. Rittel and Melvin M. Webber, Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning, Policy Sciences, 1973. This paper introduced the idea of "wicked problems."

• Two draft term papers will be assigned to each student by the preceding Friday morning.