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HONR 269I
To the Moon and Back: The Apollo Program
Spring 2019
Required Readings

Some readings of media items would take more than an hour to read carefully or to view or listen to completely. In such cases, students are not expected to spend more than an hour on the assignment. For readings, they should first briefly skim the reading and then allocate their time wisely to maximize their learning of key ideas. Rapid reading is almost always a better idea than careful reading, since the key is to learn important things that you can bring to your group discussion (with other students who did not read the same reading). For media items (video or audio), viewing or watching just the first hour is the best idea (unless otherwise noted).

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.

• A: 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 3, Chapter 1.
• B: 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.
• C: 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.
• D: 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 Chapter 2, which is available on ELMS.

• A: 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..
• B: 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.
• C: Loyd S. Swenson Jr., James M. Grimwood and Charles C. Alexander, This New Ocean: A History of Project Mercury, NASA History Series, 1989. This is the authoritative history of Project Mercury, America’s first human space program. Read Chapter 5.
• D: 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.

• A: 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).
• B: 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.
• C: John M. Logsdon, The Apollo Decision and its Lessons for Policy-Makers, George Washington University, 1970. This paper offers a contemporaneous view from the foremost scholar of the political history of the Apollo program.
• D: 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 Chapter 2.

• A: 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.
• B: Rushmore DeNooyer (director), Sputnik Declassified, NOVA, 2007. This television documentary provides an inside story of the management of the early Soviet and American space programs.
• C: 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.
• D: 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.

• A: 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.
• B: Read COX Chapter 9 (note that this and subsequent chapters from COX are NOT available on ELMS).
• C: 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, 107 and 108.
• D: John C. Houbolt, et al., Manned Lunar Landing Through the Use of Lunar-Orbit Rendezvous, Volume 1, NASA Technical Report NASA-TM-74736, 1961. This is a detailed design document by the foremost advocate of the Lunar Orbit Rendezvous approach to the lunar landing mission.

• A: 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 Chapter 5, which is available on ELMS.
• B: 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.
• C: 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 Chapter 12, which is available on ELMS.
• D: Courtney G. Brooks, James M. Grimwood and Loyd S. Swenson, Jr., Chariots for Apollo: A History of Manned Lunar Spacecraft, NASA History Series, 1979. This book is the authoritative history of the development of the Apollo Command, Service and Lunar modules. Read Chapter 5.

• A: Courtney G. Brooks, James M. Grimwood and Loyd S. Swenson, Jr., Chariots for Apollo: A History of Manned Lunar Spacecraft, NASA History Series, 1979. This book is the authoritative history of the development of the Apollo Command, Service and Lunar modules. Read Chapter 6.
• B: 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 Chapter 5, which is available on ELMS.
• C: 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.
• D: 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.

• A: 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 6.
• B: 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.
• C: 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.
• D: 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.

• A: 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 Chapter 6.
• B: 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 Chapter 9.
• C: Christopher Riley (director), First Orbit, The Attic Room, 2011. This free online documentary tells the story of the first human spaceflight, by Yuri Gagarin of the Soviet Union.
• D: 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 2 Chapter 9.

• A: Michael Collins, Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut’s Journeys, Farrar Straus and Giroux, 1974. This book is widely acclaimed as the best of the Apollo astronaut memoirs. Read Chapter 3, which is available on ELMS.
• B: Read CHAIKIN Chapter 2.
• C: 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 least the first hour.
• D: 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.

• A: Robert Gaffney (director), Bridge to Space. This is a NASA film about the preparation for the Apollo 6 Mission at the Kennedy Space Center.
• B: 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.
• C: 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 Chapter 5, which is available on ELMS.
• D: 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 Chapter 8, which is available on ELMS.

• A: Read COX Chapters 18 and 19.
• B: 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 at least the first hour.
• C: 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 Chapter 5.
• D: C.H. Woodling, et al.; Simulation of Manned Space Flight for Crew Training, Apollo Experience Report, NASA Technical Report NASA TN D-7112, 1973. This is one of a series of summative reports written near the end of the Apollo Program, this one focused on mission simulation.

• A: Charles W. Mathews, Collective Knowledge Gained from Gemini, AIAA Third Annual Meeting, 1966. This paper offers the NASA Gemini Program Manager’s contemporaneous view of what was learned from that program.
• B: 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.
• C: 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 Chapter 12.
• D: 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 (mouse over the title to see the episode number; episode 1 ends when the Apollo 1 episode begins).

• A: 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.
• B: Manned Spacecraft Center, Gemini Summary Conference, 1967. This edited conference proceedings summarizes different aspects of what was learned in the Gemini Program. Read Chapter 9.
• C: 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.
• D: 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.

• A: National Reconnaissance Office, Project UPWARD: The NRO and NASA, Draft of Chapters 17 and 18 of the NRO History, 1976. This reviews the now-declassified history of the use of spy satellite technology by NASA during the Lunar Orbiter and Apollo programs.
• B: 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.
• C: 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.
• D: 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 Acivities) and then skim the rest.

• A: 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.
• B: Read COX Chapter 14.
• C: Floyd L. Thompson (chair), Report of the Apollo 204 Review Board, NASA, 1967. This is the official report of the board that investigated the Apollo 1 fire that killed three astronauts before Apollo ever flew in space. Read Part 4.
• D: Read CHAIKIN Chapter 1.

• A: David R. Scott and Alexi Leonov, Two Sides of the Moon: Our Story of the Cold War Space Race, St. Martins Griffin, 2004. This is an unusual instance of the "astronaut book" genre that is co-authored by the commander of Apollo 15 and the cosmonaut that the Soviet Union had selected for their first lunar mission. Read Chapter 3.
• B: Dimitriy Kiselev (director), Spacewalker (Russian, with English subtitles), Bazelevs Production, 2017. This recent cinematic release dramatizes the Voskhood 2 mission that marked the last point at which the Soviet Union clearly led in human spaceflight during the Apollo era.
• C: 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 3 Chapter 9.
• D: 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 Chapter 5.

• A: Tom Hanks (producer), The Sixties (miniseries), CNN Video, 2014. Watch episode 8 (1968).
• B: Carole Fink et al., 1968, The World Transformed, Cambridge University Press, 1998. This book provides an international perspective on the momentous events of 1968. Read Chapter 3.
• C: Tom Brokaw, Boom!: Voices of the Sixties; Random House, 2007. This popular book captures the voices of prominent individuals reflecting on significant events in the 1960’s. Read Chapter 1.
• D: Mark Kurlansky, 1968: The Year that Rocked the World, Ballantine, 2004. This is a chronological recounting of the major events of 1968. Read Chapter 11.

• A: Read CHAIKIN Chapter 3.
• B: 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 Chapter 15.
• C: Jeffrey Kluger, Apollo 8: The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon, Henry Holt and Company, 2017. This is a recent retelling of the first human expedition to go beyond Earth orbit. Read Chapter 7, which is available on ELMS.
• D: 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.

• A: 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 Chapter 2.
• B: Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin Aldrin, John H. Glenn Lecture in Space History: 40th Anniversary of Apollo 11, 2009.
• C: Read COX Chapter 24.
• D: Read CHAIKIN Chapter 5.

• A: Read CHAIKIN Chapter 6.
• B: Manned Spacecraft Center, Apollo 12 Mission Report, 1970. Read Chapter 9 (Pilots' Report).
• C: 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.
• D: Read COX Chapter 26.

• A: 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. Watch at least the first hour.
• B: Read COX Chapter 27
• C: Read CHAIKIN Chapter 7.
• D: Edgar M. Cortright (chair), Report of Apollo 13 Review Board, NASA, 1970. This is the official report of the committee that investigated the mid-flight explosion on the Apollo 13 Service Module. Read Part 4.

• A: Read CHAIKIN Chapter 11.
• B: 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.
• C: 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 Chapter 5.
• D: Eric M. Jones and Ken Glover (eds.), Apollo Lunar Surface Journal. This Website contains annotated transcripts from the lunar surface periods during the six Apollo missions that landed on the Moon and a wide range of associated materials. Read Geology Station 2 on Mt. Hadley Delta and browse the rest. Note that there is audio and video available that you can play as you read.

• A: 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 Chapter 8.
• B: Read CHAIKIN Chapter 13.
• C: Ben Feist, The Last Mission to the Moon. This site presents a multimedia reconstruction of the entire 12-day Apollo 17 mission that draws together many of the multimedia sources created during that mission. Start the replay at 145:10 (click either button to join, and then use the timelines at the top of the screen to click to 145 hours 10 minutes into the mission) and watch for at least an hour.
• D: Harrison Schmitt, A Voyage to the Moon and its Major Discoveries (seminar talk), Lunar and Planetary Institute, 2017. 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.

• A: 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 10.
• B: 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 Chapter 15.
• C: 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.
• D: 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.

• A: 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.
• B: Asif A. Siddiqi, Competing Technologies, National(ist) Narratives, and Universal Claims: Toward a Global History of Space Exploration, Technology and Culture, 51(2), 2010. In this article, a prominent historian of the Soviet space program argues that space history is perhaps more beholden to nationalist perspectives and technological determinism than it should be.
• C: MIT, Apollo: Reflections and Lessons (panel presentation), 2009. This retrospective panel, recorded shortly before the 40th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, brought together Apollo-era people from NASA and the Kennedy administration in an effort to put the activities and contributions of the Apollo program in context. Skip to the start of the panel (which is at 34 minutes in the video) and then watch for at least one hour.
• D: 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.