DESTINATION MOON

Pyle's useful survey of the Apollo moon program includes a brief summary of each flight and attempted flight of the great effort, from the fatal fire on Pad 34 in 1967 to the landing of a scientist on the moon in Apollo 17 in 1972. Apart from the narrative, each summary contains a modest but excellent selection of photographs and long passages of the recorded dialogue of the astronauts themselves. Much of the latter hasn't appeared in a volume as easily accessible to the general public as this one. Here are such well-known lines as "Houston, we have a problem" and "The eagle has landed." More important, here are a great many less--famous utterances. Many of them are technical, and all variously reflect the stresses, emotions, triumphs, andworries of men who really were boldly going where nobody had gone before. Space collections of all sizes should welcome Pyle's book, and smaller ones will find it invaluable.