EDITORIAL INFORMATION

This is the third book in a series of special monographs prepared by the NASA History Office. The series Monographs in Aerospace History is designed to provide a wide range of concise monographs referred to the history of aeronautics and astronautics, which may be of use to aerospatial historians. This monograph begins with a short narrative section on the program Apollo. It is followed by a summary, mission by mission, of the Apollo flights. It concludes with a series of key documents referred to the program, in a facsimile reproduction. The intention of this monograph is to provide a basic history together with primary documents that can be useful to the NASA personnel and to anyone wishing to get information on the Apollo project.

(Extracted from the preface.)

GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

-Preface.

-Table of Contents.

-Introduction.

-The Kennedy Perspective on Space.

-The Soviet Challenge Renewed.

-Reevaluating NASA's Priorities.

-The NASA Position.

-Decision.

-An Assesment of the Decision.

-Gearing Up for Project Apollo.

-The Program Management Concept.

-How Do We Go to the Moon?

-Prelude to Apollo: Mercury.

-Bridging the Technological Gap: From Gemini to Apollo.

-Satellite Support of Apollo.

-Building Saturn.

-The Apollo Spacecraft.

-The Lunar Module.

-Trips to the Moon.

-A Meaning for Apollo.

-Notes.

-The Missions of Apollo.

-Apollo Statistics.

-Key Documents in Apollo History.

-Index.

OUR REVIEW

Most noteworthy in this book is the fact that it includes, in a facsimile format, a selection of the most important documents within the history of Apollo. It is in fact a number of letters, memorandums and other documents that shaped the political, technical and budgetary decisions, and that made the American lunar adventure possible, or that punctuated its most critical moments. This section covers 80 of the 119 pages of the book. To provide enough historical general references, the book offers a summary of the history of the Apollo project, brief enough to provide the reader with a global vision of the program in a short reading time, and wide enough so as not to omit important data. The summary with the Apollo misions is likewise useful for quick reference, as it offers the main data of each flight in a card format.