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EDITORIAL INFORMATION

How did the Apollo astronauts ever get to set foot on the Moon? Who was really involved in leading perhaps the world's most complex and amazing technological feat? The autobiography of Dr. Robert C. Seamans, Jr., former NASA Deputy Administrator, tells a fascinating part of this story.

Dr. Seamans worked closely with James E. Webb and Hugh L. Dryden in a highly succesful "management triad" for much of the Apollo program during the 1960s. After leaving NASA, he continued his distinguished career in Federal service as Secretary of the Air Force and head of the Energy Research and Development Agency in the 1970s.

This book is highly valuable reading for those interested in aerospace, government, and military history. Seamans' insights may be particularly useful for today's managers, as they will learn how at least one person handled previously novel challenges in science, technology, and public policy.

(Extracted from the press release)

GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

-Contents.

-Foreword. Willis H. Shapley.

-Preface and Acknowledgments.

-I. Liftoff.

-II. The NASA Years.

-III. The Air Force Years.

-IV. Reentry.

-Appendix A: Selected Documents.

-Appendix B: Bibliographical Appendix.

-Appendix C: Chronology for Robert C. Seamans, Jr.

-Index.

OUR REVIEW

The history of astronautics not only consists in dates and events, missions and achievements. It also consists in the particular vision of the people who participated in each one of its enterprises and above all, that of those who had a main role in the denouement of the events that are now remembered with veneration.

Aiming at Targets is the autobiography of Dr. Robert C. Seamans Jr., former Deputy Administrator of the NASA in the crucial era of the moon conquest. This is then the history of a man who lived the decision making of the process that shaped the space program of an entire era first hand, a program that at the time transformed our vision of the conquest and exploitation of the Cosmos.

Seamans floods us with a wealth of anecdotes, not only about when he used to work for the NASA, but also about when he was at the American Air Force. Although he had already left the NASA when Apollo-11 reached the Moon, his pioneering presence from almost the beginnings of the agency served him to intensely live the gradual transformation that would give rise to the victory in the lunar race.

Like in any autobiography, its pages are full of emotive moments, such as the accident and subsequent investigation of the fire of Apollo-204, as well as his participation in the Viet Nam conflict. In other moments, Seamans will tell us much more familiar things. Everything will contribute to get to know him better and to help to place him in the place corresponding to him in the aerospatial and military history of our century.