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EDITORIAL INFORMATION

In 1961, only a few weeks after Alan Shepherd completed the first American suborbital flight, President John F. Kennedy announced that the United States would put a man on the moon before the end of the decade. The next year, NASA awarded the right to meet the extraordinary challenge of building a lunar excursion module to a small aircraft company called Grumman in Long Island, New York. Chief engineer Thomas J. Kelly gives a first-hand account of designing, building, testing, and flying the Apollo lunar module. It was, he writes, "an aerospace engineer's dream job of the century." Kelly's account begins with the imaginative process of sketching solutions to a host of technical challenges with an enphasis on safety, reliability, and maintainability. He catalogs numerous test failures, including propulsion-system leaks, ascent-engine instability, stress corrosion of the alluminum alloy parts, and battery problems, as well as their fixes under the ever-present constraints of budget and schedule. He also captures the anticipation of the first unmanned lunar module flight with Apollo 5 in 1968, the exhilaration of hearing Apollo 11's Neil Armstrong report that "The Eagle has landed," and the pride of having inadvertently provided a vital "lifeboat" for the crew of the disabled Apollo 13. From researching and writing the contract-winning proposal through six successful moon landings and returns, Kelly provides a compelling look at the protean efforts of the nearly 7.000 Grumman workers who together created the most important component of the first manned spaceflights.

(Extracted from the back cover).

GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

-Contents.

-List of Illustrations.

-List of Acronyms.

-1. A Difficult Delivery.

-Part 1. Winning.

-2. We Could Go to the Moon.
-3. The LM Proposal.
-4. The Fat Lady Sings.

-Part 2. Designing, Building, and Testing.

-5. Engineering a Miracle.
-6. Mockups.
-7. Pushing Out the Drawings.
-8. Trimming Pounds and Ounces.
-9. Problems, Problems!
-10. Schedule and Cost Pressures.
-11. Tragedy Strikes Apollo.
-12. Building What I Designed.

-Part 3. Flying.

-13. First LM in Space: Apollo 5.
-14. The Dress Rehearsals: Apollos 9 and 10.
-15. One Giant Leap for Mankind: Apollo 11.
-16. Great Balls of Fire! Apollo 12.
-17. Rescue in Space: Apollo 13.
-18. The Undaunted Warrior Triumphs: Apollo 14.
-19. Great Explorations: Apollos 15, 16, and 17.
-20. Our Future Slips Away.

-Epilogue: The Legacy of Apollo.

-Notes.

-Index.