A REAL STORY OF APOLLO
Reviewed in the United States on August 29, 2010
I am an Apollo veteran, most fortunate to have been on the front line of NASA's Apollo experience at the high-tech "Space Division" plant in Downey, California where every NASA/Apollo spacecraft (CSM & LES) was manufactured, assembled, tested and checked out in a totally "integrated systems dress rehearsal" process with the NASA astronauts on-board operating the controls. No other group at Downey, including NASA, prime contractors or sub-contractor personnel was more "up close and personal" with the completely assembled fully functional spacecraft, as well as with the designated NASA astronaut flight and backup crews than the engineering test teams in the "Spacecraft Checkout Group" of Apollo CSM Test & Operations.
While I acknowledge the honor of serving in senior management as the leader of "Spacecraft Checkout," I also hasten to acknowledge with sincere humility that whatever my personal contributions to this successful technical achievement, they only paled in comparison to the over-all contributions of our test teams, of Sr. Test Project Engineering managers, project/design & systems engineers, test conductors, test procedural writers, service & clerical personnel, ground support & quality control personnel, electronic data specialists, test pilots, and the many others who made up the "Spacecraft Checkout Group," ...as well as the contributions of all others who were dedicatedly performing on Apollo; not only those at Downey, but those at all other locations around the globe as well, that numbered in the tens of thousands, ...it was all of their noble efforts that led to the unqualified success of Apollo.
Over the past 4 decades I have virtually "SUFFERED" ...while reading or watching accountings of the Apollo program, and even cringed occasionally in utter despair at some of those offerings of shear speculation, misinformation and "sub-science" fiction. Now in all fairness, they weren't all like that; in fact some were quite good in their presentations. But just recently, I read "IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON, a challenging journey to tranquility, 1965 to 1969," ... by Francis French & Colin Burgess. In reading this book, I found myself living the Apollo Project all over again, ...I mean this book had us "down pat," as is said in reference to accuracy, ....it wasn't just about the preparation for the missions, ...it was also about the people; the human element behind the preparation, ...the anguish, the thrills, the glory and the despair, ...all told in such a manner that was logical, accurate, believable and straight-forward.
Another awesomely noteworthy point in my opinion is their reporting of various encounters involving the executive hierarchies of NASA and their contractor executives as well as members of the United States Congress. While I personally was not present during those interviews or incidents of which they report in this book, I can honestly report that I actually talked with most of those executives and congress-people during their visits with me for a "how-gozz-it" (status report), while at the same time escorting them around the test areas and control rooms at the Downey facility, ...and in my opinion the book's report of the descriptions of the individual oral expressions and demeanor of those persons were "right on target," and moreover (and also in my opinion), the book was also "right on target" to the real-time technical, personal and political events as reported by the book to have been occurring about the same time of those aforementioned encounters involving those executives and other personnel.
To be perfectly clear, there is no intent here on my part to comment or even discuss any of this book's research regarding matters concerning the personal lives of any of our brave astronauts. While certainly interesting and informative now (as discussed here in candid detail by the authors), the personal lives of the astronauts simply were not on "the radar" of most, if not all of the engineers and technicians on our teams. Each of the NASA Apollo astronauts without exception enjoyed a warm relationship with our test teams, and us with them! We looked them in their eyes and told them the spacecraft was ready; upon their own due consideration they ultimately took our word for it, jumped in "and went!" So it's just "plain & simple;" ...they are deserving of the credit, the accolades and the glory! They were then, are now, and always will be our heroes of whom we hold in exceptionally high regard for their courage, bravery and for their personal sacrifices, as well as for their relentless persistence, determination and tenacity to drive on and on; higher and higher and further and further, out through the deep unknown void of space and then return to make Apollo an unqualified success, thereby ultimately rewarding all of us the untold positive technical "fall-out" that even to this day still benefit the quality of human life throughout the world!
This book also gave us insight into those of whom we considered to be our adversaries at that time; the Russians. No matter what anyone may hear or say to the contrary, we were in a space race ...a "knock-down-drag-out" race to the moon, which we ultimately won. But as much as the triumph of our winning, this book also gave us an interestingly human look at the Russian Cosmonauts and those in support of their missions; their triumphs and their failures, their personal anguishes and concerns. Indeed, the book gave us cause to consider the humanity of those brave Russian space veterans as well as that of our own.
I am really impressed, and I must say I was glued to every page of the book, and I truly thank the co-authors for giving us Apollo space veterans a worthwhile accounting and summary of that very special part of our lives. The accuracy and overall quality of this book ..."IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON, a challenging journey to tranquility, 1965 to 1969," ... by Francis French & Colin Burgess, suggests that the authors left the comforts of their offices and ventured out to "beat the bushes" to get these interviews and reports. This is a quality product, and for the purposes of avoiding confusion or doubt, I strongly and most sincerely recommend this book to anyone interested in APOLLO, or for that matter, in general aerospace.
I certify with responsibility that I, or to the best of my knowledge anyone else; have neither requested or been offered any compensation in any form whatsoever for this book review, nor is any sought or expected.
Sincerely,
and always for aerospace
Norm Casson
Vangelis: Mythodea (Music for the NASA Mission: 2001 Mars Odyssey)
Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2012
The performance was great, really great! Maestro Vangelis has really created still another masterpiece in music. He very skillfully "mixed in" the structure of classical music along with the infusion of the big band sound, ...and then he brilliantly weaved in a massive choir and sprinkled in some "new age" sounds (much which he performed himself on keyboards), and as if all of this wasn't enough to blow our minds, as icing, he then "threw in the likes of" top quality grand opera singers (such as Kathleen Battle and Jessye Norman) to send us even mystically deeper into the depths of his awesome creation, ...when all the while, there was the rhythmic rumbling of about 20 or more large tympanic tom-tom-like drums lined up in two separate sections in line across the back of the orchestra, each such drum being played by it's own master percussionist who was performing every stroke in precise unison and in "animated" synchronization with all of the other percussionists!
It was melodic; it was charming, it was graceful, it was mystical, it was hypnotic, ...and it was wild!
I highly recommend this performance without reservation and give it 5 stars, and while I was unable to enjoy the last approximately 3 to 5 % of the performance, I have no reason to believe that the closing was any less awesome and spectacular. Just make certain that you take steps to give yourself reasonable assurance that you obtained a quality DVD. I offer explanation, as follows:
I was impressed with the operational performance of this seller. The DVD was delivered in a timely manner and the packaging was professional. The DVD appeared to be clean and free of scratches (to my unaided eye). The audio was clean and the video was clear and sharp, and it exploded across the TV monitor in brilliant colors, alofwhich we enjoyed for about 97% of the performance of the DVD. But just as the musical presentation came to the closing, all of this came to an abrupt video and audio halt! I attempted to play that section over several times, but each time to no avail. No method known to me for cleaning or otherwise correcting this failure had any positive effect whatsoever. I completely removed the DVD and replaced it with three different DVD's from my own collection, each of which performed to perfection. I then reinstalled the aforementioned subject DVD and attempted to play the conclusion but it still did not play.
My family and I, along with our guest were well aware of the acclaimed greatness of this music as well as of the performers, and we were enjoying every minute the DVD had given us thus far. As the performance approached the closing, the all encompassing crescendo of the musical buildup set the stage for all of us to be in absolute and total "ecstatic anticipation" for the dramatic conclusion of this internationally favored work by Maestro Vangelis. Needless to say, all of us there in attendance were very disappointed, and alas, ...we still are!
But you as the reader of this review need only to take steps to give yourself at least some reasonable assurance of the superior quality of the DVD, and you will not be disappointed. The production, performance and presentation are truly all works of masterful art!
Sincerely,
and truly impressed;
NORM CASSON