Just Off the Nightstand: Lost Moon

A few years ago, Rob wanted to rent a movie. He went out and brought back Apollo 13. Great, I thought.

But as it turned out, it was great. Great enough that I really wanted to read the book it was based on: Lost Moon by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger. If you've ever blithely quoted, "Houston, we have a problem." You can thank Apollo 13.

Lost Moon is the autobiographical story of Jim Lovell, an astronaut from the pre-shuttle era. Lovell flew on 4 missions - more than any other astronaut at the time, twice as many as either Neil Armstrong or Buzz Aldrin. During the Apollo 8 mission, Lovell was one of the first men to orbit the moon. His trip on Apollo 13 was to be his opportunity to land on the moon in the Fra Mauro area. Instead, there was an explosion in the service module, the moon mission was scrapped, and the entire ship was at risk of being lost. The book (and the movie) details the ship's multiple problems - from lack of water to faulty air filters to a critical energy shortage. The command module is unusable and the crew is saved only because of the attached lunar vehicle, where they are able to survive 6 days in space. The story is incredibly tense as every available asset in the space craft is taxed to over-perform and bring the crew home safely.

One thing the book highlighted for me is that everyone at NASA wanted to go to the moon. Only a few select people got that opportunity - obviously, Lovell got incredibly close before losing his - but many others at NASA lost out because of health problems that kept them out of space entirely. Becoming an astronaut was and is not something just anyone can do. You couldn't just be persistent and end up on the moon, for most people that opportunity just was not going to come around.

Another interesting thing about this book is how relevant the issues are to current events. I was reminded of both the oil spill in the Gulf and the current plans to scrap the shuttle program. Like the oil spill, this was a disaster that affected history. NASA was planning several more missions, some that flew and others that were canceled because of the public growing more skeptical of the safety and importance of space flight. And in a time where economic concerns are great, people once again question why we would spend so much money to go to space. Personally, I have no ambitions to go there, but I think there is danger in cutting off from it - especially since other nations will not be doing that.

In short, this is a book worth reading...or at least a movie worth renting! The movie gives plenty of drama and detail, but if you want the whole story read the book.