The All-American Boys: An Insider's Candid Look at the Space Program and the Myth of the Super Hero.

[Signed Astronaut Memoir] Cunningham, Walter.

ISBN 10: 0025292404 / ISBN 13: 9780025292406

Published by Macmillan, 1977

About this Item

A Very Good copy with a small scuff to the front board with the boards bound upside down in a Very Good unclipped dust jacket with one short tape-repaired edge tear. Cunningham was a member of the Apollo 7 crew that mapped future landing sites for the first moon landing in 1969. On October 11, 1968, he occupied the lunar module pilot seat for the eleven-day flight of Apollo 7 - the first manned flight test of the third generation United States spacecraft. With Walter M. Schirra, Jr., and Donn F. Eisele, Cunningham participated in and executed maneuvers enabling the crew to perform exercises in transposition and docking and lunar orbit rendezvous with the S-IVB stage of their Saturn IB launch vehicle; completed eight successful test and maneuvering ignitions of the service module propulsion engine; measured the accuracy of performance of all spacecraft systems; and provided the first effective television transmission of onboard crew activities. The 263-hour, four-and-a-half million mile shakedown flight was successfully concluded on October 22, 1968, with splashdown occurring in the Atlantic - some eight miles from the carrier ESSEX (only 3/10 of a mile from the originally predicted aiming point).He provides an inside look at the making and unmaking of America's astronaut corps. This copy is signed: "Walter Cunningham Apollo 7". Seller Inventory # 21796

Bibliographic Details

Title: The All-American Boys: An Insider's Candid ...

Publisher: Macmillan

Publication Date: 1977

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Very Good

Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good

Edition: 1st Edition

About this title

Synopsis:

This is a no-hold-barred candid memoir by a former Marine jet jockey and physicist who became NASA's second civilian astronaut. Walter Cunningham present the astronauts in all their glory in this dramatically revised and updated edition that was considered an instant classic in its first edition over two decades ago. From its insider's view of the pervasive ""astropolitics"" that guided the functioning of the astronaut corps to its thoughtful discussion of the Columbia tragedy. The All-American Boys resonates with Cunningham's passion for humanity's destiny in space which endures today. This is a story of the triumph of American heroes. Cunningham brings us into NASA's training program and reveals what is takes to be an astronaut. He poignantly relates the story of the devastating Apollo 1 fire that took the lives of three astronauts and his own later successful flight Apollo 7. The new edition includes an update of the manned space program and his ""tell it like it is"" observation of NASA's successes and failures. It also includes commentary on the Shuttle disasters if Challenger and Columbia and his views on what NASA should be doing to get back on track and to regain public support.

Review:

"Cunningham's book is the best of all the astronaut books."