Off to Huntsville, Alabama
I am about to leave for Huntsville, Alabama to give a lecture: tomorrow, July 25, 2019, at 6 pm (Eastern), at the National Geographic Theater located at the US Space and Rocket Center.
This event is part of their “Pass the Torch” lecture series. My subject: How Apollo 8, not Apollo 11, won the 1960s space race and changed the world
If you are Huntsville or nearby please consider coming by. It will be a great event.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
I am about to leave for Huntsville, Alabama to give a lecture: tomorrow, July 25, 2019, at 6 pm (Eastern), at the National Geographic Theater located at the US Space and Rocket Center.
This event is part of their “Pass the Torch” lecture series. My subject: How Apollo 8, not Apollo 11, won the 1960s space race and changed the world
If you are Huntsville or nearby please consider coming by. It will be a great event.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Robert,
I visited there last week after I got done with a project I had in Tennessee. First thing I did was make a bee line to the Saturn V! I never get tired of looking at that. I wish you had the event last week, I probably would of caught it.
I am sure you have been there before, but just to warn you, there is that super humidity there. We both live in areas of the U.S. with very low humidity. Safe flight.
Well, I wish I could make this. Hope they can make a recording of it available at some point.
I think you are 100% correct: Apollo 8 won the Space Race. We now know the Soviets were really nowhere near being able to do a landing in 1969 (and likely for some time beyond that) given the massive teething problems with the N1.
But they *did* have an outside chance of pulling off a circumlunar Zond flight before an American lunar orbit flight (“F” mission), which would have been a major propaganda coup than it deserved to be; and the evidence is that the Soviets were trying up to the last minute to do *something* at Baikonur in December (see Quest, 2004 issues Volume 11, numbers 1 and 2). Given them a few more months to try, and . . .
But Apollo 8 beat them to the punch. Apollo 8 won the race. And in many ways, it is the most historic space flight.
Ha! I am going to drive up from Birmingham. Unusually low temps and humidity these past couple of days in Bama!
It was nice to meet you Mr. Zimmerman! We both enjoyed the presentation and I especially appreciated hearing about the real human elements behind these major historical events. The contrast between Lovell’s and Borman’s perspective of Earthrise is definitely thought provoking. Aside from your talk and eating German food underneath a Saturn V, we both also were very impressed with the VR Apollo 11 experience. Seeing the Earth from orbit and watching the first step from the perspective of the Moon’s surface was mindblowing. Overall, it was a very worthwhile trip to Huntsville!
Ryan: It was a pleasure to meet two of my readers. Note that the famous Earthrise picture was taken by Bill Anders, not Jim Lovell. I hope I didn’t say Lovell in my talk by mistake. I didn’t think so.
You are quite right, I just had Lovell on the brain. You did specifically say it was Anders in the talk.