Alongside tales of how celebrated astronauts such as Buzz Aldrin were selected and trained by NASA, this remarkable account introduces fascinating personalities never assigned to a space mission and documents the complexities of developing selection criteria.

Often lost in the shadow of the first group of astronauts for the Mercury missions, the second and third groups included the leading figures for NASA's activities for the following two decades. Moon Bound complements the author's recently published work, Selecting the Mercury Seven (2011), extending the story of the men who helped to launch human spaceflight and broaden the American space program. Although the initial 1959 group became known as the legendary pioneering Mercury astronauts, the astronauts of Groups 2 and 3 gave us many household names. Sixteen astronauts from both groups traveled to the Moon in Project Apollo, with several actually walking on the Moon, one of them being Neil Armstrong.

This book draws on interviews to tell the astronauts' personal stories and recreate the drama of that time. It describes the process by which they were selected as astronauts and explains how the criteria had changed since the first group. Moon Bound is divided into two parts, recounting the biographies relating to the nine astronauts from NASA's Group 2 in the first part, and the fourteen finalists in Group 3 in the second part.

The stories of both selection groups are narrated through the experiences of four finalists with interesting backgrounds. One of these men is Al Rupp of the USAF who, as a West Point cadet, cheekily helped to steal the Navy mascot goat prior to the annual Army versus Navy game in 1953, thus achieving legendary status in the game's history. Rupp was killed in a plane crash just two years after being named as a finalist for Group 3. The service career of naval aviator John Yamnicky was also very much the equal of other finalists, but he was killed on September 11, 2001, as he was a passenger on hijacked Flight 77, which was flown into the Pentagon.

At the end of the work there are several chapters on how these candidates were prepped for their missions.

Explains how famous astronauts, including Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Gene Cernan - the first and last men on the Moon - were selected and trained for their missions Documents the enhanced criteria, medical selection and training process required for inclusion in the Gemini and Apollo programs Introduces some of the fascinating personalities who were not selected but could easily have been among the moonwalkers Completes a story begun by the author's "Selecting the Mercury Seven" and "NASA Scientist-Astronauts" Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Autorentext

David Shayler has been writing books for Springer-Praxis for over 18 years, with a total of 25 authored or coauthored titles for the series. These have ranged from various aspects of American and Russian manned spaceflight history and operations to topics on women in space, the human exploration of Mars and the development of EVA techniques and operations. He has a passion for recording the lives and careers of the world's space explorers. He has been a member of the British Interplanetary Society for over 40 years and currently is a serving Council Member. He also organized and hosted the annual Sino-Chinese Technical Forum and is currently organizing two extra Forums for next year on the topic of Space Rescue and Safety and 20 years of ISS Operations. Dave is a guest editor of the annual BIS JBIS Space Chronicle issue on Sino and Chinese Technical Forums and has contributed to a number of BIS Publications. His work has been published in the UK in Spaceflight, and Spaceflight News, and in the United States under Macmillan's Who's Who in Space trilogy as well as the Magill Science Survey and the MPress Secrets of the Universe Card Collection. A number of his titles and published articles have been referenced in other books, journals and official NASA publications.Colin Burgess's early books were on the Australian prisoner-of-war experience, before he turned his efforts to writing about his principal interest: human space exploration. Colin has written a number of books on the subject for the University of Nebraska Press and Springer-Praxis. The books he has written or coauthored for Springer-Praxis are "NASA's Scientist-Astronauts," "Animals in Space," "The First Soviet Cosmonaut Team," "Selecting the Mercury Seven," "Moon Bound," "Freedom 7," "Liberty Bell 7" "Friendship 7" and "Aurora 7." More recently, he has written about the Interkosmos program and a history of NASA's Group 5 and 7 astronauts with coauthor David Shayler.

Inhalt
Part I Announcements and volunteers.- Screening the applicants.- The finalists.- The "Next Nine".- Settling in.- Part II The boy from Barren Run.- Answering the call.- A few exceptionally good men.- The Fourteen.- Patience and Persistence.- "Before this decade is out".- For some, the glory.- Appendices.- Bibliography.- Index.