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22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating and moving, 21 Feb 2006
I have a friend who knows everything there is to know about the Apollo programme and I asked him if he'd read the book. Naturally he had, but he didn't like it. In his view there were far too many observations and recollections by the author and not enough hard facts.I have to disagree. 'Moondust' is an unashamedly subjective evocation of the Space Age that is both extremely interesting and often very poignant. Whether you remember the Apollo missions or not, it is facinating to read about an era that felt as if it was the dawn of a new 'Space Age' (indeed, many people quiet reasonably assumed that if we could land a man on the moon in 1969, we'd have bases there by 2001). In 'Moondust' author Andrew Smith has interviewed many of the surviving astronauts who went to the moon and instead of asking the obvious question - 'What was it like to be on the moon?' - he is more interested in how they coped with returning to their lives on earth, knowing that the highpoint of their lives was probably behing them. That said, 'Moondust' has many fascinating facts about the Apollo missions, ranging from some humorous accounts of the difficulties in going to the loo in zero gravity to a description of how pilots often had to assume manual control to stop their craft from crashing into the lunar surface. But for me, the most memorable thing I learned was that NASA only paid the astronauts a few dollars a day while they were in space and actually deducted bed and board from their pay cheque! When I discovered that this book was included in Richard and Judy's Book Club it seemed an odd choice, but now I've read it I can understand why. This is a fascinating, very readable book that most people should, I think, be able to enjoy.
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