To the Moon and Back chapter sampler

A Note From Dr Karl …

In 1969 I was 21 years old, and working as a physicist at the steelworks near Wollongong. I had been reading one science fiction story every day since I was about 14, so of course I was a great fan of the space program. On 21 July 1969, I walked out of the central laboratories and crossed the bridge to the cafeteria on the other side of the six-lane highway that ran through the steelworks. My timing was perfect. I saw Armstrong jump down onto the surface of the Moon, and then both Armstrong and Aldrin walk on the Moon. A few more decades would pass before I discovered how complicated each Saturn V rocket was, and how close to disaster each Apollo mission came. At that time, only constant on-the-run fixes got the astronauts to the Moon and back. For example, the switch that controlled the rocket motor that would blast the Apollo 11 landing craft,

[ 1 ]