Narrow Interests, Broadening Knowledge

People sometimes ask me why I read so many different books on a small pile of pet subjects:

1. The Manhattan Project

2. The Space Race

3. Richard Nixon.

I reply that with every book I read on these subjects, I learn something I didn't know before.

Take, for example, something I read today in Craig Nelson's 2009 book "Rocket Men," which focuses on the Apollo moon program.

Today, I read this:

The great historic irony of Operation Paperclip, meanwhile, was that almost every key element that Toftoy brought to the United States was present already. While the army was negotiating with von Braun in Europe, the American navy's director of the Bureau of Aeronautics, Robert Goddard, passed away on August 10, 1945. Five years later his heirs sued the American government for patent infringement, citing such independently-engineered-by-the-Nazi-team-but-already-patented-by-Goddard rocket elements such as gyroscopic guidance systems, jet vane path controllers, and fuel-line turbo-pumps. Ten years later, the United States paid the Goddard estate $1 million for these rights.

It's not hard to argue that the Nazis had a lot of practical experience with these inventions that Goddard may not have possessed in that amount, and he certainly never built a rocket with the power and range of a V-2, but I had no idea that he'd devised much of the technology used to make rockets work.

So I learned something, reading a new book on a familiar subject. Lesson learned.

Yet Another Apollo Program Book . . .

This book was a lucky find at a local thrift store. I'm a space program junkie so anything with "moon" in the title will catch my eye, and when I spotted the three names on the cover, buying the book was a no-brainer.

I didn't know if I'd learn anything new about the Apollo program reading the book, but I was wrong.

Remember that scene in "The Right Stuff," where Alan Shepard is shamed in the hospital for liking Bill Dana and his "Cowardly Astronaut" routine, and it's implied after the shaming (or maybe not; it could be just me) he never liked the humor again?

Wrong.

Turns out Shepard and several other astronauts became friends with Dana and acted as straight men in some privately-performed versions of the skits.

Does that make them racist?

I don't think so. I don't necessarily believe racism was a core part of Dana's humor either. But, yanno, times change and such.

An aside: Dana wrote this episode of "All in the Family." That that for what you will.

(I could be told I'm wrong, but I believe the conversations about race in the 1970s were a bit more honest and straighforward than the ones we have today.)

But back to the book.

There are a few passages that make this book unique among those I've read about the Apollo program. You can tell it was written by actual astronauts. I love, for example, these bits:

"Punching through maximum aerodynamic pressure was another adventure as enormous forces squeezed and shook the Saturn 1B. Vibration pummelled the entire rocket and the Apollo. Then, suddenly, they were through Max Q, and they shot upward like a frightened jack rabbit. Almost at once, now into the supersonic region, engine roar and the high-pitched howl of air dripping past the rocket vanished.

"While the noise of the liftoff abated, the booster complained with deep. hollow groans and the craking of an old wooden ship wallowing in rough seas. Finally came the burnout of the first stage. For a precious moment the creaks, groans, willges, shaking,vibration, and other unpleasantness were gone."

Quite a description of the sudden changes observed when a craft passes through the sound barrier.

Not credited on the cover are two co-authors, Jay Barbee, a space correspondent for NSAS and Howard Benedict, an AP aerospace writer. I have to imagine their input on the book was invaluable. And maybe could have been used on the books' final chapters which really wandered a bit and were not as tightly-written as the rest. Maybe the subject matter -- the buildup to the Apollo-Soyuz mission and the mission itself -- just wasn't as exciting to me as the rest, but the writing felt a little lackluster.

God Bless All of You, All of You on the Good Earth

The first voice in this broadcast, given from the Apollo 8 Command Module on Christmas Eve, 1968, is William Anders.

"God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth."

Anders died todaydied today in a plane crash in Washington state. He was 90 years old.

He also took this picturethis picture of the Earth from Moon orbit, called Earthrise.

We live in an age where the men who visited the Moon all those years ago are dying. I fully expected to be able to visit the moon when I got older.

As a nation, we have diminished in our ambitions and reach, and are poorer for it.

"God Bless all of You, all of You on the Good Earth"

William Anders

We are now approaching lunar sunrise, and for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to you.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

James Lovell

And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.[5]

Frank Borman

And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas – and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth.

"God Bless All of You, All of You on the Good Earth."

I've had a tradition in years past to share the "That's What Christmas is All About, Charlie Brown," speech on this blog on Christmas Day.

Starting a new tradition sharing the Apollo 8 Christmas Eve broadcast today.

The famous Genesis reading starts at about 5:10 in.