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Rocket Ranch: The Nuts and Bolts of the Apollo Moon Program at Kennedy Space Center |  |
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Rocket Ranch: The Nuts and Bolts of the Apollo Moon Program at Kennedy Space Center | |
Jonathan Ward takes the reader deep into the facilities at Kennedy Space Center to describe NASA’s first computer systems used for spacecraft and rocket checkout and explain how tests and launches proceeded. Descriptions of early operations include a harrowing account of the heroic efforts of pad workers during the Apollo 1 fire. A companion to the author’s book Countdown to a Moon Launch: Preparing Apollo for Its Historic Journey, this explores every facet of the facilities that served as the base for the Apollo/Saturn missions. Hundreds of illustrations complement the firsthand accounts of more than 70 Apollo program managers and engineers.
The era of the Apollo/Saturn missions was perhaps the most exciting period in American space exploration history. Cape Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center were buzzing with activity. Thousands of workers came to town to build the facilities and launch the missions needed to put an American on the Moon before the end of the decade.
Work at KSC involved much more than just launching rockets. It was a place like none other on Earth. Technicians performed intricate operations, and hazards abounded everywhere, including lightning, fire, highly-toxic fuels, snakes, heat, explosives, LOX spills, and even plutonium. The reward for months of 7-day workweeks under intense pressure was witnessing a Saturn V at liftoff.
For anyone who ever wished they had worked at Kennedy Space Center during the Apollo era, this book is the next best thing. The only thing missing is the smell of rocket fuel in the morning.
网友对Rocket Ranch: The Nuts and Bolts of the Apollo Moon Program at Kennedy Space Center的评论
What a great book on the Kennedy Space Center in the Apollo days! Wow is all I can say! There are pictures I have never viewed. A Command/Service module coming out of testing without the engine bell, the Saturn 1 and 1b block rooms and service/pad structure, computers/memory units used, details of the launch control room, several photos of the Apollo 1 craft being readied prior to and after the fire. There was a section/pictures on the "milk-stool" and on the replacement on the pad of the fins of the Saturn 1B for the Skylab mission. If you are a space history enthusiast, you should pick this book up :)
I cannot recommend this book enough! What a GREAT read..I honestly cannot put it down. Filled with tons of little known facts. For example, Had Apollo 11 not succeeded, the 12 was scheduled to lift off of Pad B..I never knew that. Gives a detailed explanation of what life was like for the countless engineers and technicians that made Apollo and its launch complex work. What was it like to work on the LUT? its in here. What was it like being a crane operator in the VAB? Its in here. What did those guys that you always see in the old NASA footage...the hundreds of guys behind consoles at the Cape actually do? Its in here. Terrific read and very well done. I can't put it down.
The book is excellent. It covers the Apollo missions from the perspective of the technicians and engineers working at KSC.I thought the chapter that covered the Apollo failure did a fine job.
I too worked on Apollo one at Downey Bldg 290 where the spacecraft was built and first tested. I was the senior technician working on the stack during integrated plug in plugs out as the vehicle crew chief on second shift. I am expected to make a presentation this month Oct. 2016 to the local IEEE meeting about my experiences working on the Apollo. Well that was 50 years ago and I found that I had forgotten a lot about those days. Reading this book jogged my memory.
The Ace system we used was identical to the one used at KSC. The book covers the Ace Control Room very well. A lot of the work we did was classified and I was not permitter.to go inside the ACE computer room. So it was nice that the book furnish a photo of the inside of that room. I believed Two CDC168. computers were used there. The book is full of detail information like those mentioned about the ace system.
The book explains the used of the OCP and I was hoping to see a page from the Operational Checkout Procedure but it was omitted. Oh well..
Book is exceptional and a must read for anyone that need information in ground efforts of the Apollo program. .
Although I'm definitely a space geek with a more-than-passing interest in Apollo hardware, I'll admit outright I've never given the day-to-day workings at Kennedy Space Center much thought. Having read this book, I'm kind of kicking myself for neglecting the subject. This is a truly fascinating book that deserves to be read by anyone who describes themselves as a space buff.
On a purely technical level, there's a lot of diagrams, technical descriptions, and behind-the-scenes photographs here that I'd never stumbled across before. I'd never known that there was an entire complex of facilities under each launch pad, what the inside of the S-II interstage looked like during launch vehicle processing, the layout of both floors of the LC-34 blockhouse, or what a "viscous damping system" was or how it worked. Talk about revelations! The appendixes include a wealth of data not included in the main text, including the interior layout of the mobile launcher, the function of all 150 consoles in Area B of the firing room, features of the RCA 110A computer, and a detailed list of acronyms.
Had this book been a purely oral or purely technical history, it could have been rather tedious. Thankfully, Jonathan Ward does an excellent job balancing the two extremes here. There's enough technical data to give the reader a pretty good idea of how everything fit together and worked, without making their eyes glaze over. At the same time, there are enough first-hand accounts to put it all into human perspective. Along with descriptions of the inner workings of the Manned Spacecraft Operations Buildings and Vehicle Assembly Building (among others), there are extracts of interviews from numerous KSC employees, who give a vivid account of what it was like to live and work on the front lines of the Space Race. I found the chapter on the Apollo 1 fire particularly hard to read; even after almost 50 years, the events of that day are still burned into the memory of everyone Mr. Ward interviewed.
If I have to nitpick, it's that the editing leaves something to be desired in places. There are quite a few missing "a"s, "of"s, "and"s, and "the"s that found me re-reading sentences in a couple places. The photo quality is a little iffy in places, something I've noticed from Praxis titles in general. However, my five star rating still stands. I went ahead and bought this book's companion title Countdown to a Moon Launch halfway through reading this one, which should say enough about its quality.
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