I just published my memoir of working on the Apollo project

[DavidDvorkin]

Just in time for the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, I've published my short memoir of my time at NASA working on the Apollo project:

http://www.dvorkin.com/moonland/

[DonaldsRump]

1. Very, very cool!

Congrats on the book. Oh, the stories you could tell!

No need to make America great again: this was a shining example of what we can do with the right kind of leadership (JFK etc).

[DavidDvorkin]

2. I told a couple of stories

But mostly I remember grinding away and doing with too little sleep.

[spanone]

3. Congratulations!!!

[Lochloosa]

4. My Father worked on the Gemini and Apollo projects.

Congrats on the book. I'll get him a copy.

[DavidDvorkin]

5. In Houston?

There were a lot of us there, but it's possible we met.

[Lochloosa]

6. No, he was in Titusville and Huntsville AL. He worked for GE

[brer cat]

7. Congratulations!

K&R

[Karadeniz]

8. Thank you for taking the to do this! It'll help give a more complete picture of that time.

[drmeow]

9. My Mom's cousin

is Michael Collins! Glad you were there to support him. Did you ever meet him? I've only met him twice but he's a great guy.

[llmart]

11. My son works at KSC and he's met Michael Collins.

He said he's a really nice guy also.

[DavidDvorkin]

15. I never met him, but I remember hearing that he was a nice guy

I thought at the time that he looked like a nice guy.

[drmeow]

19. He's pretty active on Twitter

In late June he posted "Who told worse jokes on the trip to the moon, Neil or Buzz? I did #AskMichaelCollins" My SIL asked "Is it really him" and my reaction was - fits what I know of his personality. His uncle, father, and brother were both pretty big deals, too, who were Army Chief of Staff during the Korean War and one of the commanders on D-day, Major General of the U.S. Army, and Brigadier General, respectively.

I first met him when he was the director of the National Air and Space Museum. He was also at a Collins family reunion my mom and one of his other nieces organized in DC - going on 20 years ago now!

[llmart]

21. I think he told me that Buzz Aldrin still lives in that area.

I get all the scoop from him about what's going on at NASA, Space X and KSC. I've been there a few times and I never tire of it. Still haven't been there for a launch though. We're planning something for next spring though.

[backtoblue]

10. Very cool!

On my reading list now!

[DavidDvorkin]

14. Thank you!

[politicaljunkie41910]

12. Congratulations!!! I just ordered your book. Hope it's a success.

I spent my career working behind the scenes on special projects with the Government so I know the thrill you speak of when a project comes together, even for the Accountants; since of course, I was never responsible for getting a man on the Moon like you. I can only imagine what a thrill that must have been and continues to be to this day. I look forward to reading your book and passing it on to my children, even though they're adults were not even born then and will never know how exciting an accomplishment this was at the time, and still is for those of us who are old enough to remember. Again, I look forward to receiving and reading your book, and keep jotting down those things as you remember them for the next book and the next launch.

[DavidDvorkin]

13. Thanks

In fact, things I had forgotten are popping into my mind now that the book's done and published. I wish I had kept notes during those years.

[misanthrope]

16. Thank you very much

for your efforts in the most monumental engineering achievement our species has accomplished, and for writing down your insights and reflections.

[DavidDvorkin]

17. Thank you

I agree entirely with your assessment of Apollo, and I'll always wonder and feel sad about where we would be now if it had continued and been built upon.

[misanthrope]

18. One of the things we learned from Apollo

or perhaps I should that we "more fully realized" is just how vast, dangerous and daunting space exploration truly is. Going to the moon was hard and our accomplishment that much more mind-blowing considering the era's technology but it was still only a baby step when considering space exploration.

Going elsewhere is going to take technology and power reserves we don't currently possess.

[csziggy]

20. Wonderful

Marking so I can find it later - I'll order the ebook to read while at sea!

[lunatica]

22. It was a great time in our country!

Congratulations on your part in that history.

[Celerity]

23. The awakening was both rude and swift. Socrates is supposed to have said that the only true wisdom

is in knowing that you know nothing. I suddenly became very, very wise.



I will buy an ebook

congrats

[DavidDvorkin]

24. :)

[Raine]

25. CONGRATULATIONS

just WONDERFUL!

[amerikat]

26. I was 17 years when they landed.

Which means I was a follower of the project from a very young age. Also remember Gemini and Mercury.
Shaped my childhood and reminds me of a time when all of America was on the same page.
I was too young to work on that project obviously but I worked in the seventies will folks that had worked on Apollo. Scientists that worked on guidance systems and devices that measured acceleration. Worked with them in the beginning of the solar industries. I sure miss those days when all of America had a common goal. Thanks for you contribution to the project.

[calimary]

30. I was 16. Absolutely transfixed by it.

But I was an early nerd, into science and history in school. So that whole era fascinated me. I even had a little plastic Gemini capsule “piggy bank”.

[amerikat]

34. Back then every launch was on the TV. I watched them all.

Black and white TV at the time. But dammit we were going to beat the Russians to the moon. Shit now we can't even beat them to the voting booth. Makes me sad.

[calimary]

35. I know exactly what you mean, amerikat.

[lapfog_1]

27. Thank you for your service

I worked for NASA for 10 years... long after the Apollo project... from 1989 until 1999.

Every night that I left work (and that was most days that I worked there... never really felt like leaving work so I always worked late)... I would look up at the moon and marvel that I worked for the organization that traveled to that place... and wonder if we would go back or go beyond.

On this day 50 years ago... as a young boy... all I ever wanted to do in life was to work for NASA, to contribute in some way to that ideal that placed mankind on the moon and one day to travel to other planets and, possibly, beyond. It was and remains the highlight of my life so far.

[DVRacer]

28. I will have to read it

My father and my self are friends of Jorgi the flight surgeon. He has shared so many wonderful and tragic stories I wish he wrote them down. His recounting of Apollo 1 was moving. His triumph of getting the “boys” out of the capsule on the carriers can be seen in his eyes.

[malaise]

29. Fabulous

Rec

[blogslut]

31. My mom went to high school with Tom Stafford

She was very jazzed about the astronaut program.

Congratulations on your book!

[Peregrine Took]

32. My brother worked on the Apollo.

He was an aerodynamicist/aeronautical engineer, specializing in wind tunnels.
He worked for North American Rockwell. Lockheed and Boeing over his career.

[AllaN01Bear]

33. i knew of several ppl who worked on the lem.

eggscllent news . congrats.