The Earth Gazers

Christopher Potter, Central 629.45 P866e 2018


My subjects, but this book was not written for readers like me. The author sums up his approach in a note following the bibliography:

Ahem. The author is now free to make stuff up, and he seems to. The typos and grammar mistakes suggest weak editing and fact-checking.

The main thread through the book is Charles and Anne Lindbergh. Many of the quotes are paraphrased third hand,from her writing. telephone game?

p075 "When he was 15, von Braun (15th birthday April 1927) ... Wanting to know more, he sent off for a copy of Oberth's The Rocket into Interplanetary Space. He was disappointed to find the book was densely written and full of mathematical equations. Mathematics and physics were two subjects he had no interest in. It was at that moment that Wernher realized that his passion for rockets exceeded his loathing of maths and physics."

p179 "Four months later (1960), the American spy satellite Discoverer 14, orbiting at an altitude of 100 miles, took photographs of the Earth that were the first to be developed from film."

p254 "After his space suit had been pumped up to the specified pressure it was so stiff he (Eugene Cernan, Gemini 9A) said 'it was like wearing a rusty suit of armor'" ... "Inside the pressurized clothing hs body was burning up huge amounts of energy carrying out the simplest task."

p276 Apollo 7 crew was rebellious, and never flew again. But then, only eight of the 37(?) Apollo trained astronauts ever flew again, and only three flew on two Apollo missions (not counting Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz )

p375 Alleged Fermi quote "a chance in ten thousand it will be the end of the world", via an unnamed scientist at dinner with Charles Lindbergh, via Anne Lindbergh, via her diary, via a book, via Potter's interpretation. Gossip is not fact. A more interesting (and factual) story here.

p424 Charles Lindbergh "at the end of his life" said/wrote/?: "What sunbound astronaut's experience can equal that of Robert Goddard, whose body stayed on earth, while he voyaged through galaxies?" Ahem indeed.


I spent too much time reading and not enough skimming. I'll reread Neufeld's von Braun and other biographies looking for direct von Braun quotes about the Oberth book. More time wasted?