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 and lack of acknowledgements suggest a solo effort, with little professional editing or proofreading.

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."