Apollo Expeditions to the Moon

NASA SP-350, published by the Scientific and Technical Information Office in 1975 to mark Apollo’s conclusion, with a Buzz Aldrin lunar-surface photograph (from Apollo 11) on the cover and the full 27-step Apollo mission profile printed across the endpapers. Opens with an introduction by Robert C. Seamans, Jr. (NASA’s Associate Administrator, 1965–1968) tracing the program from Sputnik through the mode-selection debates and the Apollo 8, 9, and 10 rehearsals to the first landing. The 15 chapters that follow were each written by a key participant rather than a NASA staff historian: James E. Webb and Robert R. Gilruth on why and how the goal was set, Wernher von Braun on the Saturn boosters, George M. Low on spacecraft development, Michael Collins and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr. on the Apollo 11 landing itself, Charles Conrad, Jr. and Alan B. Shepard, Jr. on Apollo 12, James A. Lovell on Apollo 13’s crippled return, Harrison H. Schmitt on the program’s scientific exploration, Christopher C. Kraft, Jr. on Mission Control, Rocco A. Petrone on the Cape’s launch facilities, and Homer E. Newell and Robert Sherrod closing out the volume with Apollo’s legacy and the selection and training of its astronauts.