Moondust: In Search of the Men Who Fell to Earth

Description

A revised and updated edition of the classic work to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the first moon landing 'It left me spellbound ... belongs to the same tradition as Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff' Sunday Times 'Fascinating. A wonderful book' David Bowie Spellbinding ... A wonderful collective biography written with deftness, compassion and humour' Observer ________________________ The Apollo Moon Programme has been called the last optimistic act of the twentieth century. In Moondust, Andrew Smith set out to find and interview the nine remaining Moonwalkers in order to learn how their lives, and ours, were irrevocably changed by this surreal expedition. On the fiftieth anniversary of the first moon landing, Smith's powerful and gripping account of the most courageous adventure of the last century is re-released with a new chapter, detailing his fascinating interactions with Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Edgar Mitchell and Alan Bean in the years since publication. With thought-provoking meditations on the dramatic recent upswing in cosmic exploration, including astonishing encounters with the would-be astronaut-settlers of the Mars One project and the scientists leading the search for life in our solar system, this is an indispensable update to the definitive classic. ________________________ 'Fascinating and disturbing. We know what happened inside the Apollo spacecraft, but what went on inside the astronauts' minds? Did any of them really recover from their strange journey? Extremely thought-provoking' J.G. Ballard

Andrew Smith is an author, broadcaster, screenwriter and journalist. He is writer and presenter of the 60-minute BBC documentaries Being Neil Armstrong and To Kill a Mockingbird at 50 and author of Moondust, Totally Wired: The Rise and Fall of Josh Harris and the Great Dotcom Swindle and Adventures in Coderland (coming 2020). He was born in New York, spent most of his adult life working in London and now lives in Fairfax, California with his wife Jan.

Fascinating and disturbing. We know what happened inside the Apollo spacecraft, but what went on inside the astronauts' minds? Did any of them really recover from their strange journey? Extremely thought-provoking -- J. G. Ballard Spellbinding ... A wonderful collective biography written with deftness, compassion and humour * Observer * Smith's mix of reporting and meditation is highly entertaining, and this superb book is a fitting tribute to a unique band of twentieth-century heroes * GQ * A moving and thorough account of America's last great act of optimism * Guardian * It left me spellbound ... Belongs to the same tradition as Tom Wolfe's The Right Stuff * Sunday Times * Utterly gripping ... Smith is both sympathetic and bracingly unsentimental. But he also does an excellent job at rekindling the sheer fascination of that period ... Intriguing, startling, funny, and yet also somehow profoundly moving * Daily Telegraph *