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When Apollo 11 touched down on the Moon's surface in 1969, the first man on the Moon became a legend. In First Man, author James R. Hansen explores the life of Neil Armstrong. Based on over fifty hours of interviews with the intensely private Armstrong, who also gave Hansen exclusive access to private documents and family sources, this "magnificent panorama of the second half of the American twentieth century" (Publishers Weekly, starred review) is an unparalleled biography of an American icon.
In this "compelling and nuanced portrait" (Chicago Tribune) filled with revelations, Hansen vividly recreates Armstrong's career in flying, from his seventy-eight combat missions as a naval aviator flying over North Korea to his formative trans-atmospheric flights in the rocket-powered X-15 to his piloting Gemini VIII to the first-ever docking in space. For a pilot who cared more about flying to the Moon than he did about walking on it, Hansen asserts, Armstrong's storied vocation exacted a dear personal toll, paid in kind by his wife and children. For the near-fifty years since the Moon landing, rumors have swirled around Armstrong concerning his dreams of space travel, his religious beliefs, and his private life.
A penetrating exploration of American hero worship, Hansen addresses the complex legacy of the First Man, as an astronaut and as an individual. "First Man burrows deep into Armstrong's past and present...What emerges is an earnest and brave man" (Houston Chronicle) who will forever be known as history's most famous space traveler.
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
October 18, 2005 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9780743554541
- File size: 264602 KB
- Duration: 09:11:15
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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Neil Armstrong will always be remembered for being the first man to step on the moon, a milestone that played a role in everything he did afterward. Through most of this biography, which follows Armstrong from his youth to that historic lunar landing, Boyd Gaines reads with detachment, letting the facts of Armstrong's life speak for themselves--and those facts speak beautifully. When Gaines reaches the point when Armstrong takes those first steps, his voice fills with an awe and emotion that seems to flow naturally. The actual voices of astronauts from historic speeches and messages are used here to enhance the drama. J.A.S. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine -
This biography of the first man to set foot on the moon is detailed, massive, and thorough. It's also full of vignettes and significant details about the people around him. It gives the listener great insight into Armstrong's intelligent, reserved character and how it came to be. Henry Strozier holds the listener's attention, in part, because he sounds much like Walter Cronkite-friendly, warm, direct, unhurried. His grandfatherly cadence is soothing, even when he's reading about the launch pad fire and plane crashes that killed some of Armstrong's closest colleagues. Armstrong may well be the most famous man in the universe. D.A.W. (c) AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine
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Starred review from August 8, 2005
On July 20, 1969, a quiet, determined man from Wapakoneta, Ohio, stepped out of his fragile spacecraft and into history. Neil Armstrong—engineer, naval aviator, test pilot, astronaut and devoted family man—became the first man to walk on the moon. In this powerful, unrelenting biography of a man of no particularly spectacular talent yet who stands as a living testimony to everyday grit and determination, former NASA historian Hansen has achieved something quite remarkable. Like a rich pointillist painting, he has created a magnificent panorama of the second half of the American 20th century by assembling a multitude of luminescent moments in one man's life. From Armstrong's birth to a middle-class family in Ohio to the mind-boggling fame of the Apollo 11
triumph, and later his service on the commission investigating the 1986 Challenger
space shuttle disaster, Hansen details it all. He writes of the number of rounds of 20-millimeter ammunition loosed by Armstrong's fighter squadron in Korea in October 1951 (49,299), his heart rate on liftoff in Gemini VII
(146 beats per minute) and the price of a signed Armstrong letter at auction ($2,500). Rather than overwhelming, this accumulation of details gives flesh–and-blood reality to a man who is more icon than human. With the recent renewal of interest in manned space travel, this book is a must for astronaut buffs and history readers alike. 24 pages of b&w photos not seen by PW
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