The Last Man on the Moon: Astronaut Eugene Cernan and America's Race in Space

by Eugene Cernan

Hardcover, 1999

Status

Available

Genres

Collection

Robert Ames Collection

Publication

New York : St. Martin's Press, 1999

Description

Eugene Cernan is a unique American who came of age as an astronaut during the most exciting and dangerous decade of space flight. His career spanned the entire Gemini and Apollo programs, from being the first person to spacewalk all the way around our world to the moment when he left man's last footprint on the Moon as commander of Apollo 17.Between these two historic events lay more adventures than an ordinary person could imagine as Cernan repeatedly put his life, his family, and everything he held dear on the altar of an obsessive desire. Written with New York Times bestselling author Don Davis, this is the astronaut story never before told - about the fear, love and sacrifice demanded of the few men who dared reach beyond the heavens for the biggest prize of all: the Moon.… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member bragan

Eugene Cernan was indeed the last man to walk on the moon, and in this memoir he talks about his life, his career, and his experiences in the Gemini and Apollo space programs. He (and his co-author) convey the grandeur and excitement of his journeys to the moon quite well, and that's something I

never, ever get tired of reading, but his reminiscences also have a frank, earthy quality to them that's really rather refreshing.

This is very much a personal memoir, focused primarily on Cernan's own experiences and perspectives, so if you're more interested in a general overview of the space race, there are much better books for that. (I recommend Andrew Chaikin's A Man on the Moon.) But if you want, for example, to read an almost painfully vivid first-hand account of what it's like to get stuck inside a spaceship hatch after making the "spacewalk from hell," this is definitely the place.

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LibraryThing member starbuck5250

Despite the subtitle, this is really Gene Cernan's autobiography. It's a good read - Gene covers much of what made him a pilot and astronaut. He shares his life warts and all. A great read.

LibraryThing member Stbalbach

A couple scenes stand out: landing on the moon surrounded by mountains; crashing a helicopter in the water next to boaters; pulled over by a policeman the night before launch. Overall there isn't much here in the way of introspection and lots of bland cliches. I picked this book by random hoping

for a good Apollo memoir, will keep trying, it won't be my last.

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LibraryThing member jfe16

Told by pioneering astronaut Eugene Cernan, this is the story of America’s Apollo program, designed to land man on the surface of the moon. Chronicling the successes, the failures, and the close calls, Cernan puts a personal spin on the story of America in space as he shares his personal

thoughts: the fear, the love, the sacrifice demanded from the small cadre of men who aimed for the moon. Here, along with the facts and several pages of pictures, readers will find the feelings and the experience of space flight from the perspective of the last man to stand on the surface of the moon.

Highly recommended.

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LibraryThing member Steve_Walker

There are a number of astronaut autobiographies out now. And the time scale covered runs from the early days of the Mercury program all the way to the Space Shuttle. This is one of the top ten. Gene Cernan had a long and storied career with NASA, and as the title states, he was the last man to walk

on the Moon. Cernan's book details the competition between the Astronauts and, tragically, how the deaths of certain ones effected the outcome of the crew selections for the later Gemini and early Apollo flights. This is a good book to read if you want an idea of what the Apollo days were all about.

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