Genesis; The Story of Apollo 8: The First Manned Flight To Another World

New York: Dell, 1999. First Printing [Stated]. Mass market paperback. Good. xvii, [1], 350 pages. Ink mark on first page. Occasional Footnotes. Illustrations. Timeline. Notes. Editorial Minutiae and Glossary. Bibliography. Index. Robert Zimmerman is a well known and respected space historian and author. Mr. Zimmerman is an award winning author who has written four books on the history of space exploration. This first book, GENESIS: THE STORY OF APOLLO 8, was published in 1998, Derived from a Kirkus review: The year 1968 is memorable for any number of reasons, science writer Zimmerman reminds us, not the least of which was the historic flight of Apollo 8, the first manned space flight to slip out of Earth's gravitational tethers. Apollo 8, with Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders aboard, blasted off in late December of 1968, its intention to journey beyond Earth's orbit, slip into a lunar orbit, then escape again, and return. Its success was a momentous occasion—the frontiers of space had been effectively pushed way out. Zimmerman has chosen two aspects of the Apollo 8 mission to emphasize. First, he depicts a space program then still the venue of the hero pilot who, sacrificing family priorities and personal safety, was the unequaled Cold Warrior. Zimmerman keeps a nice steady rhythm. His second theme is to infuse the event with righteousness. It showed the world, Zimmerman claims, an "American vision of moral individuality, religious tolerance and mutual respect. Zimmerman does realize that perhaps the most lasting achievement of Apollo 8 is a photograph of Earthrise over the Moon. Never before had our planet seemed so small, so lonely, so vulnerable—or so priceless.