Two years ago, I read Michael Collins' Carrying the Fire because my students often ask whether he was upset that he didn't get to walk on the moon after traveling all the way there. I had owned the book for several years in a set including books by Armstrong and Aldrin as well but had not yet read it, so I did. (For the record, he doesn't seem to hold any resentment about being the guy to stay in the capsule even though he acknowledges that anyone would have liked to have been in the other position.) This year, it occurred to me that other astronauts of that time had probably written books as well. As all of my students know, my favorite astronaut is Dave Scott, so I began my search with his name. I'm so glad that I did because Amazon returned with this little gem. It is called Two Sides of the Moon. If you are an average consumer of NASA history, these two names may not mean much to you. Dave Scott was a Gemini astronaut; he and Neil Armstrong performed the first docking in space. He was also the commander of Apollo 15, and by then America had become bored with the moon (I do not understand that at all). Alexei Leonov was a Russian cosmonaut, and I'm not sure any American can name one of those (maybe, maybe Yuri Gagarin, but I doubt most would know him).
This book is written by both men separately. It alternates back and forth from the child of Alexei to the childhood of Dave. Then it tells about Alexei's pilot training days, then Dave's. You get the idea. What I found compelling was that these were just guys doing their jobs. They weren't political figures engaged in a global chess match, and they didn't see themselves that way. They were guys who found jobs that they loved and wanted to do them well.
In reading this book, I also learned a few things I didn't know before. Alexei trained as an artist and wanted to pursue that as a career, but he couldn't afford the school he got into. He never gave it up and took crayons with him into space because he knew there would be moments words could not capture. I learned the Yuri Gagarin died in a plane crash. I learned the Dave Scott left a falcon feather, a clover, and Bible on the moon to represent the fauna, flora, and culture of Earth. I learned that several American astronauts met and had drinks with several Russian cosmonauts on several occasions. I knew already about the Apollo Soyuz joint mission, but I was delighted to learn the Deke Slayton actually finally got to fly on it. (That will only matter to hard core space geeks; so if you don't know what I'm talking about, don't feel bad.)
Both men write in the very straightforward style you might expect from military men telling a story. They don't get flowery with vocabulary or make any attempt to present themselves as the final word on anything. They touch on the politics of the Cold War, but they don't dwell on it. Both speak with a lot of respect for the program in the other country and what they were able to accomplish. They tell you what happened and what they thought about it. That's it.
If you are a space nerd, like me, you should read this book. If you like learning about history from a first person perspective, you should read this book. If you want to know more about the Apollo program that we landed once (some of my students are surprised to learn we landed six times), you should read this book. You will walk away with more respect for the people of the Russian program and may find the Dave Scott is also your favorite astronaut.
No comments:
Post a Comment