Team Moon: How 400,000 People Landed Apollo 11 on the Moon Hardcover – Illustrated, June 26, 2006

This is an exquisite book. I have had the privelege of meeting a number of people who contributed to Apollo and, as far as I can tell, they all remember it as the most important thing they did during their working lives. They are tremendously proud of having been a part of it - as well they should! - and it is their participation that is at the heart of Catherine Thimmesh's wonderful book. "Team Moon" let's us meet a couple of dozen representative members of the team of 400,000 people who worked to make Apollo a success and sets their stories in the context of a brief - but very well written - account of the first landing mission. The book also includes a superb selection of photographs beautifully presented. Suitable for ages 10 and up - including 62 year olds - it's the first Apollo book I've read in a while that gave me a catch in the throat, a hint of a happy tear in the eye in admiration for the men and women of Apollo.

Terrific book. The used copy I received was alright, but I’m concerned that the binding won’t last much longer, which is disappointing for a used book classification of “good”.

"When those millions of people tuned in hoping to witness the moonwalk, one thing they wouldn't see [...] were the nonastronauts, those beyond the glare of the limelight. The regular folks whose efforts made an impossible mission possible in the first place." (From the text.)I bought this book because I hoped to read about teamwork and a variety of roles needed to execute a mission to the moon.The writing is breathless. And given to sentence fragments. The reading level would be OK for older FLL team members. (Lexile 1060L / Guided reading Y.)The photos are lovely, although the white lettering on black background leaves something to be desired for these old eyes. The inclusion of quotes is neat, and tells the story differently from some drier retellings for the moon landing.Did I get my stories of teamwork? Sort of. There are stories about programming alerts coming through as the Apollo 11 astronauts are trying to make a moon landing, being low on fuel, frozen fuel. The teams here are engineering teams and mission control. One doesn't get a sense of many specialties coming together. The section on the space suit is a bit better, and we get quotes from a space suit "model" and a seamstress who assembled the suits. Then comes a story about wind nearly messing up the transmissions for the first moonwalk. The discussion of tracking the astronaut's life support performance by hand is interesting, but again is mostly focused on the engineering aspects.The section on photography was fascinating. The astronauts received training on how to take photos and what to take photos of (because you can't change film in a space suit), and then there was the question of how to decontaminate the film (without damaging it!), in case there were lunar germs. It's a great story.I came away from the book with the impression that a wide range of engineering specialties were needed, but less so a sense of the non-engineering specialties needed. From the choice of featuring the seamstress in the promotional materials, I'd hoped for broader coverage of all the specialties and skills needed.FIRST teams need a huge range of skills, not all of them engineering. While this book is beautiful and interesting, it didn't quite have the hoped-for message about non-engineering skills also being needed.

Very pleased with the speed we received the book and with the condition of the book. Thank you!

item as described

My 12 year old son loved this book! It is neat to hear about the people behind the scenes.

great price and fast delivery

This book became an instant hit with our family for personal reasons: I and a nearby neighbor are just two of the thousands credited with getting the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. We found a single copy of Team Moon at a national chain bookstore, and as soon as we realized its story we purchased it as a birthday gift for a granddaughter. I wrote a letter outlining my part of the mission, and our neighbor signed the pages where his name appears.Apart from our personal interest, we found the book to be informative and interesting on several levels. We appreciated the author's approach with the use of Challenges to the mission's success.Subsequently, we ordered from Amazon an additional 5 copies to present to the families of our other grandchildren when the time is right. We can hardly wait!

Very good information for my 15 year old granddaughter

What a little gem of a book.