It was always predictable that a number of books celebrating NASA`s first half-century would be published, as it was that at least some of them would be large-format tomes like this one. Measuring 28cm x 37cm and weighing over 3kg, it certainly fits the category of large format, and the fact that it is edited by NASA`s Chief Historian and other notables should vouch for the content.
Actually, the written content is not that significant, because this is predominantly a picture book. It is divided into four sections, entitled `In the Beginning”, `The First `A” in NASA”, `One Small Step…” and `Voyages in Space and Time”, each of which has a one-page introduction. Apart from a Foreword, by Neil Armstrong, and Afterword, the text is otherwise limited to photo captions. So let`s look at the pictures.
Considering how many thousands of photographs have been taken during the existence of NASA, it must have been difficult to choose which 400 or so to use in this book and the editors undoubtedly had one or two arguments over their personal favourites. As one would expect from a book that covers events in the 1950s, black-and-white photographs predominate in the early pages. For example, we see the familiar shot of Oberth, von Braun and other Huntsville officials posed around a desk replete with rocket models and the failed Vanguard launch with its tilted nosecone and billowing flame. There are also colour photos in this section, though, including one of an engineer peering into the lower half of a Vanguard ‘grapefruit` satellite and a nice shot of the VAB under construction.
Many of the pictures are familiar, even iconic – the Gemini capsule in orbit, Aldrin`s lunar footprint, the Challenger smoke trails – while others are less well known. In some cases, however, it is difficult to see why a particular picture was chosen, because of its relative poor quality: a shot of Gene Cernan in a Gemini capsule (p131) and another on p177 suffer from obvious camera shake, while others, such as a training shot of Christa McAuliffe and Barbara Morgan and the Apollo-Soyuz ‘handshake in space`, are grainy or seriously out of focus. Where they are of great historic importance or otherwise irreplaceable, this is acceptable (as with the only clear shot of Armstrong on the Moon), but in most cases these pictures do not deserve a whole-page treatment, even less a double-page spread. And why was it necessary to crop the top of Aldrin`s helmet in the iconic ‘man on the Moon` shot? More care should have been taken with the technical and artistic aspects of the imagery.
Having said that, there are some superb images here too. A shot of Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper posed in his spacesuit against a yellow background is a good example of what the caption calls `an atypical official portrait”. Its sharp focus and interesting lighting shows the difference between a professional photograph and a snapshot (like the Mercury group portrait which clearly shows the rear three astronauts standing on a wooden bench – not very high tech!). Another good one is the overhead shot of the Apollo 16 landing, just before splashdown, which is stunning in its simplicity.
In conclusion, this was a book that was bound to be published and one for which picture choice was always going to be difficult. Although it is a book that all space aficionados will want on their shelves, few will place it at the top of their ‘best books` list. Considering the anniversary being celebrated, it is insufficiently ‘special` for that. As a result, it is one of those books that, by next year, will be available in remainder shops for a third of the cover price. Sad, but true.