The Earth Gazers by Christopher Potter review – the missions to the moon

A new telling of the story of the Apollo astronauts between 1968 and 1972 involves nervous breakdowns, a former Nazi and an atheist church

As he approached the moon in 1971 the Apollo 14 astronaut Stuart Roosa played the hymn "How Great Thou Art". When Michael Collins first went into space in 1966 - he was the one who stayed on board the command module while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took the steps - he carried a copy of the sonnet "High Flight" by the wartime Spitfire pilot John Magee: his Gemini X craft had "slipped surly bonds of Earth" and "touched the face of God".

All three members of the crew of Apollo 8 read the opening verses of Genesis in a global broadcast when they rounded the moon in late December 1968. The following year, Aldrin sipped communion wine on its surface, ate pre-consecrated wafers at a makeshift altar aboard the lunar module Eagle and read the words from the Gospel of John that begin "I am the vine; you are the branches." Armstrong afterwards said: "I had plenty of things to keep busy with. I just let him do his own thing."

Continue reading...