NASA Apollo 11: Owners' Workshop Manual

I worked on the Apollo spacecraft as a test engineer at the factory in Downey from it's conception. I would have like to have a book this book on the early manned space craft. I used a children book to see the scope of the Apollo that was all that was available then (see attached). We were inventing everything as we when along. We did have a General Electric Mission Map in the one of the Apollo test and Operation WAR room offices in Building 290 Downey CA that was helpful (attached). People don't realize that there were 99 Apollo command module made if you count the Mock ups.boiler plates, unmanned and manned spacecraft. There were dozens if not hundreds of engineering changes being made every day So building this bird was very complex and difficult.Being an electrical engineer I didn't see the electrical diagrams in the book so I attached the Dc and Ac system diagrams. .This is a great book with wonderful history, diagrams and photos. The book covers from conception to the landing and return. it's more of an overview. It try's to cover too much for a workshop manual. Haynes Apollo 13 workshop manual does a better job of doing that. I would recommend buying that book to supplement what was missing from this book. Actually you need both books to get a thorough look at the Apollo. The quality of the book pages are excellent too..This book is good purchase.

Of the 7-10 books on the space program I've read over the years think this is one of the best overall text + illustration overviews of the Apollo program. No other text I've found better describes the breadth of the engineering challenges and solutions across the program, with reasonable technical depth and plenty of supporting photographs, illustrations, drawings and descriptions.Is it a "Workshop Manual" containing intricate technical specifications and comprehensive engineering drawings of all aspects of Apollo (e.g. its millions of parts)? No and its unreasonable to expect such a thing would actually make it to publication, such a text would appeal to a sliver of this already niche audience. So the book may not be appropriated titled and is not really one would expect a Hayes Workshop Manual for the Apollo hardware to be. Take a star off for that but hard to imagine anyone giving this book less than 4 stars. Anyone purchasing this book could/should look at the provided example text images & can even find a crummy PDF of it floating around to know what they are getting. Think they should not be surprised or disappointed by the book but instead pleased that such a well-illustrated new book on Apollo made it to press. If you're looking for less story and more specific hardware illustrations reach for "Virtual Apollo", if for more detailed text and more of the human side there are a other good texts to choose from (e.g. works involving specific people involved w/Apollo).The authors deserve praise for the huge effort it must have been to gather the info, photographs and illustrations and present them in a logical, largely comprehensive and consumable/interesting way. This is one of my few real keepers on the space program and particularly the Apollo program. It's an excellent, illustrative, interesting, deep enough overview/recap of the engineering challenges encountered and solutions devised across the program.

I got my manual and found it very impressive. The pictures are great and it looks at the whole mission, the hardware, and spacecraft. The detailed drawings are detailed but a little blurry at times. They could have used a little digital enhancement, not a turn off for me. Since the original drawings were done by hand they are true depictions of what was available at the time. I have looked at the book casually the last few days and like it a lot. I went to Johnson space center and saw the Saturn V and now know a lot more about what it was that I saw. Neat book, I recommend it. Not overly engineered but not dumbed down either. It's Technician level. It is not a personal narrative but a look at the engineering and design needed to achieve the goal. I recommend this, I liked it, and will put it into my personal collection on "The Shelf".If you would like to see historical technical drawings go to [...]

I liked it, for the average joe an above average book. Of course its not as you would expect from a Haynes manual, How could it be at 196 pages?But what you do get is a well produced and illustrated overview of the LV and Apollo stack. Its true we've seen a lot of the material here, but some is a little more obscure and entertaining for browsing (space suits etc). Its a good companion as stated in other reviews here to watching the videos (In the Apollo 13 movie they got the S1C paint scheme wrong. see page 34 and compare )or looking at the real thing in the USA. It Brings a lot of different elements together and presents them to you in an attractive way. If you want more details get Stages to Saturn or the flight Manuals, failing that there are still the microfilm blueprints with NASA.Still it may help with the right answers to entertaining pub quiz questions (i actually heard these answers given): first man on the moon , Lance Armstrong, capt of 13 , Tom Hanks !

Although not really a workshop manual (at least not in the sense that the Haynes manual for my old Triumph Spitfire really was a shop manual), this book is a solid and well assembled collection of facts, drawings and photos from the Apollo era in general, and the Apollo 11 mission in particular. The clever packaging is sure to draw a "What the..." from people who know what a Haynes manual is. The text is informative and well written, without getting too deep into the jargon and technical details. I found it quite enjoyable to page through it, and if I was going to give a someone a first book to read about the Apollo program, it would probably be this one.

It's not like your run-of-the-mill Haynes manual, in that it's not a service and repair guide based on the complete stripdown of an actual vehicle. It's basically a well-written information book with loads of geeky facts and pictures put together in an easy to digest style that compels you to just keep reading. It doesn't just detail the craft itself, or the process of physically flying it. It also discusses everything from the logistics of planning a menu, to the evolution of space-suit design, toilet habits and the details of both the software and hardware of the lunar module's computer. It makes you wonder how on Earth so much could ever be achieved in an era when so much of the basic minimum technology required was still in its very infancy - or had to be essentially invented for the endeavour.

It won't show you how to repair your F1 or J1 engines and it isn't a ridiculously technical book, but it will answer a lot of questions about the Saturn V you might have. There is a very useful history of the development of rocket power and even a useful explanation about what went wrong with Apollo 13. Some of the facts and figures are mind-blowing too. I still can't get my head around the fact that each F1 engine of the first stage burned 3 tons of liquid oxygen (LOX) and RP-1 (Aviation kerosene) per second. ... Yes, per second and not per mile! That's 15 tons of fuel for all five engines each second until the end of the burn at two and a half minutes. It's facts like that which make you realise afresh what a genuinely incredible programme Apollo was. Whether you are quite clued up about the Apollo programme or just very interested and want to know more, this book is a must to have on your bookshelf!

This is a superb book. If you were lucky enough to the see the Discovery channel's 'Moon Machines' series then you'll have an idea what to expect. This is a history of the Apollo programme (and to a lesser extent the manned spaceflight programme) presented with excellent illustrations (original technical drawings, extremely rare photographs, great diagrams etc) and accompanied by well written and informative prose. If you appreciate Apollo or have any interest in spaceflight engineering then I would urge you to buy this book. It's VERY good.

There are lots of books about the US space programme, written by various people involved and other researchers. This book looks at Apollo from a different view, more as technical programme showing the various ideas and concepts as well as the final solutions in the Saturn rocket CM and LM that made up Apollo 11. For anyone interested in the space programmes and Apollo this is a good read and well presented. An interesting departure for Haynes Manuals, I look forward to the Space Shuttle book due later in 2011.

This is an interesting overview of not just the Apollo 11 moonshot, but of all the work that led up to it. Obviously, it's not a workshop manual - it couldn't possibly be - and it's not highly technical. For someone who actually saw that "one small step" on TV in July 1969, it is a readable book, with plenty of illustrations, to have on the bookshelf. I just hope that there will be a later edition with satellite photos of the actual landing sites, to silence the conspiracy theorists.