John Bisney - Moonshots and Snapshots of Project Apollo: A Rare Photographic History

Moonshots and Snapshots of Project Apollo

Photographers on the Saturn Causeway capture the Apollo 16 launch vehicle on Pad 39A at sunset, looking west across Pintail Creek, on April 15. (photo by Tom and Mark Usciak)

A Rare Photographic History

JOHN BISNEY
J. L. PICKERING

ISBN for this digital edition: 978-0-8263-5260-6

2015 by the University of New Mexico Press

All rights reserved. Published 2015

Printed in Korea

20 19 18 17 16 2 3 4 5 6

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

Bisney, John, 1954

Moonshots and snapshots of Project Apollo : a rare photographic history / by John Bisney and J. L. Pickering.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-0-8263-5594-2 (cloth : alk. paper)

1. Project Apollo (U.S.)Pictorial works. 2. Project Apollo (U.S.)History. 3. Space flight to the moonPictorial works. 4. Space photographyUnited States. I. Pickering, J. L., 1957 II.

Title. TL789.8.U6A5217 2015

629.454dc23

2014038537

Cover photograph courtesy of NASA

Designed by Lila Sanchez

Activity at the grandstand at the LC-39 Press Site picks up as the Apollo 12 launch approaches on November 14, 1969. Built in 1967, the grandstand was torn down following damage from Hurricane Frances in September 2004. The CBS-TV camera at bottom center is on the platform seen on .

A photographer sets up for the Apollo 8 launch on December 21, 1968, at the LC-39 Press Site, the first manned launch from the complex.

We wish to gratefully thank the following individuals, without whose help this effort would not have been complete.

Jay Barbree

Alan Bean

Charles Bourland

Vance Brand

Tammy Summers Bucher

John Byram

Norm Carlson

Jerry Carr

Gene Cernan

Skip Chauvin

Wes Chesser

Laura Shepard Churchley

Vic Craft

Walt Cunningham

John de Bry

Paul Donnelly

Owen Garriott

Mike Gentry

Ed Gibson

Mark Gray

Ed Harrison

Ken Havekotte

Jim Hawk

A. R. Hogan

John Johnson

Joel Kastowitz

Chris Kraft

Chuck Lewis

Sy Liebergot

Ed Mitchell

Dee OHara

Rich Orloff

Margaret Persinger

Don Phillips

Gwen Pittman

Bill Pogue

James Ragusa

Morgan Raines

Al Rochford

Louie Roquefort

Jody Russell

Scott Schneeweis

Rusty Schweickart

Bob Sieck

Lee Starrick

Dwight Steven-Boniecki

John Stonesifer

Larry Summers

Tip Talone

Kipp Teague

Jacques Tiziou

Jonathan Ward

Don Willis

Leigh Wilson

Ron Woods

Robert Yowell

John Bisney

This book, which begins in 1967, chronicles the Apollo program and its two follow-ons, Skylab and the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP). It is the companion volume to Spaceshots and Snapshots of Projects Mercury and Gemini. We again drew from among the more rarely seen manned spaceflight images to take you to the moon and on months-long odysseys above Earth, wrapping up with the first international manned flight in 1975.

The most important outside source for this project was our friend, French photojournalist Jacques Tiziou. I first met Jacques while covering Space Shuttle missions, and I eventually mentioned to J. L. that Jacques had been a reporter and photographer during Apollo. The two soon met; J. L. was thrilled to have hit such a gold mine. Jacques still had most of his Apollo photos as beautiful 35mm color slides stored in his basement, unseen for decades. He has generously given us permission to share some of his unpublished photos, which often provide a more artistic look than NASAs somewhat clinical photographs do. That said, government shooters could also capture the unusual angle or moment, and all of our contributors could be said to have taken a fair number of snapshots during their professional duties.

We also tried to provide a more complete understanding of all the events and processes before and after the missions than existing space-photo books have done. J. L sent the photos to me in sequence, presenting the missions in almost storyboard fashion. I then chose those I felt had exceptional visual, engineering, or human-interest appeal. We occasionally switched out a photo to maintain the flights narrative, or in a few instances, J. L. came up with a higher-quality or more unusual image to substitute.

For the Apollo program, one group of advisors deserves special mention: the astronauts themselves. Thanks to J. L.s reputation and to our mutual involvement in the space-history community, we have been honored to become friends with a number of the pioneering men whose exploits we illustrate. Their input has been invaluable and has helped to ensure the accuracy of this work. I would especially like to thank Walt Cunningham, Alan Bean, and Ed Gibson for their generous help.

A word about distanceswe used statute (land-based) miles for distances instead of what is commonly used in space (nautical miles), simply because thats what most people are familiar with.

Each chapter again begins with that flights crew emblem, and for these missions we use the final artwork. The detailed captions take you through the climax and conclusion of the Space Race. Now J. L. will provide you with his insights into each missions photo pedigree.

J. L. Pickering

When I think of an iconic photo from Apollo 1, unfortunately that of the charred spacecraft comes to mind, but we instead selected the praying crew photo to open this book. A relatively rare image, the color version was a nice find several years ago. utilizes material from the spacecrafts manufacturer, North American, showing the crew and spacecraft in Downey, California. Also included are more recent finds from the Johnson Space Center (JSC) showing the crewmen during their final month of training.

Apollo 7 turned out to be the subject of one of my favorite chapters, as there was a tremendous amount of photographic material to choose from. I was able to secure some nice alternate crew photos from astronaut Walt Cunningham, who was also a big help with some identification work; fellow photo historian Ed Hengeveld provided some fresh views of the recovery. My only regret with the Apollo 7 photography in general is that I wish there were more images of the crew during the mission. Nonetheless, we are pleased to give this mission, which is frequently downplayed, its due.

Apollo 8 really brings into focus the enormity of the Apollo program, from the challenges of processing and launching the first manned Saturn V, to the rewards of the first majestic images of Earth from deep space. No one would argue with the choice of the iconic image of Apollo 8, and we placed it in its original orientation. When sizing up the availability of pre- and postflight images from the Apollo program, Apollo 8 amazingly ranks near the bottom. For some reason, the usual overflow shots were not released (as was done for Apollo 9 and 11). We use some NASA images showing the news media at Kennedy Space Center (KSC); these give a sense of what it was like to cover an Apollo launch. We also include some launch photos by Jacques Tiziou and his brother, Michel.