Books like Apollo pilot by Donn Eisele

Chris Hadfield shares his training and spaceflight experiences, teaching readers how to make the impossible possible by preparing for the worst and enjoying every moment.

On July 20, 1969, the world stood still to watch 38-year-old American astronaut Neil A. Armstrong become the first person ever to step on the surface of another heavenly body. Upon his return to Earth, Armstrong was celebrated for his monumental achievement. He was also--as NASA historian Hansen reveals in this authorized biography--misunderstood. Armstrong's accomplishments as an engineer, a test pilot, and an astronaut have long been a matter of record, but Hansen's access to private documents and unpublished sources and his interviews with more than 125 subjects (including more than fifty hours with Armstrong himself) yield the first in-depth analysis of this elusive, reluctant hero. Hansen recreates Armstrong's flying career, from his combat missions over North Korea to his transatmospheric flights in the rocket-powered X-15 to the first-ever docking in space. For a pilot who cared more about flying to the Moon than he did about walking on it, Hansen asserts, Armstrong's storied vocation exacted a dear personal toll, paid in kind by his wife and children.--From publisher description.

On January 31, 1971, Apollo 14 lifted off from Cape Kennedy, and three days later, Edgar Mitchell and Alan Shepard walked on the lunar surface. It was an audacious time in the history of mankind. For Mitchell, however, the most extraordinary journey was yet to come. As he hurtled earthward through the abyss between the two worlds, Mitchell became engulfed by a profound sensation - "a sense of universal connectedness." He intuitively sensed that his presence, that of his fellow astronauts, and that of the planet in the window were all part of a deliberate, universal process and that the glittering cosmos itself was in some way conscious. The experience was so overwhelming Mitchell knew his life would never be the same. The direction his work would take for the next twenty-five years was another journey of sorts, one that would carry him inward as he explored the ineffable mystery of consciousness and being. Having been reared in a Southern Baptist family, and gone on to study the revolutionary sciences of the day at MIT, he felt the need to reconcile what had always been thought of as separate in his life and in the Western mind - science and religion. Consequently, in the early 1970s, Mitchell left NASA to found the Institute of Noetic Sciences. The Institute allowed him to initiate research in areas of study previously neglected by mainstream science. Through his work, Mitchell began to construct a theory that could explain not only the mystery of human consciousness, but the psychic event as well - what the spiritualist refers to as "miracle" and the scientist dismisses altogether. . His story culminates in a new "dyadic" model of reality that brings consciousness into the equation of how our self-aware universe works. What he reveals through this model is that we live in a universe that is not predetermined by the laws of physics, not preordained by deities, nor infinitely malleable. While human intentions are generally subject to the laws of physics, these laws are also influenced by mind.

Buzz Aldrin recounts his life from childhood to stepping onto the moon, showing how perseverance, education, and belief turned his dreams into reality.