protomattr reviewed Carrying the Fire by Michael Collins
Review of 'Carrying the Fire' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Without a doubt, this is by far best book I've read about the space program. Collins was uniquely positioned to write such a singularly important book, being the closest eye-witness to one of humanity's towering achievements. Not participating directly in the landing, but listening to it from orbit 60 miles above the surface of the Moon, gives him an enhanced perspective, detached yet supremely interested, as evidenced by his futile attempts to locate his crewmates via his ship's sextant. This perspective, along with Collins's predispositions, yields fertile ground from which to reap rich meaning and context, commodities perhaps hard to come by for test pilots who have been trained to operate complex machines and collect raw data. Among his Apollo 11 crew, Collins represents a sort of middle ground between cool and reserved Neil Armstrong and hot and flamboyant Buzz Aldrin, possessing personality traits that served him well while flying …
Without a doubt, this is by far best book I've read about the space program. Collins was uniquely positioned to write such a singularly important book, being the closest eye-witness to one of humanity's towering achievements. Not participating directly in the landing, but listening to it from orbit 60 miles above the surface of the Moon, gives him an enhanced perspective, detached yet supremely interested, as evidenced by his futile attempts to locate his crewmates via his ship's sextant. This perspective, along with Collins's predispositions, yields fertile ground from which to reap rich meaning and context, commodities perhaps hard to come by for test pilots who have been trained to operate complex machines and collect raw data. Among his Apollo 11 crew, Collins represents a sort of middle ground between cool and reserved Neil Armstrong and hot and flamboyant Buzz Aldrin, possessing personality traits that served him well while flying solo in Columbia, and while writing this book. By this I mean that Collins offers the reader a balanced combination of technical information regarding his flights and those of his colleagues, and honest discussions of what all of this meant to him personally. After all, we send humans in space not only to collect data, but to hear their stories.
Project Gemini is often overlooked due to its position between the firsts of Mercury and the Moon landings. In some ways it's my favorite phase of the early space program though, as it represents, and indeed contains, much of the journey, the trial-and-error figuring out of basic yet complicated problems such as "how do you bring two spacecraft together in orbit?" and "how do you get around outside your spacecraft?" and "how long can astronauts live in space anyway?" Or indeed, "how do you put crews together?" These are things that were top-line prerequisites for going to the Moon. Collins flew on Gemini 10 with another legend, John Young, and performed one of the hairiest spacewalks in the program. The chapters covering Gemini are standouts in this superb book.
As mentioned earlier, Collins doesn't hesitate to personalize his narrative, to describe frankly his point-of-view and give his opinions on space exploration, politics, conservation, or less serious matters, all the while relating to the reader in a very personal way. This, along with his unique perspective and excellent writing style, makes Carrying the Fire a perennial essential read.
