First Man HB Life of Neil Arms

by James Hansen

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To all the space geeks and kids at heart, who turn six years old at the mention of Eagle or Tranquility Base,who stand outside in the cold, bright night just to watch another half hour of the moon, this book might be for you (too).

The biography does start off a little too close to the glittery territory of “manifest destiny,” awestruck at overreaching significances, but thankfully, seems to present that (tempting, common) view only so Armstrong can reign it in and set the record straight. Hansen’s thoroughness is boggling in the early stages, but once it gets to The Good Stuff— the inner workings of the space program and beyond— that dedication and detail is massively welcomed.

One of history’s greatest leaps gets recorded, candidly and carefully, in the very small steps, and my respect for Armstrong, already sky high, has quadrupled at least. He may very well have not been the only man capable of the job at hand, climbing to our little orbiting satellite four decades ago, but I’m certainly glad it did fall to him to be our first man on the moon.

2 stars for the necessarily exhaustive first chapters, 4 stars for the stellar coverage of the lunar landing and NASA at large.