List of Illustrations Foreword by Francis French 1. Launch Morning 2. Beginnings 3. Astronaut Selection 4. Going Back to Houston 5. After the Fire 6. Liftoff 7. Rendezvous 8. The Grandeur of Earth 9. Return to Earth 10. Splashdown 11. Home 12. After the Flight Afterword by Susie Eisele Black Historical Overview by Amy Shira Teitel Acknowledgments Index
Donn Eisele (1930–87) flew the Apollo 7 spacecraft in
1968 and served as backup command module pilot for the Apollo 10
moon mission. After retiring from the air force and the space
program, he became director of the U.S. Peace Corps in Thailand.
Francis French is the director of education at the San
Diego Air and Space Museum and the coauthor of Into That Silent
Sea: Trailblazers of the Space Era, 1961–1965 (Nebraska,
2007). Susie Eisele Black (1939–2014) was the widow of
astronaut Donn Eisele.
“[Donn Eisele was] a sharp-eyed witness to space history, to the
darker side of Apollo, and we are lucky to have his
memories.”—Michael Cassutt, coauthor of Deke! and We Have
Capture
“Raw, unvarnished, and edgy, this is Eisele, unplugged. His highly
personal account is both sweet and sour but, ultimately, one
hell of a unique and fascinating read.”—Richard Jurek, coauthor of
Marketing the Moon: The Selling of the Apollo Lunar Program
“At long last, the enigmatic Donn Eisele tells his story. Eisele
holds nothing back in his memoirs discussing 1960s-era NASA and his
historic Apollo 7 mission. His blunt reminiscences make other
Apollo astronaut autobiographies look like kids’ books. His memoirs
illuminate his frustrations with astronaut life, his unique, often
quirky sense of humor, and his thrill at the view from Earth's
orbit. Like it or not, Eisele tells it like it is—his long-silenced
voice is finally brought to vivid life.”—Emily Carney, space
historian
“Apollo Pilot is a lost treasure of the golden age of space
exploration, a critical and controversial time that people talk
about, but that no one has ever heard like this. This first-person
account of Apollo 7’s Donn Eisele is a vital missing piece of the
history of NASA’s journey to the moon.”—David Hitt, coauthor of
Homesteading Space: The Skylab Story
“I came away astounded, frankly, by [Donn Eisele’s] brutally honest
depiction of life in the heyday of NASA. I felt like I was there
with Eisele, only a step or two behind him during the colorful
phases of selection, training, and flight operations that marked
his time as an Apollo 7 crewmember.”—Jay Gallentine, space
historian and award-winning author of Infinity Beckoned:
Adventuring Through the Inner Solar System, 1969–1989
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