Apollo Pilot

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.

• List of IllustrationsForeword by Francis French1. Launch Morning2. Beginnings3. Astronaut Selection4. Going Back to Houston5. After the Fire6. Liftoff7. Rendezvous8. The Grandeur of Earth9. Return to Earth10. Splashdown11. Home12. After the FlightAfterword by Susie Eisele BlackHistorical Overview by Amy Shira TeitelAcknowledgmentsIndex

"A posthumous memoir gives an unsung astronaut his due."-Kirkus “[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