Long Voyage to the Moon

Geoffrey Bowman is a retired litigation lawyer living with his wife in Belfast, Northern Ireland. A sometime glider pilot, he is a fellow of the British Interplanetary Society and has contributed to the society’s Spaceflight magazine. He is a regular contributor on spaceflight to the quarterly magazine of the Irish Astronomical Association, of which he is a member. Jack Lousma is a retired U.S. Marine Corps colonel, former naval aviator, NASA astronaut, and politician. He was a member of the second crew on the Skylab space station in 1973 and commanded the third space shuttle flight in 1982.

• List of IllustrationsForewordPrefaceAcknowledgmentsPrologue1. Kansas Kid2. Jayhawk3. The Pilot and Miss Pollom4. Wings5. Fighting Falcon6. Top Guns of Oriskany7. Teachers and Pupils8. Deke and Al9. Screaming Eagle10. Rolling Thunder11. Per Ardua ad Astra12. El Lago13. Modules14. “Go Fever”15. Two Lives16. Footprints in the Dust17. Backups18. The Rocky Road to Taurus-Littrow19. Many a Slip20. Captain America Sets Sail21. Into the Shadow22. The Big Picture23. Spaceman24. Return to Ticonderoga25. End of an Era26. Apollo-Soyuz and Beyond27. The Most Alien World28. Ad AstraSourcesIndex

"At long last, those unfamiliar with Evans' life and career get to know the last person to perform a deep space EVA."-Emily Carney, National Space Society "This well-written, fascinating book provides a biography of Evans with a special focus on his role during Apollo 17."-J. Z. Kiss, Choice "Bowman's storytelling and lively, conversational prose make A Long Voyage to the Moon a commendable biography of Jan Evans's husband, who flew for the navy and conducted science beyond low earth orbit, for general audiences and anyone interested in astronauts who have not landed in the history books with one small step. . . . The story of Ron Evans points to the additional science that could be done on the moon and urges us to remember the partners and support systems who make the extraordinary possible and worth doing."-Kevin Castro, H-Sci-Med-Tech "This work will appeal to those who simply cannot read enough about the history of crewed space flight. We should all be thankful that Bowman has written this book and shined a light on this historic aviator and space traveller."-Dr. Brian Laslie, From Balloons to Drones “From a small town in Kansas to dodging enemy rockets in a jet fighter over North Vietnam to orbiting the moon on Apollo’s final lunar voyage, here is the extraordinary journey of Ron Evans. In this thoroughly detailed biography, Geoffrey Bowman captures a man of unflappable calm and easygoing warmth who met the final frontier with unabashed exuberance. In these pages, you’ll learn why Evans left countless people, myself included, feeling honored and glad to have known him.”-Andrew Chaikin, author of A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts “Ron Evans is one of the unsung heroes of the Apollo program. . . . I am delighted that this book now tells the story of Ron’s remarkable life.”-Farouk El-Baz, geologist and trainer of Apollo astronauts in observation and photography “Ron Evans and I were selected as NASA astronauts in 1966. I enjoyed my time with Ron during our ‘rookie’ years through a variety of training before I was selected for Apollo 13 and Ron for Apollo 17. This very interesting and informative account of Ron’s life and career emphasizes how we shared with many others the immense privilege of having been a part of the Apollo program.”-Fred Haise, lunar module pilot on Apollo 13