Book Report: Falling to Earth

It's Al Worden's autobiography. Al Worden grew up a farmboy, but became an Apollo astronaut. He didn't walk on the moon. He was a pilot, excited about piloting spaceships. He was pretty excited to pilot the module that orbited the moon for a few days instead of landing. He was around as fickle America started to lose interest in the moon. And he agreed to carry some envelopes into space for some philatelists who planned to sell them, and thus got fired from the Apollo program and hauled in to testify before congress about astronaut ethics. He went on to become an engineer, designing equipment for airplanes; and he ran for congress. As you might guess from all this, he had an interesting life and his autobiography makes good reading. Have you heard folks talk about how their attitude towards the world changed when they saw the "big blue marble" photo? Here you can read the recollection of someone who saw that live before the photo came along—and how it helped him understand our place.