Counting Down to Apollo — A Personal Record of the Space Race — Est. 1962

Counting Down to Apollo

One American's account of watching humanity reach the Moon

Mission Log: Apollo 14

Fra Mauro geology and Alan Shepard’s golf shot

Apollo 14 Home — Eight Men on the Moon
Apollo 14 February 9, 1971

Apollo 14 Home — Eight Men on the Moon

Apollo 14 splashed down today. Eight men have now walked on the Moon. After Apollo 13, I needed this. After the near-disaster that shouldn't have been, the mission that recovered and continued, this feels like proof that the program is intact. Eight men. I keep counting them.
Read the full entry
Alan Shepard Plays Golf on the Moon
Apollo 14 February 6, 1971

Alan Shepard Plays Golf on the Moon

At the end of the second moonwalk, Alan Shepard pulled a makeshift 6-iron head from his suit pocket, attached it to a sample-collection rod, and hit two golf balls on the Moon. He shanked the first one. He caught the second one clean. "Miles and miles," he said. I laughed…
Read the full entry
Alan Shepard Comes Back
Apollo 14 February 5, 1971

Alan Shepard Comes Back

Alan Shepard landed on the Moon today. The first American in space — Freedom 7, fifteen minutes, May 1961 — landed on another world at Fra Mauro. He is forty-seven years old. He waited ten years for this. His first words on the surface: "It's been a long way, but…
Read the full entry