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Operation Moonglow: A Political History of Project Apollo
The moon landing was an important moment in history, but many forget what was happening behind the scenes -- discover the groundbreaking political history of the Apollo program in this riveting exploration of America's space missions.
Since July 1969, Neil Armstrong's first step on the Moon has represented the pinnacle of American space exploration and a grand scientific achievement. Yet, as Smithsonian curator Teasel Muir-Harmony argues in Operation Moonglow , its primary purpose wasn't advancing science. Rather, it was part of a political strategy to build a global coalition. Starting with President John F. Kennedy's 1961 decision to send astronauts to the Moon to promote American "freedom" over Soviet "tyranny," Project Apollo was central to American foreign relations. From that perspective, the critical event did not just take place on the lunar surface, it took place in homes, public squares, palaces, and schools around the world, as Apollo captured global attention like never before. After the Moon landing, the Apollo astronauts and President Richard Nixon traveled the world to amplify the sense of participation and global unity shared by billions of people who followed the flight.
Drawing on a rich array of untapped archives and firsthand interviews with Apollo astronauts, Operation Moonglow paints a riveting picture of the intersection of spaceflight, geopolitics, propaganda, and diplomacy during the Cold War.
Since July 1969, Neil Armstrong's first step on the Moon has represented the pinnacle of American space exploration and a grand scientific achievement. Yet, as Smithsonian curator Teasel Muir-Harmony argues in Operation Moonglow , its primary purpose wasn't advancing science. Rather, it was part of a political strategy to build a global coalition. Starting with President John F. Kennedy's 1961 decision to send astronauts to the Moon to promote American "freedom" over Soviet "tyranny," Project Apollo was central to American foreign relations. From that perspective, the critical event did not just take place on the lunar surface, it took place in homes, public squares, palaces, and schools around the world, as Apollo captured global attention like never before. After the Moon landing, the Apollo astronauts and President Richard Nixon traveled the world to amplify the sense of participation and global unity shared by billions of people who followed the flight.
Drawing on a rich array of untapped archives and firsthand interviews with Apollo astronauts, Operation Moonglow paints a riveting picture of the intersection of spaceflight, geopolitics, propaganda, and diplomacy during the Cold War.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published November 24, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
January 7, 2021
I am very pleased to have read this book by the talented National Air and Space Museum curator Teasel Muir-Harmony. Given all that has been written about the Apollo moon missions over the last five decades, a reader might wonder if there is anything new to add. Yet Muir-Harmony still manages to make a fresh contribution to the field here because she focuses not on the well-told stories of missions themselves, but on how Apollo became an instrument of diplomacy by the United States government. In 1953, President Dwight Eisenhower established the United States Information Agency (USIA) in order "to understand, inform, and influence foreign publics in promotion of the national interest." Over the ensuing years, Muir-Harmony explains in great detail how officials from the USIA and other government organizations traveled the world to cultivate an interest in American spaceflight among foreign populations. For instance, hundreds of thousands of Japanese people waited in line for hours to see John Glenn's Friendship 7 spacecraft on display there. By Apollo 11 in 1969, the USIA was sending kiosk exhibits, space food samples, spacecraft models, films, and pamphlets in various languages overseas so that people throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia could feel a sense of participation in the first moon landing. Then the crew of Neil Armstrong, Mike Collins, and Buzz Aldrin even traveled to 22 nations after their return from the Moon. Thus Muir-Harmony is able to make a convincing argument that going to the Moon with Apollo was not only about constructing machines that could do the job; it was also about cultivating a positive image of the United States abroad.
Muir-Harmony does a great job of explaining what the United States accomplished with this. President Kennedy knew that during the tense Cold War with the Soviet Union, he wanted people in foreign nations that were not yet aligned with any superpower to have a positive image of the United States. This was a large factor in why he committed the U.S. to a moon landing before decade's end in 1961. By the time 1969 rolled around and people across the world had watched Armstrong and Aldrin walk on the Moon through a live television broadcast, the U.S. had indeed captured the admiration of the world through Apollo. That admiration came not because Americans constantly flouted the fact that they were the nation that had sent men to the Moon, but because Americans consistently said that this was an accomplishment of all mankind that should make all citizens of the world feel more unified. I definitely recommend reading this book because it presents such a fresh and thought provoking argument and because it represents so many years of work on Muir-Harmony's part. She traveled to several archival collections and interviewed several prominent participants in Apollo, including some of the astronauts. Thanks to her for writing!
Muir-Harmony does a great job of explaining what the United States accomplished with this. President Kennedy knew that during the tense Cold War with the Soviet Union, he wanted people in foreign nations that were not yet aligned with any superpower to have a positive image of the United States. This was a large factor in why he committed the U.S. to a moon landing before decade's end in 1961. By the time 1969 rolled around and people across the world had watched Armstrong and Aldrin walk on the Moon through a live television broadcast, the U.S. had indeed captured the admiration of the world through Apollo. That admiration came not because Americans constantly flouted the fact that they were the nation that had sent men to the Moon, but because Americans consistently said that this was an accomplishment of all mankind that should make all citizens of the world feel more unified. I definitely recommend reading this book because it presents such a fresh and thought provoking argument and because it represents so many years of work on Muir-Harmony's part. She traveled to several archival collections and interviewed several prominent participants in Apollo, including some of the astronauts. Thanks to her for writing!
February 16, 2022
Honestly, this was the worse book i have read in a long time. Maybe it was my fault for not fully grasping what "political history" means. I guess i was more excited to read about the science of the Apollo missions. What I took away is that America, has always been in the business of controlling the narrative. As it is today with the main stream press, everyone wants to control the narrative. That is exactly what Eisenhower wanted. Johnson was just a fear monger as well as a war monger.
I enjoyed the beginning of the book, say the first 80 pages. But then the book got repetitive. The same thing over and over, talking about different perspectives in countries all around the world. I felt like after a while, it was the same thing over and over again. I know there has to be more information to learn, that could have been more of use than learning that some lady in Dubai named her son Frank after Apollo 8 mission. However, as the book went on, it felt like you would learn something new in a small paragraph every 35 pages.
Just happy I got through this book. I wanted to quit around page 140. Life is to short to read boring books. But, I have a reading goal this year, so I pushed through.
If anyone comes across this review and wants the book, I will gladly send it to them for free, shipping and all.
I enjoyed the beginning of the book, say the first 80 pages. But then the book got repetitive. The same thing over and over, talking about different perspectives in countries all around the world. I felt like after a while, it was the same thing over and over again. I know there has to be more information to learn, that could have been more of use than learning that some lady in Dubai named her son Frank after Apollo 8 mission. However, as the book went on, it felt like you would learn something new in a small paragraph every 35 pages.
Just happy I got through this book. I wanted to quit around page 140. Life is to short to read boring books. But, I have a reading goal this year, so I pushed through.
If anyone comes across this review and wants the book, I will gladly send it to them for free, shipping and all.
October 21, 2021
The US space program took off in the 1960s and early 70s. It was an ambitious, exploratory and ground-breaking effort to land men on the Moon and bring them back. It created the term ‘Moonshot’, to mean ‘aim for a lofty target.’ The world viewed the Moonshot as a great American leader stepping forward with a bold initiative and committing the nation to a high ideal of scientific exploration of space. It tagged America as an exceptional and technocratic nation. Its success led Americans to believe ‘if we can land a man on the Moon, we can do anything we set our minds to.’ We can observe its lingering effects even today when Google calls its Google Glass, Self-driving cars and Loon projects as moonshots. However, fifty years have passed since the original Moonshot. The euphoria gives way to more rational and realistic assessments of historical events and achievements. As the book’s title suggests, Apollo was very much a project of great geopolitical significance. Author Teasel Muir-Harmony’s well-documented research establishes how the politics and rivalry of the Cold War influenced the creation and direction of the space program. The political goals choreographed the all-important propaganda side after every noteworthy spaceflight from Mercury to Apollo 11.
The book begins with the origins of the space race and leads us to its evolution into the Moonshot. President Eisenhower, when he assumed office in 1953, had a clear national security philosophy. “To amass military power without regard to our economic capacity,” he warned the country at his first State of the Union address, “would be to defend ourselves against one kind of disaster by inviting another.” He distrusted the military-industrial complex. But the Soviets upset US calculations by sending a dog to space in Nov 1957 aboard the Sputnik satellite. Overnight, the world perceived the USSR getting ahead of the US in science and technology. The American public feared that the Russians were ahead in Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM) too, if they had a powerful rocket to send a satellite to orbit the earth. Eisenhower could not calm these fears while Lyndon Johnson stoked more fears to get political mileage. The administration sold the Vanguard Test Vehicle (TV3) as America’s answer to Sputnik. But the US prestige dived further down in Dec 1957, when TV3 took off only a few feet before its engines failed. It crashed and exploded a few minutes after takeoff.
The 1960s presidential election witnessed John Kennedy talking about the global balance of power shifting away from the US because the Russians were ahead in the space race. But Kennedy was not a space enthusiast and paid little attention to space exploration beyond its use in getting himself elected. Even though he knew that there was no ‘missile gap’ between the US and the USSR, he used it as a national security issue in his election campaign. However, soon after assuming office, he faced two events in April 1961 that made his administration re-evaluate. The Soviets sent Yuri Gagarin as the first human in space and orbit the Earth. A couple of weeks later, the CIA’s Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba ended in total disaster. These two events raised the Soviets’ profile and diminished the US stature in the eyes of the world. Kennedy was well aware of how important psychology was in conducting domestic and foreign policy. He had to come up with answers and come up with them soon. He realized that military victory over the Soviets was a non-starter. Demonstration of the superiority of the capitalist economy over Communism would take decades. His team saw that seizing the initiative through technological mastery was the only way the US can win the competition. It is this compulsion that made him announce the ‘Mission Moon’ before the end of the decade, a month after Gagarin’s spaceflight.
The Soviets held the perceived technology lead well into the late 1960s with their first space walk and lunar soft landings. Their technological feats impressed the world. But the Russians lost the battle for peoples’ minds while their cosmonauts toured the world, showcasing Soviet space technology. This was because of the secrecy and lack of openness in their engagement with the world. They exhibited only a model of their spacecrafts without the real one. In contrast, the Freedom 7 capsule of the US (1961) was on display for the public in Europe and Asia. John Glenn’s Friendship 7 spacecraft was on display around the world, accompanied by lectures and a willingness to share information. The United States Information Service (USIS) around the world threw open its centers to the public with displays, books, films and photographs of the space programs. The US started winning the world’s perception as an open society that is ready to share its space technology with the world. However, it wasn’t a smooth ride as all these efforts stood counteracted by the race riots, anti-Vietnam war violence and civil rights struggles in the 1960s.
The tide turned well in favor of the US after the launch of Apollo 8 in 1968. It was the first manned orbital flight around the moon and sent back the iconic photo of the blue Earthrise over the moon. It turned out to be a most memorable image of the twentieth century. The cloud-speckled ocean-blue sphere of the Earth in color was in such contrast to the grey of the Moon and black of space. At once, this image eroded even the deep, ingrained nationalisms. It promoted a desire for the inescapable recognition of the unity and fragility of the Earth and a yearning to preserve and protect it. Many analysts credit this photograph as giving rise to the environmental movement in the West in 1971. Soon after, Apollo 11 became the pinnacle of the space race, with the first landing on the moon in 1969. The world watched it live on television as the US sealed the psychological and technological victory in the space race. The race riots, the anti-war violence, and the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King would not diminish this achievement in the eyes of the world. Six moon landings happened in total before the Apollo program ended in 1975, having achieved its geopolitical goals.
Author Muir-Harmony emphasizes throughout that the US sent the message that the moon landing was humankind’s achievement rather than just an American achievement. The rest of the world welcomed this message and embraced the program as its own. Her book also reflects this spirit. For her, the rest of the world does not mean only the affluent regions like Europe, Australia and Canada. She devotes substantial space to the way Africa, India and Latin America responded to the visits of the astronauts and their spacecrafts. She credits Edward R. Murrow in creating and spreading the successful narratives of the space program. Murrow was a public relations expert and Kennedy hired him to head the United States Information Agency (USIA) in 1961. The author highlights many instances of public relations strategies which Murrow devised for African and Asian nations. For example, the USIA sent African American spokespersons to Madagascar and other African countries to lecture about American accomplishments in space. It suggested lack of racial discrimination in the US, despite the race riots in the 1960s. However, Muir-Harmony points out the anomaly that a small group of white men in the Administration and NASA made most decisions about the space race and its passage.
In this context, I think it is important to recall the views of other authors who have also written books on the legacy of the Apollo project. Robert Lanius in his book says that NASA was very white, and marginalized African-Americans and other minorities, as we saw documented in the film ‘Hidden Figures.’ He believes the image of spacefaring created by the administration was white, virile, and masculine and Americans perceived space travel this way.
Fifty years on, there is a resurgent interest in space in many countries today. In the US and UK, the private enterprise, led by billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Richard Bronson, is talking of space tourism. Many others, influenced by environmentalists, view the Earth as a ‘dirtied planet,’ and talk about going to Mars as an escape from this sullied home. It is like a religious quest to escape sin and achieve purification. Yet others lament the vanity of the billionaire class when a billion people on earth are still living below the poverty-line. Despite all this, as we saw on CNN during the Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic flights in 2021, the public relation wizards will create new myths about this era of space travel. They would sell it as other than a commercial enterprise, which is what it is today. If Geopolitics was central to the 1960s’ space program, capitalism is central to the twenty-first century space enterprise.
Whatever happens, Arthur Schleisinger, Jr. was right in what he said in the past about space. He held that humankind, far into the future, will always remember the twentieth century as the century when man began exploring space.
An excellent book written with precision and passion.
The book begins with the origins of the space race and leads us to its evolution into the Moonshot. President Eisenhower, when he assumed office in 1953, had a clear national security philosophy. “To amass military power without regard to our economic capacity,” he warned the country at his first State of the Union address, “would be to defend ourselves against one kind of disaster by inviting another.” He distrusted the military-industrial complex. But the Soviets upset US calculations by sending a dog to space in Nov 1957 aboard the Sputnik satellite. Overnight, the world perceived the USSR getting ahead of the US in science and technology. The American public feared that the Russians were ahead in Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM) too, if they had a powerful rocket to send a satellite to orbit the earth. Eisenhower could not calm these fears while Lyndon Johnson stoked more fears to get political mileage. The administration sold the Vanguard Test Vehicle (TV3) as America’s answer to Sputnik. But the US prestige dived further down in Dec 1957, when TV3 took off only a few feet before its engines failed. It crashed and exploded a few minutes after takeoff.
The 1960s presidential election witnessed John Kennedy talking about the global balance of power shifting away from the US because the Russians were ahead in the space race. But Kennedy was not a space enthusiast and paid little attention to space exploration beyond its use in getting himself elected. Even though he knew that there was no ‘missile gap’ between the US and the USSR, he used it as a national security issue in his election campaign. However, soon after assuming office, he faced two events in April 1961 that made his administration re-evaluate. The Soviets sent Yuri Gagarin as the first human in space and orbit the Earth. A couple of weeks later, the CIA’s Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba ended in total disaster. These two events raised the Soviets’ profile and diminished the US stature in the eyes of the world. Kennedy was well aware of how important psychology was in conducting domestic and foreign policy. He had to come up with answers and come up with them soon. He realized that military victory over the Soviets was a non-starter. Demonstration of the superiority of the capitalist economy over Communism would take decades. His team saw that seizing the initiative through technological mastery was the only way the US can win the competition. It is this compulsion that made him announce the ‘Mission Moon’ before the end of the decade, a month after Gagarin’s spaceflight.
The Soviets held the perceived technology lead well into the late 1960s with their first space walk and lunar soft landings. Their technological feats impressed the world. But the Russians lost the battle for peoples’ minds while their cosmonauts toured the world, showcasing Soviet space technology. This was because of the secrecy and lack of openness in their engagement with the world. They exhibited only a model of their spacecrafts without the real one. In contrast, the Freedom 7 capsule of the US (1961) was on display for the public in Europe and Asia. John Glenn’s Friendship 7 spacecraft was on display around the world, accompanied by lectures and a willingness to share information. The United States Information Service (USIS) around the world threw open its centers to the public with displays, books, films and photographs of the space programs. The US started winning the world’s perception as an open society that is ready to share its space technology with the world. However, it wasn’t a smooth ride as all these efforts stood counteracted by the race riots, anti-Vietnam war violence and civil rights struggles in the 1960s.
The tide turned well in favor of the US after the launch of Apollo 8 in 1968. It was the first manned orbital flight around the moon and sent back the iconic photo of the blue Earthrise over the moon. It turned out to be a most memorable image of the twentieth century. The cloud-speckled ocean-blue sphere of the Earth in color was in such contrast to the grey of the Moon and black of space. At once, this image eroded even the deep, ingrained nationalisms. It promoted a desire for the inescapable recognition of the unity and fragility of the Earth and a yearning to preserve and protect it. Many analysts credit this photograph as giving rise to the environmental movement in the West in 1971. Soon after, Apollo 11 became the pinnacle of the space race, with the first landing on the moon in 1969. The world watched it live on television as the US sealed the psychological and technological victory in the space race. The race riots, the anti-war violence, and the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King would not diminish this achievement in the eyes of the world. Six moon landings happened in total before the Apollo program ended in 1975, having achieved its geopolitical goals.
Author Muir-Harmony emphasizes throughout that the US sent the message that the moon landing was humankind’s achievement rather than just an American achievement. The rest of the world welcomed this message and embraced the program as its own. Her book also reflects this spirit. For her, the rest of the world does not mean only the affluent regions like Europe, Australia and Canada. She devotes substantial space to the way Africa, India and Latin America responded to the visits of the astronauts and their spacecrafts. She credits Edward R. Murrow in creating and spreading the successful narratives of the space program. Murrow was a public relations expert and Kennedy hired him to head the United States Information Agency (USIA) in 1961. The author highlights many instances of public relations strategies which Murrow devised for African and Asian nations. For example, the USIA sent African American spokespersons to Madagascar and other African countries to lecture about American accomplishments in space. It suggested lack of racial discrimination in the US, despite the race riots in the 1960s. However, Muir-Harmony points out the anomaly that a small group of white men in the Administration and NASA made most decisions about the space race and its passage.
In this context, I think it is important to recall the views of other authors who have also written books on the legacy of the Apollo project. Robert Lanius in his book says that NASA was very white, and marginalized African-Americans and other minorities, as we saw documented in the film ‘Hidden Figures.’ He believes the image of spacefaring created by the administration was white, virile, and masculine and Americans perceived space travel this way.
Fifty years on, there is a resurgent interest in space in many countries today. In the US and UK, the private enterprise, led by billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Richard Bronson, is talking of space tourism. Many others, influenced by environmentalists, view the Earth as a ‘dirtied planet,’ and talk about going to Mars as an escape from this sullied home. It is like a religious quest to escape sin and achieve purification. Yet others lament the vanity of the billionaire class when a billion people on earth are still living below the poverty-line. Despite all this, as we saw on CNN during the Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic flights in 2021, the public relation wizards will create new myths about this era of space travel. They would sell it as other than a commercial enterprise, which is what it is today. If Geopolitics was central to the 1960s’ space program, capitalism is central to the twenty-first century space enterprise.
Whatever happens, Arthur Schleisinger, Jr. was right in what he said in the past about space. He held that humankind, far into the future, will always remember the twentieth century as the century when man began exploring space.
An excellent book written with precision and passion.
May 4, 2021
“Operation Moonglow: a political history of Project Apollo,” by Teasel Muir-Harmony (Basic Books, 2020). Muir-Harmony is the curator of the Apollo Collection at the Smithsonian Institution, and boy has she mined the collection. She uses a truly extraordinary list of sources, many if not most of them from letters, speeches, briefing papers and other documents written by American officials from around the world about what became the space race between the Soviet Union and the United States from the mid-’50s through 1969. The argument she makes---apparently incontrovertibly---is that no matter the scientific or even military purposes of the moon missions, one of its fundamental goals was to reclaim and solidify the position of the United States as the dominant ---and positive--power in the world. Every move NASA made was choreographed by government officials to present the best possible image of the nation. And paradoxically, the way that was done was to keep the United States out of the project. The emphasis from first to last was that the mission was produced by and for the people of the world, not any individual nation. While the Soviet space program was always shielded from the public eye and kept in secret, the US showed every move that the scientists and politicians made. It was a deliberate and knowing exercise in openness, to show by implication and example that the American system was superior. The US showed every failure and every disaster on international television. It (we) established tracking posts and listening posts throughout the world, and made sure the nations where those stations were located knew all about them. The US Information Service prepared tens and hundreds of thousands of documents, press releases, radio and television broadcasts to explain and display what was being done. Was this a cynical attempt to grab the world’s attention to keep it from seeing the flaws and problems in the country? It wasn’t cynical: the motivation was fully understood, and every attention-grabbing device possible was used. This is not meant to disparage what was done: for a few moments in world history, humanity was focused on one tremendous achievement as a human, not a nationalistic achievement. Even though everyone knew this was the United States’ achievement. The documentation Muir-Harmony provides is staggering and even numbing: how many radio stations, how many speeches, what did newspapers in every country write, how many millions of Indians, Argentines, Congolese, Dutch, and on and on mob the airwaves and the roadways to watch the three astronauts on their voyage and subsequent world tour? What did Muir-Harmony leave out? She seems to have included every piece of paper she found in the archives, though that is clearly not the case. Whatever the motivations, the entire messaging-propagandizing-framing mechanism was brilliantly conceived and executed. If I were a scholar of mass communication, this would be a marvelous study. Muir-Harmony stays well away from academic analysis, though bits and pieces peek through here and there. The only sad thing about this book is one sees how far from that wonderful, world-unifying moment we are today. Even though of course the world was never unified even then, we humans could at least think so for a few moments. What a step for mankind.
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December 30, 2020
Operation Moonglow presents a unique angle on the space race. It is particularly well-conceived and meticulously researched. Muir-Harmony explores the psychological geopolitical strategy behind the US pursuit of scientific accomplishment in space presented as global collaboration and utilised as a diplomatic tactic. By carefully constructing and staging a global messaging that implied accomplishment by the US (as the dominant superpower) but was made explicit for the good of all humanity the US attempted to distract from domestic and international areas of contention.
Muir-Harmony substantiates her hypotheses with extensive and original research. It is well-marshalled and delivered alongside comprehensive contextualisation that backgrounds the historical narrative and provides a series of nuggets that reward careful reading.
What is consummately a work of research and an academically-leaning work is eminently readable and a significant contribution to scholarship on the space race. From the standpoint of the story arc, there is a real challenge in focusing on Operation Moonglow, the specific diplomatic sojourn by Nixon following the successful moon landing, which is chronologically situated about 75% of the way through the narrative. The bulk of the work is a buildup, and by that stage, the reader is probably thoroughly convinced by the author's hypothesis. As a result, the main event itself comes as a bit of denouement. The actual itinerary and colour of specific events read in a very different fashion from the rest of the work. The same holds with the Giant Leap PR journey of the astronauts. Could the author have used a colourful recounting of the astronaut's journey at the beginning of the book to foreshadow subsequent scholarly argument delivery? Possibly but that would be editorial decisions and may not be what works for everyone.
All in all, Operation Moonglow is a fascinating read - enjoyable, engaging, and substantive - a great nugget of learning.
Muir-Harmony substantiates her hypotheses with extensive and original research. It is well-marshalled and delivered alongside comprehensive contextualisation that backgrounds the historical narrative and provides a series of nuggets that reward careful reading.
What is consummately a work of research and an academically-leaning work is eminently readable and a significant contribution to scholarship on the space race. From the standpoint of the story arc, there is a real challenge in focusing on Operation Moonglow, the specific diplomatic sojourn by Nixon following the successful moon landing, which is chronologically situated about 75% of the way through the narrative. The bulk of the work is a buildup, and by that stage, the reader is probably thoroughly convinced by the author's hypothesis. As a result, the main event itself comes as a bit of denouement. The actual itinerary and colour of specific events read in a very different fashion from the rest of the work. The same holds with the Giant Leap PR journey of the astronauts. Could the author have used a colourful recounting of the astronaut's journey at the beginning of the book to foreshadow subsequent scholarly argument delivery? Possibly but that would be editorial decisions and may not be what works for everyone.
All in all, Operation Moonglow is a fascinating read - enjoyable, engaging, and substantive - a great nugget of learning.
August 22, 2020
Interesting Angle I Had Never Considered. This book takes a topic that many around the world, and particularly many Americans, know about and presents an angle on it that few openly consider. So many talk about the amazing scientific accomplishments of the Apollo program and NASA at the height of its prowess in its earliest days, but here Muir-Harmony explores the dimension of *how* did so many around the world know of this and *why* did the know of this. Muir-Harmony makes the case reasonably well from a *political* side that from the beginning, NASA's actual chief mission wasn't specifically science-for-the-sake-of-science, but much more closely science-as-covert-imperial-tool. NASA was tasked with achieving remarkable scientific feats, but it was only when the political pressures to be the "peaceful" face of Democracy And Western Ideals came to bear that the funding and urgency were truly put in place to make the "race to the moon" a thing... even as it never really was a thing, since the Soviet tech for such missions was... lacking. Still, an utterly fascinating history that puts well known events in a new light, and that alone makes this truly a worthy read. Very much recommended.
March 15, 2021
This is a wonderful book looking at the Apollo space program not through the eyes of engineers or pilots, but through the eyes of the people who worked at the US Information Agency. The USIA was basically a giant overseas public relations department for the actions of the United States government. It created movies, radio programs, television programs, magazine articles, newspaper articles, and a plethora of data and fact sheets about the United States and US government actions, for foreign audiences.
For the Apollo program, the USIA went into overdrive. As public relations professionals, they relied heavily on focus group testing and polling to get their message across. And they learned that most foreign audiences did not want to hear the United States brag about its prowess in the space race. Some unknown genius at USIA responded to this resistance by coining the phrase "for all mankind". By making the moon landing "for all mankind", the USIA made the entire Space program palatable to ordinary people around the globe. And in doing so, USIA bought the United States an amount of international goodwill, or at least the benefit of the doubt, equal to the cost of the Apollo space program.
For the Apollo program, the USIA went into overdrive. As public relations professionals, they relied heavily on focus group testing and polling to get their message across. And they learned that most foreign audiences did not want to hear the United States brag about its prowess in the space race. Some unknown genius at USIA responded to this resistance by coining the phrase "for all mankind". By making the moon landing "for all mankind", the USIA made the entire Space program palatable to ordinary people around the globe. And in doing so, USIA bought the United States an amount of international goodwill, or at least the benefit of the doubt, equal to the cost of the Apollo space program.
July 8, 2023
Very insightful and interesting look at the Space Race from a non-scientific, non-how do we do this, point of view. Framing the race from the standpoint of how it affected world view of the US and how that needed assistance, after the many events of the 50s and 60s was interesting and really enjoyable. Highly recommended.
November 30, 2020
I'm a fan of Apollo, and author Teasel Muir-Harmony is always at her best with these excellent books on the subject!
March 10, 2021
This was a fantastic read! A great historical overview of the impact, on both domestic and international politics. It covered the impetus to be first the Sputnik launched kicked off.
March 11, 2021
A good different perspective on Apollo. I loved the focus on USIS and the information campaign around the space program.
October 5, 2023
On July 20, 1969, the world looked on with bated breath as Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon. Project Apollo represents the pinnacle of American space exploration. Yet the purpose of the mission was never simply to win the space race or to bolster American excellence in science. The space program was a key component to American diplomacy.
Rocket designer Sergei Korolev oversaw the launch of Sputnik into orbit and the space age was now underway. Eisenhower wanted to launch Vanguard into orbit as a scientific program. The rocket exploded on the pad leaving Eisenhower administration with egg on its face. Explorer 1 was ready to launch before sputnik but was held back because it was a military project. On July 16, 1958, Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act creating a civilian space agency. The new agency was set up to aid "all mankind." This was an internationalist vision which framed US grand strategy in the Cold War.
During the transition from Eisenhower to Kennedy, human space flight seemed to be headed into an uncertain future. In 1960, Kennedy did not see human space flight as a priority. After Gargarin became the first man in space, Kennedy met with his advisors and they decided that a moon landing would win the space race. Six weeks after Gagarin's flight Kennedy stood at the speaker's rostrum in the House of Representives chamber in the Capitol building and announced that NASA would send astronauts to the moon and back.
The image of American space capability would change with the success of John Glenn's Friendship 7 which orbited the Earth three times. After the flight the Mercury capsule was exhibited around the world.
For Project Apollo to succeed NASA had to learn how to rendezvous, perform space walks and perform docking maneuvers in space. This is where Project Gemini comes in. NASA mastered these task while also testing the astronauts physiology. After each mission the United States Information Agency (USIA) along with NASA would send the astronauts around the world to promote American openness and democracy.
On Jan 27, 1967 at Cape Kennedy a fire ignited under Virgil Grissam's couch and crewmates Edward White and Roger Chaffee were all killed by asphyxiation and toxic gasses. The horrific accident cast doubt on the competence of NASA management, the reliability of the spacecraft, engineering protocol and training and the future of the Apollo program.
Over the next year and a half, NASA postponed launches, instated major redesign modifications, and revised testing procedures, upgrated the manufacturing process and quality control procedures.
IN Dec 1968, Apollo 8 circumnavigated the moon, traveling farther and faster than any human in history. The three astronauts were Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders. Apollo 8 took the most beautiful and iconic photo called Earthrise. Earthrise showed the Earth rising from the back of the moon. After the mission the USIA sent Borman around the world stressing that the mission was for all mankind.
On July 16, 1969, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and MIchael Collins journeyed to the moon. The launch was viewed all around the world. Once the mission was completed the astronauts went around the world visiting 22 different countries. The Nixion administration coined their political trip as Operation Moonglow. Nixion jorneyed around the world trying to put a damped on the Vietnam war and civil rights and other issues the country was dealing with.
Overall Teasel Muir - Harmony has written an engaging book and it is very informative. Operation Moonglow looses some steam at the end talking about the astronauts trip around the world. I found this section of the book to be boring however the book is very good and I will give it 4 stars.
Rocket designer Sergei Korolev oversaw the launch of Sputnik into orbit and the space age was now underway. Eisenhower wanted to launch Vanguard into orbit as a scientific program. The rocket exploded on the pad leaving Eisenhower administration with egg on its face. Explorer 1 was ready to launch before sputnik but was held back because it was a military project. On July 16, 1958, Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act creating a civilian space agency. The new agency was set up to aid "all mankind." This was an internationalist vision which framed US grand strategy in the Cold War.
During the transition from Eisenhower to Kennedy, human space flight seemed to be headed into an uncertain future. In 1960, Kennedy did not see human space flight as a priority. After Gargarin became the first man in space, Kennedy met with his advisors and they decided that a moon landing would win the space race. Six weeks after Gagarin's flight Kennedy stood at the speaker's rostrum in the House of Representives chamber in the Capitol building and announced that NASA would send astronauts to the moon and back.
The image of American space capability would change with the success of John Glenn's Friendship 7 which orbited the Earth three times. After the flight the Mercury capsule was exhibited around the world.
For Project Apollo to succeed NASA had to learn how to rendezvous, perform space walks and perform docking maneuvers in space. This is where Project Gemini comes in. NASA mastered these task while also testing the astronauts physiology. After each mission the United States Information Agency (USIA) along with NASA would send the astronauts around the world to promote American openness and democracy.
On Jan 27, 1967 at Cape Kennedy a fire ignited under Virgil Grissam's couch and crewmates Edward White and Roger Chaffee were all killed by asphyxiation and toxic gasses. The horrific accident cast doubt on the competence of NASA management, the reliability of the spacecraft, engineering protocol and training and the future of the Apollo program.
Over the next year and a half, NASA postponed launches, instated major redesign modifications, and revised testing procedures, upgrated the manufacturing process and quality control procedures.
IN Dec 1968, Apollo 8 circumnavigated the moon, traveling farther and faster than any human in history. The three astronauts were Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders. Apollo 8 took the most beautiful and iconic photo called Earthrise. Earthrise showed the Earth rising from the back of the moon. After the mission the USIA sent Borman around the world stressing that the mission was for all mankind.
On July 16, 1969, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and MIchael Collins journeyed to the moon. The launch was viewed all around the world. Once the mission was completed the astronauts went around the world visiting 22 different countries. The Nixion administration coined their political trip as Operation Moonglow. Nixion jorneyed around the world trying to put a damped on the Vietnam war and civil rights and other issues the country was dealing with.
Overall Teasel Muir - Harmony has written an engaging book and it is very informative. Operation Moonglow looses some steam at the end talking about the astronauts trip around the world. I found this section of the book to be boring however the book is very good and I will give it 4 stars.
January 13, 2022
It is just a distant memory for some and a history lesson for others. The race to develop a space program and put a man on the moon captivated people worldwide. Now in, "Operation Moonglow: A Political History of Project Apollo," Teasel Muir-Harmony reminds us how the effort was born of politics during the cold war, and it played a crucial role in the United States' public relations effort to build international influence and prestige.
Muir-Harmony is the curator of the Apollo Spacecraft Collection at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum and shares fascinating stories. She describes the back-and-forth competition between the US and Russia to dominate the space race. The ISSR surprised the world in 1957 with the launch of Sputnik. But the US fought back with its missions and public relations efforts to convince the world that it was not to be doubted.
The book focuses more on the politics of the space race than science.
We learn that Apollo 8 mission commander Frank Borman was told that he would be telecasting to the world from the moon on Christmas Eve in 1968. The NASA administrator told Borman, "We want you to say something appropriate" on Christmas Eve." Hey, no sweat, Borman must have thought. They're only going to be a billion people watching. " Borman's wife Susan suggested reciting the Bible verses. The crew agreed. Borman, command module pilot Jim Lovell and lunar module pilot William Anders read the first ten verses of Genesis.
We also learn that:
NASA rotated the photograph 90 degrees to make it more logical to Earthbound viewers by putting the moon at the bottom of the frame.) The photo ran on the front pages of newspapers everywhere.
Dwight Eisenhower thought space exploration had no military value, and Sen. John Kennedy initially dismissed it as a waste of money. But Lyndon Johnson, first as Senate majority leader, then as Kennedy's vice president and successor, pushed the Apollo program over the goal line.
During the 1960s presidential election, Kennedy talked about the global balance of power was shifting away from the US because the Russians were ahead in the space race. But Kennedy was not a space enthusiast and paid little attention to space exploration beyond its use in getting himself elected.
Even though the space programs of the two nations were similar, the worldwide audience was more enamored but the US program. This was because of the Russian secrecy and lack of openness in their engagement with the world. They exhibited only a model of their spacecraft and not the real one. In contrast, the Freedom 7 capsule of the US (1961) was displayed for the public in Europe and Asia.
In the end, the missions cost nearly $300 billion in today's money—18 times more than building the Panama Canal, five times more than the Manhattan Project that created the atom bomb, more than Eisenhower's epic interstate highway system.
Muir-Harmony is the curator of the Apollo Spacecraft Collection at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum and shares fascinating stories. She describes the back-and-forth competition between the US and Russia to dominate the space race. The ISSR surprised the world in 1957 with the launch of Sputnik. But the US fought back with its missions and public relations efforts to convince the world that it was not to be doubted.
The book focuses more on the politics of the space race than science.
We learn that Apollo 8 mission commander Frank Borman was told that he would be telecasting to the world from the moon on Christmas Eve in 1968. The NASA administrator told Borman, "We want you to say something appropriate" on Christmas Eve." Hey, no sweat, Borman must have thought. They're only going to be a billion people watching. " Borman's wife Susan suggested reciting the Bible verses. The crew agreed. Borman, command module pilot Jim Lovell and lunar module pilot William Anders read the first ten verses of Genesis.
We also learn that:
NASA rotated the photograph 90 degrees to make it more logical to Earthbound viewers by putting the moon at the bottom of the frame.) The photo ran on the front pages of newspapers everywhere.
Dwight Eisenhower thought space exploration had no military value, and Sen. John Kennedy initially dismissed it as a waste of money. But Lyndon Johnson, first as Senate majority leader, then as Kennedy's vice president and successor, pushed the Apollo program over the goal line.
During the 1960s presidential election, Kennedy talked about the global balance of power was shifting away from the US because the Russians were ahead in the space race. But Kennedy was not a space enthusiast and paid little attention to space exploration beyond its use in getting himself elected.
Even though the space programs of the two nations were similar, the worldwide audience was more enamored but the US program. This was because of the Russian secrecy and lack of openness in their engagement with the world. They exhibited only a model of their spacecraft and not the real one. In contrast, the Freedom 7 capsule of the US (1961) was displayed for the public in Europe and Asia.
In the end, the missions cost nearly $300 billion in today's money—18 times more than building the Panama Canal, five times more than the Manhattan Project that created the atom bomb, more than Eisenhower's epic interstate highway system.
July 30, 2021
This was on the display in my local library, possibly in response to recent private space flight news stories and is a great example of the forgotten history behind seismic events. Muir-Harmony takes us behind the scenes to understand the marketing of the space race.
We follow the launch of Sputnik, the US reaction and the subsequent scramble to catch up. What's really interesting is how little interest there was in space exploration in both the public and the political US sphere. Behind the scenes we show how international support was generated via media campaigns and how the messaging was decided. The US adapted swiftly, doing a U turn on its initial plans for astronauts to do goodwill tours. We take it for granted the world sat glued to the screen on the day of the space walk. It clearly was no foregone conclusion.
Occasionally it stuns me to consider that 41 years after the founding of the RAF, people walked on the surface of the moon. This only reinforces this. Its a celebration of human ingenuity without being too starry-eyed.
We follow the launch of Sputnik, the US reaction and the subsequent scramble to catch up. What's really interesting is how little interest there was in space exploration in both the public and the political US sphere. Behind the scenes we show how international support was generated via media campaigns and how the messaging was decided. The US adapted swiftly, doing a U turn on its initial plans for astronauts to do goodwill tours. We take it for granted the world sat glued to the screen on the day of the space walk. It clearly was no foregone conclusion.
Occasionally it stuns me to consider that 41 years after the founding of the RAF, people walked on the surface of the moon. This only reinforces this. Its a celebration of human ingenuity without being too starry-eyed.
July 31, 2025
Being a "political history" of the moon shot, I figured this book would be about Democrats vs. Republicans, the president vs. Congress, and space fans vs. space foes.
But it was really about the Cold War, about diplomacy, and ultimately about the marketing and propaganda of the US moon mission.
It's about how the US used the program to woo Third World countries (and reluctant allies) into supporting us against the Soviets. But to that end, it's super repetitive.
Mostly it was a cycle of a rocket launches, the US markets it to the world, sends out pictures and films and articles and artifacts. The author tells how many trips, how many speeches, how many photos, how many articles, etc. And then, it begins again with a new launch. And here we go again.
Yeah it has some interesting background and a little information I didn't know before, but a lot I did. Could've been a lot better.
But it was really about the Cold War, about diplomacy, and ultimately about the marketing and propaganda of the US moon mission.
It's about how the US used the program to woo Third World countries (and reluctant allies) into supporting us against the Soviets. But to that end, it's super repetitive.
Mostly it was a cycle of a rocket launches, the US markets it to the world, sends out pictures and films and articles and artifacts. The author tells how many trips, how many speeches, how many photos, how many articles, etc. And then, it begins again with a new launch. And here we go again.
Yeah it has some interesting background and a little information I didn't know before, but a lot I did. Could've been a lot better.
March 25, 2022
Absolutely groundbreaking. I've read several books about the Moon Landing / history of the Apollo mission and early spacecraft, but this one blew me away with its integration of politics, public opinion, and marketing into a fresh discussion of the space race. It beautifully blends all of these into a coherent narrative that is quick to read and easy to digest for the non-specialist. I also liked how it explored NASA's media campaign abroad and contrasted it with that of the USSR. Genius!
August 10, 2023
Teasel Muir Harmony delivers a fairly straightforward account of the space race with the twist of focusing on how the competition between the Soviet Union and the United States effected each country’s prestige world wide. Muir Harmony is an accomplished space historian and a curator at the Smithsonian’s prestigious air and space museum. She draws on her expertise in the area of space history and her connections to the museum to offer a unique and often overlooked view into the motivations behind the space race in its larger global effects. I enjoyed Teasels Muir Harmony’s Operation Moonglow and to sum up the whole story, here’s a quote from Lyndon Johnson’s letter to the State Department about “Earthrise” the picture of earth taken during Apollo 8, “As the enclosed photographs of our recent lunar flight suggest, this shrinking globe is rapidly becoming a single neighbor-hood, Countries are learning that we all must work together for common ends if any are to survive and prosper in the new world of interdependence which science and technology are helping to create."
November 26, 2024
Outstanding book. Muir-Harmony richly documents the political history and diplomatic functions of the Apollo program. A great read for anyone interested in the history of science, science policy, and the function of science in international diplomacy.
January 26, 2023
Excellent
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