Falling to Earth

Falling to Earth: An Apollo 15 Astronaut's Journey to the Moon by Al Worden
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Al Worden writes a candid book about his life, becoming an astronaut, flying to the moon and back, the scandal that ended his career, and his life afterwards.

I'm a space geek - I'm the first to admit I don't understand most of the science, but being born in '76 and being a kid growing up with the Teacher in Space program - and the horrifying Challenger disaster, which is the Kennedy moment of my generation - I'm fascinated with the space program. I've read probably a dozen books by other astronauts and knew about the scandal with the postal books.

The book is interesting - growing up and working on a farm, his early career days, and how suddenly he ended up an astronaut. The reason I give this book 4 stars is because Worden makes excuses an awful lot for alot of things he does, rationalizing everything from being a bad father (well you know, I'm in training to fly to the moon) and being a bad husband (well, you know, I'm in training to fly to the moon) and rationalizes his way through the fact that he got paid money to bring souvenirs to the moon, something that naturally leaves a bad taste in this tax payer's mouth. He naturally was proved innocent in the end and his career was redeemed, along with his reputation, but the rationalizing still bothered me enough to rate this one 4 stars.



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