Lunatics: Last Men on the Moon

Wernher von Braun, reluctant Nazi, personal friend of President Lyndon Johnson, and master builder of the Saturn V rocket, is on the verge of seeing his lifelong dream fulfilled as he joins to the crew of Apollo XX on mankind’s last visit to the Moon. All his life has been a struggle to get to this moment: surviving Allied bombing, uncomfortable accommodations with the SS, anti-German sentiment in post-war America, and the march of time itself—is he finally just too old to join the astronaut corps? On the moon, von Braun will reach the pinnacle of his professional life but there he also desperately hopes to exorcise demons from his past.

Landing men on the moon? Why bother? And, precariously, inside the bowels of Copernicus crater? Crazy? Impossible? And the men and women dedicated to this exploit? What to call them but Lunatics.

Two other voices play large roles in telling von Braun’s story: Mission Commander, Alan Bean, the only artist among the corps who hopes to capture the true essence of what it means to step on the moon. What it really looks like, feels like. Because if he doesn’t do it, who ever will?

 

The final voice belongs to fellow astronaut, Deke Slayton, a no-nonsense test pilot interested in neither science nor art. His mantra during the mission will be “don’t screw up”.