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List Price: $24.95 | | Publisher: Collector's Guide Publishing, Inc.
Salesrank: 289160
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| Our Price: $120.00 |
| Used Price: $82.68 |
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| Media: Paperback |
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Editorial Review:
With this book, for the first time the public can become acquainted with the Apollo spacecraft in detail and learn the story of its design and construction. Full color drawings in exacting detail provide inside and out views of the Command and Service Modules complete with details of construction and fabrication.
The Apollo spacecraft is the most intricate and exacting machine ever built, and it had to be as near to perfect as it could be made, every time. With over 3 million components, a performance record of 99.9% would still leave 3,000 parts that could fail -- any one of which might result in the deaths of the crew. With the exception of Apollo 13, the spacecraft lived up to expectations on every lunar mission, and even Apollo 13, after a major explosion, managed to circle the Moon and bring its crew home safely.
Virtual Apollo is a book long overdue; the care and completeness with which it has been created speak for themselves. Thanks to the dedication and hard work that have gone into this book, we can now truly appreciate the magnificent machine that was the Apollo spacecraft and marvel at the achievements of the many thousands of engineers and technicians who stayed on Earth but were on the mission every step of the way.
Virtual Apollo: A Pictorial Essay of the Engineering and Construction of the Apollo Command and Service Modules: Apogee Books Space Series 30 Reviews:
One of My Favorite Guides to Apollo 
2009-06-30 - Sullivan's Virtual books (Apollo and LM) are superb. My jaw dropped when I first paged through them. It's too bad that these seem to be out of print, because I'd like to see books like these at museum gift shops.
Detailed drawings, very little additional information 
2009-04-15 - This is a surprisingly small book with detailed but redundant drawings showing essentially the same Apollo components from different perspectives. It's very short on information on how these components function, why the materials were selected over other materials, and how they are used during missions. You end up with a book that has incomplete information on the components and incomplete information on their history.
There are also a number of typographical errors that show it wasn't proofread very well.
Two Engineering Marvels!
2008-06-29 - The Service Module and Command module are incredibly complex engineering marvels that carried the Apollo astronauts to the moon (and back) in the harsh space environment. The command module also brought the astronauts through the earth's atmosphere safely home. As an engineer by education and experience I find these vehicles breathe taking.
It is fascinating to see the complexity of all the systems on the vehicles. Extremely well illustrated, this book provides an excellent overview into the work that went into developing them. One can see by the sophistication of the vehicles that the training necessary for the astronauts to competently operate them was serious business. Even more amazing is that this is just the high level view of these vehicles. Each of the systems: Radar, propulsions, life support, instrumentation (and more) have many more layers of complexity!
This book and Virtual LM a about the lunar module (also written by Scott Sullivan) are both worth the read for anyone interested in the space program or engineering marvels, or both!
The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide to: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking
Virtual LM: A Pictorial Essay of the Engineering and Construction of the Apollo Lunar Module: Apogee Books Space Series 47 (Apogee Books Space Series)
Beautifully made, interesting book
2008-05-08 - A lot of care and work clearly went into this beautiful book comprising detailed, color engineering diagrams of the Apollo command and service modules. It's fascinating to see how complex the command module is - just looking at it, it looks like a metal shell, really - but there is a much, much more too it!
Although this book is certainly indispensable for people interested in the space program, I was disappointed that a couple of features in which I was interested were missing. Sadly, there was no detailed discussion of the function of each switch and gauge accessible to the astronauts, including its use and wiring. There was no mention of (or diagram for) the "barber-pole" (or gray flag) functionality mentioned in Apollo 13. The famous "SCE" switch, which Pete Conrad couldn't find until co-astronaut Alan Bean located it, saving the Apollo 12 mission, is not pictured. There are four page of panel diagrams, true, on pages 68-71, but some of the switches' functions cannot be read. And just how to use the switches - how to fly the aircraft - isn't described. Also, the wiring of the famous bad thermostatic switch that caused the Apollo 13 fire in the O2 tank is not shown.
In conclusion, despite the minor issues I noted, this is a wonderful book for anyone interested in NASA.
Lacking In Details 
2008-01-03 - The diagrams are well done; however, as with others, I was greatly disappointed that there was not more detail. The drawings are certainly better than the ones found in the old mission media kits, in that they provide more clarity, but they don't provide much more detail.
I can't believe that no one has mentioned the obvious factual errors found in the text. The two most glaring ones are having the Apollo 7 mission in "November" of 1968 and having the first lunar landing (Apollo 11) on July "24," 1969. Come on, give me a break!
