Carrying the Fire
#1483 of 2,654 all-time
Carrying the Fire
Michael Collins
5 people recommended it in 3 threads, 2020–2025.
What people on Hacker News said
He goes into so much detail about training to become an astronaut, his first spaceflight, training and planning for the Apollo missions, and talks about so many of the details and complexities of spaceflight that I had no idea about before.
The astronaut got completely exhausted just keeping himself still while turning a wrench, because when you turn the wrench, it pushes you and starts moving and spinning you, and when you try to correct it, you'll most likely overcorrect and then have to correct that, and then correct that overcorrection, etc.
And the level of planning and training for the off-nominal scenarios is crazy.
His writing style is awesome: it's easy to read, explains technical details in a really easy to understand way, and quite funny.
This is the autobiography of the astronaut who stayed in orbit around the Moon while Armstrong and Collins gained the kudos of the first lunar landing.
I've read several accounts of the Apollo programme over the years, and this was by far and away the best written.
Carrying The Fire by Michael Collins is an excellent account of Apollo 11 from the perspective of the command module pilot.
Where it comes up
- Ask HN: Books about people who did hard things 2025 · 2 recommendations
- My Favorite Books 2020 2020 · 2 recommendations
- Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read? 2024 · 1 recommendation