Moondust

Growing up on a missile base in the 1960s and early 70s I was obsessed by Gemini and then the Apollo space programme. I can still remember being envious of my friend Simon because he had the Airfix model Saturn V rocket. A few years ago however I was travelling up to London on the train. We stopped at Gatwick and I helped an elderly American on to the train with his suitcase and noticed his NASA lapel badge. It was Jack Schmitt - the only geologist and one of the last two men to walk on the moon (Gene Cernan returned to the lunar module last) and the man who took the 'blue marble' photograph. I'm satisfied now: the Airfix model fades to oblivion.

In 'Moondust' Andrew Smith sets out to find and interview the nine surviving moon walkers. One of the facts I remember from the book is that NASA's 99.9% reliability target meant that if all went well only 6,000 parts of the Saturn V rocket would fail.