LUNATICS
a new novel by Brian d'Eon
Oblique view of the central peaks of Copernicus Crater
Lunatics is the story of an Apollo Moon Mission which never took place. Budgetary cuts and various political machinations resulted in the cancellation of the last three planned Apollo Missions--Apollo 18-20. This decision was made even though much of the planning and hardware for these missions was already in place.
My novel seeks to rectify this questionable (some would even say 'tragic') decision by making just a few alterations in history.
1. President Lyndon Johnson unilaterally halts all bombing in North Vietnam.
2. LBJ decides to run for a second term and is re-elected. His running mate is Bobby Kennedy.
3. He continues his support for the Apollo Program.
And that's all it takes...
What would such a world have been like? No Richard Nixon as President?
No Watergate? Probably no assassination of Bobby Kennedy?
Lunatics starts with a sketch of Wernher von Braun as a boy in Germany, follows him quickly through his war years developing V2 rockets for the Reich, and finally to his years after the war when suddenly he is working for the Americans and designing moon rockets. By 1974, thanks in part to his close personal relationship with LBJ, Wernher is an astronaut himself, in training to land on the Moon. But this is not a political book. It follows the foibles and passions of the people deeply involved in the last Moon Mission, particularly the astronauts, their families, and the Ground Support Crew. Lunatics explores what the Moon means to these different people and how it will change, and possibly extinguish, their lives.
The crew for this final lunar odyssey will consist of:
Command Module Pilot ~ Deke Slayton
Mission Commander ~ Alan Bean
Lunar Module Pilot ~ Wernher von Braun
Next stop... Copernicus Crater.
The first chapter is printed in full below.
My novel seeks to rectify this questionable (some would even say 'tragic') decision by making just a few alterations in history.
1. President Lyndon Johnson unilaterally halts all bombing in North Vietnam.
2. LBJ decides to run for a second term and is re-elected. His running mate is Bobby Kennedy.
3. He continues his support for the Apollo Program.
And that's all it takes...
What would such a world have been like? No Richard Nixon as President?
No Watergate? Probably no assassination of Bobby Kennedy?
Lunatics starts with a sketch of Wernher von Braun as a boy in Germany, follows him quickly through his war years developing V2 rockets for the Reich, and finally to his years after the war when suddenly he is working for the Americans and designing moon rockets. By 1974, thanks in part to his close personal relationship with LBJ, Wernher is an astronaut himself, in training to land on the Moon. But this is not a political book. It follows the foibles and passions of the people deeply involved in the last Moon Mission, particularly the astronauts, their families, and the Ground Support Crew. Lunatics explores what the Moon means to these different people and how it will change, and possibly extinguish, their lives.
The crew for this final lunar odyssey will consist of:
Command Module Pilot ~ Deke Slayton
Mission Commander ~ Alan Bean
Lunar Module Pilot ~ Wernher von Braun
Next stop... Copernicus Crater.
The first chapter is printed in full below.
Below is the start to the second section of the novel. It's May 28, 1974, and the astronauts sit atop their Saturn V rocket, ready to start mankind's last journey to the Moon.