Introduction:


The book APOLLO 21 stems from the question of when should an astronaut - during an Apollo lunar spaceflight - kill his crew members to get away with it.

Genre: Fiction/Action thriller!

ISBN: 978-1-4116-7852-1

The book contains around 73.000 words and is a fast-moving yarn full of blazing action, suffocating suspense, and astronauts daredevilishly taking on the ultimate challenge back in September, 1973 - flying to the Moon!

The design of the front- and back cover, plus all writing, proof-reading, and editing was made by Frank Hogan.



Front cover:


The artist's impression was created using the following NASA images:

1) The Lunar Module Ascent Stage (LM AS) (which is covering the area of the Moon where the APOLLO 21 astronauts performed their exploration) is from image AS11-44-6642.

2) The Command- and Service Module (CSM) (the silvery spacecraft against the black background) is from image AS15-88-11974. From this image the CSM was tilted +90 degrees.

3) The Earth has been modified slightly (made into a full Earth). The original image is: AS17-148-22726.

4) The crater Copernicus makes the backdrop at the bottom part of the front cover. Image number is unknown.

Image courtesy:NASA.


The golden ratio (1.618:1) can be found if a measurement is taken between the center of the Earth and the center of the CSM. Multiply that distance by 1.618, and you have the distance between the center of the CSM and the approximate center of the LM AS.

APOLLO 21 crew introduction:


Commander:

Ernst W. Kircheloff was born in 1928. He is divorced, and almost broke after having entered a real estate scam in Florida. Furthermore, he lost his only son in a swimming pool accident in the garden of a certain Jack R. Wilborn (see below).

Command Module Pilot:

Randolph S. Cooper, a 35-year-old test pilot. Married to Elizabeth, who turns out to be a former girlfriend of.... Ernst W. Kircheloff.

Lunar Module Pilot:

Jack R. Wilborn, a 39-year-old scientist who became the Lunar Module Pilot on this mission after a Winston K. Zabrowski had lost his life in a mysterious fire inside a Lunar Module test article. Zabrowski was the one who had introduced Kircheloff to the real estate deal in Florida....

Apparently Ernst Kircheloff might have an unsolved issue or two with both Cooper and Wilborn here....

Let the excitement begin!....