À l'assaut de la Lune

Published in January 1969, a few months before the first Moon landing, À l'assaut de la Lune is a popular reportage on the race to the Moon by aerospace journalist Jacques Tiziou, a French correspondent based in the United States. Across eight chapters the author surveys the US–Soviet space rivalry, the role of robotic probes, the secrecy of Soviet astronautics, the technical sequence of an Apollo mission, the selection and daily life of the astronauts, the organisation of the Apollo program and the sheer scale of the Saturn V rocket. Prefaced by François de Closets, the book draws on Tiziou's first-hand access to NASA centres and crews.