The Man Who Went to the Far Side of the Moon

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The Man Who Went to the Far Side of the Moon
by Bea Uusma Schyffert
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Story Summary

• Do you know the story of Michael
  Collins, the Apollo 11 astronaut who went all the
  way to the moon but never walked on its surface?
  Instead, he orbited the moon 14 times, surrounded
  by 701 power switches and 20 pounds of
  checklists. Reminiscent of a scrapbook, this
  extraordinary book chronicles what Michael
  Collins did, saw, and thought about in space.
  Through fascinating facts, quotes, checklists,
  original drawings, and photos taken both in space
  and on Earth, it also tells how the astronauts
  prepared for their historic journey, what they
  brought with them, and what they left behind.

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Review Questions

1. How was Michaels training different from that
   of Buzz and Neil?
2. Why did Buzz and Neil take off their helmets
   when they returned to the lunar module?
3. What conclusion can you draw about Michael
   Collins?
4. What is the main idea of the selection?

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Review Questions
5. What do the pictures on page 745 show? 6. How
did the foods the astronauts ate in space compare
to the foods on Earth? 7. What important
information did you learn by reading the caption
on page 747? 8. Who probably wrote the words on
page 755, and when were they most likely written?
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Review Questions
9. Why was landing on the moon the major
experiment? 10. Why did the astronauts have to
stay in a trailer when they returned to Earth?
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Vocabulary - Say It

• astronauts
• capsule
• hatch
• horizon

• lunar
• module
• quarantine

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More Words to Know

• impact
• sphere
• transmission

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• astronauts
• pilots or members of the crew of a spacecraft

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• capsule
• the enclosed front section of a rocket made to
  carry instruments, astronauts, etc., into space

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• hatch
• a trapdoor covering an opening in an aircrafts
  or ships deck

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• horizon
• line where the Earth and sky seem to meet

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• lunar
• of, like, or about the moon

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• module
• a self-contained unit or system within a larger
  system

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quarantine detention, isolation, and other
measures taken to prevent the spread of an
infectious disease
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• impact
• action of striking one thing against another
  collision

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• sphere
• ball or globe

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• transmission
• passage of electronic waves from a transmitter to
  a receiver

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Last night, we watched the sun sink below the
horizon.
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The spread of illness may be stopped with the
quarantine of infected people.
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After the space mission ended, the capsule
splashed down in the Pacific Ocean.
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The controls were in one module of the spacecraft.
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The lunar surface is marked with craters.
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Open the hatch to climb out of the spacecraft.
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Every 120th minute he sees the Earth rise at the
horizon.
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Six hundred million people in 47 countries are
watching the blurred TV transmission of the lunar
landing.
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The three astronauts piloted the spacecraft as it
circled the moon.
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The astronauts felt a slight bump on impact as
they were landing.