Book Review: From Apollo to Artemis

Reviewed by Nikolas Mavreas

An amusing and informative memoir about NASA from the inside

From Apollo to Artemis is the memoir of retired long-time NASA employee Herb Baker, who has been with the organization through its decades of ups and downs, literal and figurative.

From childhood, Baker found himself around the world of NASA. He grew up in Houston, his home only seven miles away from the later-named Johnson Space Center. He was schoolmates with children of astronauts. His mother, Alyene Baker, worked as seamstress on a parasol which was put into orbit by the first Skylab crew.

As a teenager, Baker got the chance to work on-site at the Space Center for ABC, during their coverage of Apollo 11 and subsequent missions. His job included taking the canisters from each day’s filming and driving it 50 miles away to the Houston airport, to be flown from there to New York. Which means that if you’ve seen TV footage of Apollo 11 it is possible that what you saw had literally passed through his hands.

After studying business at university, Baker landed an interview with NASA and was hired. He worked as a contracting officer for most of his career at the agency, both in Washington, D.C. and, mainly, at the Johnson Space Center in his hometown. His projects included contracts for the design of space suits that would continue to be used for forty years, and Space X’s first contract with NASA. After his retirement in early 2017, Baker has been involved in community outreach through the NASA Alumni League, promoting science education, speaking to students and even to nursing home residents unable to visit the Johnson Space Center.

Baker goes into technical detail of what his contracting work entailed, but generally this book is characterized by light and fun discussion about the organization and the people that made it work. It is a delightful look at the endearingly square world of NASA. 

For example, we read about and see (this volume is full of photographs) an elevator whose doors look like an airlock, with its inside walls decorated to seem like one is looking out on the Moon. And when Baker tells of his experience with taste-testing food that would go out into space, we are disappointed that the guacamole his response helped improve doesn’t end up making the cut. 

From Apollo To Artemis makes clear that its author truly and enthusiastically loves NASA and is eager to spread his passion. Never in this book is his pride more evident than when he is granted the privilege to bring guests into the Johnson Space Center, and never is he more gloomy than when he has to give up the privilege upon retirement. Herb Baker may not be able to give tours of the Space Center any longer, but his book serves as an inviting tour inside the everyday reality of working at NASA.

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