New biographies of the first Americans in space, first man on the moon - Houston Chronicle
George Bush recently announced a plan to send people to Mars, a lame election-year feint that sought to recover some of the patriotic unity that suffused the early years of the American space program. The biographies of two star astronauts, Alan Shepard and Neil Armstrong -- the first American in space and first man on the moon, respectively -- remind us of how the proper blend of bleeding-edge technology and political rhetoric can not only unify but inspire a nation.