Oriana Fallaci
Se Il Sole Muore

"Whoopi that may have been small for Neil, but it’s a big step for me"

(pronounced by Pete Conrad (Apollo 12) just after landing on the moon, the phrase was suggested by Oriana Fallaci)

For those who love the history of space exploration, its characters, and their stories, "If the Sun Dies" is the book that will surely satisfy many of the curiosities surrounding a period of extraordinary dynamism in science and technology, setting aside the political significance of space conquest and the rivalry between the USA and the USSR for a while.

Oriana Fallaci was sent by "L'Europeo" to the United States to closely follow the American space program immediately after the end of the Mercury program and in the midst of Gemini. The writer embarks on a fascinating journey into American technological pride, among scientists who do not love literature, cold and rational minds, cities where lawns are synthetic, and encounters with uncomfortable and ambiguous historical figures like Wernher von Braun. The Fallaci who travels throughout Texas and Florida is the same who published in '64 "The Antipathic Ones", a series of interviews with world entertainment and culture figures, having already perfected the art of the interview, relentless and uncomfortable, and under her tape recorder, they all fall, from the great hero John Glenn to the science fiction writer Ray Bradbury, all witnesses to a new and seemingly almost magnificent reality.

This is a splendid romanticized account, full of poetry and concreteness, the writer tends to bring down from the pedestal all the figures she encounters, making them human, and when in a cold and mathematical environment she discovers that Sicilian is also spoken, thanks to astronaut Walter Schirra, she is pleasantly surprised to discover that, in the end, the whole world is a village. Among the figures described, most of the astronauts destined for the Apollo program stand out for their charisma, "the turtle club", from Jim Lowell (Apollo 8, 13) to the one Oriana will call her brother, Pete Conrad (Apollo 12). In her eyes, however, Armstrong and Aldrin are much less sympathetic, a sort of supermen with a work ethos.

The book ends with the test launch of the Saturn V, before the Apollo 1 tragedy ('67), and well before the historic landing when the moon, perhaps made of cheese, will be reached.