“As we flew into space we had a new sense of ourselves, of the earth, and of the nearness of God. I sensed the beginning of some sort of deep change taking place inside of me.”

As astronaut Jim Irwin relates the story of the scientific voyage of Apollo 15, he also unfolds the story of his own spiritual odyssey. “It seems plain to me that the hand of God has been in my life as far back as I am able to remember,” he writes. Certainly, Irwin was not a likely candidate to be chosen as an astronaut. He barely squeaked into Annapolis, elected to transfer to the Air Force, tried to resign from flight school, was grounded many times for violations, almost wiped out in a terrible plane crash — and was turned down twice by NASA before he was accepted. Yet, he was accepted.

The blast-off on July 26, 1971, launched Jim Irwin, along with Al Worden and Dave Scott, into a modern space adventure which Irwin describes in detail — the excitement and exhilaration, the unexpected problems and the tense moments, the bits of comic relief, the overwhelming thrill of finally stepping onto the moon. Irwin’s personal insights make the adventure very real.

Jim Irwin also tells his own story: about his boyhood, his marriage, the highs and lows of his career, and particularly about his spiritual life and his rediscovery of his Christian faith.

“After the flight the power of God was working in me, and I was possessed by a growing feeling that God did have a new mission for me.” Today, Colonel Irwin, who has retired from the Air Force, is fulfilling that mission. As president of the High Flight Foundation in Colorado Springs, he has traveled the world over in order to tell all men that God is alive and available, not only on the moon but everywhere.

To Rule the Night is a very private look at a public hero — a twentieth-century spaceman with plenty of down-to-earth values. By James B. Irwin with William A. Emerson, Jr. Paperback. 261 pgs.