BBC man chronicles moon landings

A self-confessed "space geek" from Scotland has written an account of Nasa's Apollo space programme which resulted in six moon landings.

BBC Scotland post-production editor, David Woods, 48, became "enchanted" as the space race unfolded in the 1960s.

He later built up in-depth knowledge about the Apollo programme while scanning books for Nasa and went on to run his own website.

His first book, "How Apollo Flew To The Moon" was released at the end of 2007.

Nasa's Apollo programme ran from 1961 to 1975 with the goal of conducting manned moon-landing missions.

Its birth was famously heralded by President John F Kennedy in 1962, who told the world: "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard."

'Amazing thing'

This hardest of goals was finally realised on 20 July 1969 when Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on another celestial body.

Among the billions who watched on television was nine-year-old David Woods.

"There's a whole strata in society of people who watched the Apollo moon landings and as a result you're left enchanted, it never goes away, " he said.

"Even though you get on with your life and your family, there's something that tells you that was an amazing thing to have seen.

"There seems to be a world-wide community of people who study it and get informed about it and I became part of that through the internet."

How come a wee daft space geek from Glasgow gets to start working for Nasa and invite guys who walked on the moon to come to Scotland? David Woods

David said international interest in the programme rocketed in the 1990s after the movie, Apollo 13.

He later volunteered to help Nasa scan rare history books on the Apollo missions, which could then be made available on the internet.

Without knowing it at the time, this work at his home in Glasgow, laid the groundwork for his book.

"The next thing I knew I was doing jobs for Nasa and they were sending me all the books I wanted," he said.

"It was my way of getting hold of the material that I craved."

By the time internet use had exploded in the late 1990s, David was part of a community which congregated online around the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal.

This site was based on transcripts of everything that happened on the moon, but David found himself wanting to take this further.

In 1998 he started the Apollo Flight Journal website to act as a companion and was lucky enough to get help from Dave Scott, the seventh man to walk on the moon and the first to drive a car there.

David said: "He lived in London at the time and he was happy enough to come up to Scotland for a wee trip and we sat in a hotel in Strathblane and reminisced and checked over things."

David Woods started writing his book in 2004

The new website was well received by Apollo enthusiasts and later led him to remark to fellow space enthusiast and author, David Harland, "I think there's a book in me".

During a visit to London in 2003, he met Mr Harland's publisher and became determined to try.

The following year a book deal was signed and David embarked on a three year labour of love.

"How Apollo Flew To The Moon" was published just before Christmas and has been given favourable reviews.

David said the whole experience and some of the praise directed at the book had left him "blown away".

But underneath he's mindful that his journey, though not as fantastic as the Apollo astronauts, has been nonetheless extraordinary.

"How come a wee daft space geek from Glasgow gets to start working for Nasa and invite guys who walked on the moon to come to Scotland?

"I'm not too sure how all that happens but you just take a step, then another step and push towards your dream."