All Around the Moon
by Jules Verne
Both "From Earth to Moon" and "Around the Moon" are available here in a fully illustrated edition, together. NOTE: This translation by Edward Roth has been maligned by Verne's scholars for a large amount of additional non-Verne material. After being released from the giant Columbia, the bullet-shaped projectile, along with three passengers, Barbican, Nicholl and Michel Ardan, embarks on a five-day journey to the moon. After a close collision with a meteorite, three astronauts discover that the gravitational force of this satellite sends them into orbit around the moon. When Barbican, Ardant and Nicholl begin geographical observations with opera glasses. They find a spectacular view of Tycho, one of the largest of all craters on the Moon. But then the bullet slowly begins to move away from the Moon, towards the "dead center", where the gravitational pull of the Moon and the Earth become equal. Michelle Ardant then struck at the idea of using missiles anchored at the bottom of the projectile, but the missiles fired too late and the bullet fell to the ground at a speed of 115,200 miles per hour. (source: Wikipedia).
