Apollo A Decade Of Achievement

Author : Paul I. Casey
Publisher : JS Blume Publishing(TM)
Page : 344 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2013-10-25
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780984716302

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APOLLO: A Decade of Achievement by Paul I. Casey Pdf

The race for space begins on October 4, 1957 as the Soviet Union stuns the world and launches the first man made satellite - a feat until then only read about in science fiction. America is caught unprepared for 1957 and must answer this embarrassment to the world by proving its superiority; however, each time America tries to launch a satellite - let alone test a new rocket - it fails. • How could America have taken a back seat in the missile race? • How did America take the lead and win the race to the moon in as little as ten years? • How did America gain the necessary technology and ingenuity to not only launch men into outer space, but also land them on the moon and safely return? • Why did man even go to the moon? • How has the space program affected our lives today? Casey spent his life researching the space program and interviewing many people involved in it, from scientists to astronauts, to find answers to these questions. Casey, an accomplished technical writer, astronomy columnist and artist, began to write this book after he was inspired as a young child when he witnessed, along with the rest of the world, Apollo 11 land three men on the moon in 1969. Casey enjoyed educating students about the space program and wrote this book to share an enthusiasm about science, especially for those never thought about looking up at the night sky and wondering about the stars. Casey wanted students to ask questions and to gain a perspective on how incredible science is. But mostly, he wanted to inspire students to pursue a career in science to continue the peaceful exploration of space for generations to come.

Author : Charles Fishman
Publisher : Simon & Schuster
Page : 512 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2020-09-22
Category : History
ISBN : 9781501106309

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One Giant Leap by Charles Fishman Pdf

The New York Times bestselling, “meticulously researched and absorbingly written” (The Washington Post) story of the trailblazers and the ordinary Americans on the front lines of the epic Apollo 11 moon mission. President John F. Kennedy astonished the world on May 25, 1961, when he announced to Congress that the United States should land a man on the Moon by 1970. No group was more surprised than the scientists and engineers at NASA, who suddenly had less than a decade to invent space travel. When Kennedy announced that goal, no one knew how to navigate to the Moon. No one knew how to build a rocket big enough to reach the Moon, or how to build a computer small enough (and powerful enough) to fly a spaceship there. No one knew what the surface of the Moon was like, or what astronauts could eat as they flew there. On the day of Kennedy’s historic speech, America had a total of fifteen minutes of spaceflight experience—with just five of those minutes outside the atmosphere. Russian dogs had more time in space than US astronauts. Over the next decade, more than 400,000 scientists, engineers, and factory workers would send twenty-four astronauts to the Moon. Each hour of space flight would require one million hours of work back on Earth to get America to the Moon on July 20, 1969. “A veteran space reporter with a vibrant touch—nearly every sentence has a fact, an insight, a colorful quote or part of a piquant anecdote” (The Wall Street Journal) and in One Giant Leap, Fishman has written the sweeping, definitive behind-the-scenes account of the furious race to complete one of mankind’s greatest achievements. It’s a story filled with surprises—from the item the astronauts almost forgot to take with them (the American flag), to the extraordinary impact Apollo would have back on Earth, and on the way we live today. From the research labs of MIT, where the eccentric and legendary pioneer Charles Draper created the tools to fly the Apollo spaceships, to the factories where dozens of women sewed spacesuits, parachutes, and even computer hardware by hand, Fishman captures the exceptional feats of these ordinary Americans. “It’s been 50 years since Neil Armstrong took that one small step. Fishman explains in dazzling form just how unbelievable it actually was” (Newsweek).

Author : Andy Saunders
Publisher : Penguin UK
Page : 520 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 2022-09-01
Category : Photography
ISBN : 9780141996356

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Apollo Remastered by Andy Saunders Pdf

AN INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER Discover space as you've never seen it before, with these awe-inspiring, breathtakingly restored images of our first missions to the Moon 'The next best thing to being there' Charlie Duke, Apollo 16 astronaut In a frozen vault in Houston sits the original NASA photographic film of the Apollo missions. For half a century, almost every image of the Moon landings publicly available was produced from a lower-quality copy of these originals. Now we can view them as never before. Expert image restorer Andy Saunders has taken newly available digital scans and, applying pain-staking care and cutting-edge enhancement techniques, he has created the highest quality Apollo photographs ever produced. Never-before-seen spacewalks and crystal-clear portraits of astronauts in their spacecraft, along with startling new visions of the Earth and the Moon, offer astounding new insight into one of our greatest endeavours. This is the definitive record of the Apollo missions and a mesmerizing, high definition journey into the unknown.

Author : Charles River Charles River Editors
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 70 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 2013-08-26
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1492251909

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Apollo 11: the History and Legacy of the First Moon Landing by Charles River Charles River Editors Pdf

*Includes pictures of important people, places, and events. *Comprehensively describes the history of the Apollo program, including explaining the design and planning that went into it. *Includes quotes from the astronauts about the mission.*Includes footnotes. "10, 9, ignition sequence start, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, zero. All engines running. Liftoff! We have a liftoff! Thirty-two minutes past the hour. Liftoff on Apollo 11!" Jack King, NASA Chief of Public Information At 9:32 a.m. on July 16, 1969, time stood still throughout the world as thousands converged on the Kennedy Space Center and millions tuned in on live television. At that instant, the first rumbles began to shake the ground, as a small spacecraft attached to the giant Saturn V rocket several hundred feet tall started lifting off. Quickly being propelled several thousand miles per hour, it takes just a few minutes to reach a speed of 15,000 miles per hour, and just a few more minutes to enter orbit at 18,000 miles per hour. Apollo 11 was on its way to a historic first landing on the Moon. Apollo 11's trip to the Moon may have started on that day in 1969, but the journey had begun over a decade earlier as part of the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union. While landing on the Moon was a noble goal proposed as early as 1961 by President Kennedy, NASA and the nation as a whole moved with urgency simply to best the Soviet Union, which had spent the 1950s beating America to important space-related firsts, including launching the first satellite and cosmonaut in orbit. In fact, President Eisenhower's administration began the design for the Apollo program in 1960 in hopes of getting a head start to the Moon, despite the fact the plans originated a year before the first Russian cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, orbited the Earth and two years before John Glenn did. Over the decade, NASA would spend tens of billions on the Apollo missions, the most expensive peacetime program in American history to that point, and even though Apollo 11 was only one of almost 20 Apollo missions, it was certainly the crown jewel. only one of nearly 20 Apollo missions conducted by NASA. And to make Apollo 11 a success, it would take nearly a decade of planning by government officials, hard work by NASA scientists, intense training by the astronauts, and several missions preceding Apollo 11. It also cost over $20 billion, making the Apollo program the most expensive peacetime program in American history at the time. Americans sure felt the cost was worth it as they watched the first live shots of astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walking on the Moon. As he left his first footprint on the Moon, Armstrong transmitted one of the 20th century's most famous phrases: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Apollo 11: The History and Legacy of the First Moon Landing comprehensively chronicles the history of the famous mission, from the initial designs to the dramatic days of July 1969 and the aftermath. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the first moon landing like you never have before, in no time at all.

Author : Douglas Brinkley
Publisher : HarperCollins
Page : 686 pages
File Size : 44,6 Mb
Release : 2019-04-02
Category : History
ISBN : 9780062655080

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American Moonshot by Douglas Brinkley Pdf

Instant New York Times Bestseller As the fiftieth anniversary of the first lunar landing approaches, the award winning historian and perennial New York Times bestselling author takes a fresh look at the space program, President John F. Kennedy’s inspiring challenge, and America’s race to the moon. “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; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win.”—President John F. Kennedy On May 25, 1961, JFK made an astonishing announcement: his goal of putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade. In this engrossing, fast-paced epic, Douglas Brinkley returns to the 1960s to recreate one of the most exciting and ambitious achievements in the history of humankind. American Moonshot brings together the extraordinary political, cultural, and scientific factors that fueled the birth and development of NASA and the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo projects, which shot the United States to victory in the space race against the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War. Drawing on new primary source material and major interviews with many of the surviving figures who were key to America’s success, Brinkley brings this fascinating history to life as never before. American Moonshot is a portrait of the brilliant men and women who made this giant leap possible, the technology that enabled us to propel men beyond earth’s orbit to the moon and return them safely, and the geopolitical tensions that spurred Kennedy to commit himself fully to this audacious dream. Brinkley’s ensemble cast of New Frontier characters include rocketeer Wernher von Braun, astronaut John Glenn and space booster Lyndon Johnson. A vivid and enthralling chronicle of one of the most thrilling, hopeful, and turbulent eras in the nation’s history, American Moonshot is an homage to scientific ingenuity, human curiosity, and the boundless American spirit.

Author : Charles River Editors
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Page : 88 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2017-02-13
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1543032206

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Apollo 11 by Charles River Editors Pdf

*Includes pictures of important people, places, and events. *Comprehensively describes the history of the Apollo program, including explaining the design and planning that went into it. *Includes quotes from the astronauts about the mission. *Includes footnotes. "10, 9, ignition sequence start, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, zero. All engines running. Liftoff! We have a liftoff! Thirty-two minutes past the hour. Liftoff on Apollo 11!" Jack King, NASA Chief of Public Information At 9:32 a.m. on July 16, 1969, time stood still throughout the world as thousands converged on the Kennedy Space Center and millions tuned in on live television. At that instant, the first rumbles began to shake the ground, as a small spacecraft attached to the giant Saturn V rocket several hundred feet tall started lifting off. Quickly being propelled several thousand miles per hour, it takes just a few minutes to reach a speed of 15,000 miles per hour, and just a few more minutes to enter orbit at 18,000 miles per hour. Apollo 11 was on its way to a historic first landing on the Moon. Apollo 11's trip to the Moon may have started on that day in 1969, but the journey had begun over a decade earlier as part of the Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union. While landing on the Moon was a noble goal proposed as early as 1961 by President Kennedy, NASA and the nation as a whole moved with urgency simply to best the Soviet Union, which had spent the 1950s beating America to important space-related firsts, including launching the first satellite and cosmonaut in orbit. In fact, President Eisenhower's administration began the design for the Apollo program in 1960 in hopes of getting a head start to the Moon, despite the fact the plans originated a year before the first Russian cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, orbited the Earth and two years before John Glenn did. Over the decade, NASA would spend tens of billions on the Apollo missions, the most expensive peacetime program in American history to that point, and even though Apollo 11 was only one of almost 20 Apollo missions, it was certainly the crown jewel. only one of nearly 20 Apollo missions conducted by NASA. And to make Apollo 11 a success, it would take nearly a decade of planning by government officials, hard work by NASA scientists, intense training by the astronauts, and several missions preceding Apollo 11. It also cost over $20 billion, making the Apollo program the most expensive peacetime program in American history at the time. Americans sure felt the cost was worth it as they watched the first live shots of astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walking on the Moon. As he left his first footprint on the Moon, Armstrong transmitted one of the 20th century's most famous phrases: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." Apollo 11: The History and Legacy of the First Moon Landing comprehensively chronicles the history of the famous mission, from the initial designs to the dramatic days of July 1969 and the aftermath. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the first moon landing like you never have before, in no time at all.

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Heritage Capital Corporation
Page : 182 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2008-02
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
ISBN : 1599672278

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HSA Space Exploration and Aviation Auction Catalog #6000 by Anonim Pdf

Author : National Aeronautics and Space Administration,Glen E. Swanson
Publisher : CreateSpace
Page : 430 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 2014-04-18
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 1499181477

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Before This Decade Is Out ... by National Aeronautics and Space Administration,Glen E. Swanson Pdf

As the 20th century ends and we approach the beginning of a new millennium, future generations will look back and recall the leaving of our home planet as a defining moment in the history of humankind. The story of Apollo has been told and retold many times by those fortunate enough to have experienced space travel first-hand--the astronauts themselves. Those who managed to leave the cradle of the Earth and walk upon the surface of the Moon offer a unique perspective shared firsthand by only a handful of people chosen to represent humankind in the culmination of this great adventure. As we reflect on the 30th anniversary of Apollo's first landing, we should not overlook other accounts of this monumental achievement as offered by those representing the half a million people associated with the program. During the 1960s, these people joined in a national effort to bring to completion President John E Kennedy's vision of landing Americans on the Moon and returning them safely to Earth before the end of the decade. For a project as massive as the Apollo program, history may distance itself to the extent where modern interpretation distills a feeling that such events took place without extensive human involvement. Nothing could be further removed from the truth. Through the verbal accounts offered by the oral histories such as presented in this volume, we are reintroduced to the critical human factor which is the essence of any history. People made Apollo happen and it is important to preserve their thoughts, feelings, and recollections for future generations. The oral histories presented in this volume offer a sample of what NASA has done to preserve the story of Apollo as part of our nation's human spaceflight heritage. The accounts included in this book are a small sampling of the large number of oral histories that have been conducted under the auspices of the NASA history program, since near the beginning of the Agency. They also represent the many personal contributions made during Project Apollo, the single largest peacetime endeavor in American history. These recollections span the origins, management, and completion of that enormous effort and measurably enhance our appreciation of its difficulty. Some of the key individuals involved in Project Apollo are being preserved by NASA and made available through this book.

Author : David Meerman Scott,Richard Jurek
Publisher : MIT Press
Page : 145 pages
File Size : 52,8 Mb
Release : 2014-02-28
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780262026963

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Marketing the Moon by David Meerman Scott,Richard Jurek Pdf

One of the most successful public relations campaigns in history, featuring heroic astronauts, press-savvy rocket scientists, enthusiastic reporters, deep-pocketed defense contractors, and Tang. In July 1969, ninety-four percent of American televisions were tuned to coverage of Apollo 11's mission to the moon. How did space exploration, once the purview of rocket scientists, reach a larger audience than My Three Sons? Why did a government program whose standard operating procedure had been secrecy turn its greatest achievement into a communal experience? In Marketing the Moon, David Meerman Scott and Richard Jurek tell the story of one of the most successful marketing and public relations campaigns in history: the selling of the Apollo program. Primed by science fiction, magazine articles, and appearances by Wernher von Braun on the “Tomorrowland” segments of the Disneyland prime time television show, Americans were a receptive audience for NASA's pioneering “brand journalism.” Scott and Jurek describe sophisticated efforts by NASA and its many contractors to market the facts about space travel—through press releases, bylined articles, lavishly detailed background materials, and fully produced radio and television features—rather than push an agenda. American astronauts, who signed exclusive agreements with Life magazine, became the heroic and patriotic faces of the program. And there was some judicious product placement: Hasselblad was the “first camera on the moon”; Sony cassette recorders and supplies of Tang were on board the capsule; and astronauts were equipped with the Exer-Genie personal exerciser. Everyone wanted a place on the bandwagon. Generously illustrated with vintage photographs, artwork, and advertisements, many never published before, Marketing the Moon shows that when Neil Armstrong took that giant leap for mankind, it was a triumph not just for American engineering and rocketry but for American marketing and public relations.

Author : James Donovan
Publisher : Little, Brown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 41,7 Mb
Release : 2019-03-12
Category : History
ISBN : 0316341789

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Shoot for the Moon by James Donovan Pdf

Learn why NASA astronaut Mike Collins calls this extraordinary space race story "the best book on Apollo": this inspiring and intimate ode to ingenuity celebrates one of the most daring feats in human history. When the alarm went off forty thousand feet above the moon's surface, both astronauts looked down at the computer to see 1202 flashing on the readout. Neither of them knew what it meant, and time was running out . . . On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon. One of the world's greatest technological achievements -- and a triumph of the American spirit -- the Apollo 11 mission was a mammoth undertaking involving more than 410,000 men and women dedicated to winning the space race against the Soviets. Set amid the tensions and upheaval of the sixties and the Cold War, Shoot for the Moon is a gripping account of the dangers, the challenges, and the sheer determination that defined not only Apollo 11, but also the Mercury and Gemini missions that came before it. From the shock of Sputnik and the heart-stopping final minutes of John Glenn's Mercury flight to the deadly whirligig of Gemini 8, the doomed Apollo 1 mission, and that perilous landing on the Sea of Tranquility -- when the entire world held its breath while Armstrong and Aldrin battled computer alarms, low fuel, and other problems -- James Donovan tells the whole story. Both sweeping and intimate, Shoot for the Moon is "a powerfully written and irresistible celebration" of one of humankind's most extraordinary accomplishments (Booklist, starred review).

Author : Charles River Editors
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Page : 184 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2017-02-23
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 154329491X

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The Apollo Program by Charles River Editors Pdf

*Includes pictures *Chronicles the Apollo program from beginning to end, profiling Apollo 1, Apollo 11, and Apollo 13 *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents The Apollo space program is the most famous and celebrated in American history, but the first successful landing of men on the Moon during Apollo 11 had complicated roots dating back over a decade, and it also involved one of NASA's most infamous tragedies. Landing on the Moon presented an ideal goal all on its own, but the government's urgency in designing the Apollo program was actually brought about by the Soviet Union, which spent much of the 1950s leaving the United States in its dust (and rocket fuel). In 1957, at a time when people were concerned about communism and nuclear war, many Americans were dismayed by news that the Soviet Union was successfully launching satellites into orbit. Among those concerned was President Dwight D. Eisenhower, whose space program was clearly lagging a few years behind the Soviets' space program. From 1959-1963, the United States worked toward putting satellites and humans into orbit via the Mercury program, but Eisenhower's administration was already designing plans for the Apollo program by 1960, a year before the first Russian orbited the Earth and two years before John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth. On May 25, 1961, President John F. Kennedy addressed Congress and asked the nation to -commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.- Given America's inability to even put a man in orbit yet, this seemed like an overly ambitious goal, and it isn't even clear that Kennedy himself believed it possible; after all, he was reluctant to meet NASA Administrator James E. Webb's initial funding requests. As Apollo 11's name suggests, there were actually a number of Apollo missions that came before, many of which included testing the rockets and different orbital and lunar modules in orbit. In fact, it wasn't until Apollo 8 that a manned vehicle was sent towards the Moon and back, and before that mission, the most famous Apollo mission was Apollo 1, albeit for all the wrong reasons. Over the decade, NASA would spend tens of billions on the Apollo missions, the most expensive peacetime program in American history to that point, and even though Apollo 11 was only one of almost 20 Apollo missions, it was certainly the crown jewel. only one of nearly 20 Apollo missions conducted by NASA. And to make Apollo 11 a success, it would take nearly a decade of planning by government officials, hard work by NASA scientists, intense training by the astronauts, and several missions preceding Apollo 11. It also cost over $20 billion, making the Apollo program the most expensive peacetime program in American history at the time. Apollo 12 successfully landed astronauts on the Moon just a few months after Apollo 11's successful mission. Apollo 12 was actually more successful than Apollo 11 from the standpoint of fulfilling the mission objectives, but it was naturally overshadowed since it did not come first. Another reason Apollo 12 is mostly forgotten today can be credited to the dramatic and fateful Apollo 13 mission, which took twists and turns nobody could have predicted when it launched on April 11, 1970. Apollo 13's mission was to land on the Moon near the Fra Mauro highlands, which were hills that had somehow formed in the middle of a huge crater tens of miles wide. The mission was supposed to test for seismic activity and take samples to analyze the crater and try to find an explanation for the formation of the hills. Of course, as is widely known today, Apollo 13 never made the landing. By the end of the Apollo program, NASA had already begun designing and developing the Space Shuttle Program, which would provide reusable vehicles for manned space travel.

Author : Matthew D. Tribbe
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2014-06-06
Category : History
ISBN : 9780199313549

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No Requiem for the Space Age by Matthew D. Tribbe Pdf

During the summer of 1969-the summer Americans first walked on the moon-musician and poet Patti Smith recalled strolling down the Coney Island Boardwalk to a refreshment stand, where "pictures of Jesus, President Kennedy, and the astronauts were taped to the wall behind the register." Such was the zeitgeist in the year of the moon. Yet this holy trinity of 1960s America would quickly fall apart. Although Jesus and John F. Kennedy remained iconic, by the time the Apollo Program came to a premature end just three years later few Americans mourned its passing. Why did support for the space program decrease so sharply by the early 1970s? Rooted in profound scientific and technological leaps, rational technocratic management, and an ambitious view of the universe as a realm susceptible to human mastery, the Apollo moon landings were the grandest manifestation of postwar American progress and seemed to prove that the United States could accomplish anything to which it committed its energies and resources. To the great dismay of its many proponents, however, NASA found the ground shifting beneath its feet as a fierce wave of anti-rationalism arose throughout American society, fostering a cultural environment in which growing numbers of Americans began to contest rather than embrace the rationalist values and vision of progress that Apollo embodied. Shifting the conversation of Apollo from its Cold War origins to larger trends in American culture and society, and probing an eclectic mix of voices from the era, including intellectuals, religious leaders, rock musicians, politicians, and a variety of everyday Americans, Matthew Tribbe paints an electrifying portrait of a nation in the midst of questioning the very values that had guided it through the postwar years as it began to develop new conceptions of progress that had little to do with blasting ever more men to the moon. No Requiem for the Space Age offers a narrative of the 1960s and 1970s unlike any told before, with the story of Apollo as the story of America itself in a time of dramatic cultural change.

Author : Amy Maranville
Publisher : Capstone
Page : 33 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2021-08
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN : 9781663920751

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The Apollo 11 Moon Landing by Amy Maranville Pdf

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong took one giant leap for mankind when he became the first person to set foot on the moon. Now readers can step back in time to learn about what led up to the Apollo 11 moon landing, how the historic event unfolded, and the ways in which one remarkable day changed America forever.

Author : Courtney G. Brooks,James M. Grimwood,Loyd S. Swenson
Publisher : Courier Corporation
Page : 576 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 2012-05-14
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780486140933

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Chariots for Apollo by Courtney G. Brooks,James M. Grimwood,Loyd S. Swenson Pdf

This illustrated history by a trio of experts is the definitive reference on the Apollo spacecraft and lunar modules. It traces the vehicles' design, development, and operation in space. More than 100 photographs and illustrations.

Author : Jeffrey Kluger
Publisher : Henry Holt and Company
Page : 336 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 2017-05-16
Category : History
ISBN : 9781627798310

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Apollo 8 by Jeffrey Kluger Pdf

The untold story of the historic voyage to the moon that closed out one of our darkest years with a nearly unimaginable triumph In August 1968, NASA made a bold decision: in just sixteen weeks, the United States would launch humankind’s first flight to the moon. Only the year before, three astronauts had burned to death in their spacecraft, and since then the Apollo program had suffered one setback after another. Meanwhile, the Russians were winning the space race, the Cold War was getting hotter by the month, and President Kennedy’s promise to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade seemed sure to be broken. But when Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders were summoned to a secret meeting and told of the dangerous mission, they instantly signed on. Written with all the color and verve of the best narrative non-fiction, Apollo 8 takes us from Mission Control to the astronaut’s homes, from the test labs to the launch pad. The race to prepare an untested rocket for an unprecedented journey paves the way for the hair-raising trip to the moon. Then, on Christmas Eve, a nation that has suffered a horrendous year of assassinations and war is heartened by an inspiring message from the trio of astronauts in lunar orbit. And when the mission is over—after the first view of the far side of the moon, the first earth-rise, and the first re-entry through the earth’s atmosphere following a flight to deep space—the impossible dream of walking on the moon suddenly seems within reach. The full story of Apollo 8 has never been told, and only Jeffrey Kluger—Jim Lovell’s co-author on their bestselling book about Apollo 13—can do it justice. Here is the tale of a mission that was both a calculated risk and a wild crapshoot, a stirring account of how three American heroes forever changed our view of the home planet.