Explore the History of Space Exploration Through the Lens of Mission Control: From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond

Jeffrey G. Heinz: This is an outstanding read! Highlights the teams struggle to overcome problems and issues associated with the brave men and women of the Apollo space program!

United States on Sep 10, 2023

Barbara B: Got this in April for my husband's birthday in October. He has a die hard 'anything that flies' obsession and can tell you pretty much anything about any of the space missions. This is one of the few books he does not have, and he'll be thrilled to receive it!

United States on Aug 29, 2023

Andy L.: At the age of 33 myself, I definitely do not claim I am old, but this book is inspiring. As a researcher at a major university, my colleagues and I always finish our lunch by saying "Let's go back pushing the frontiers". Hell, what Kranz and people at NASA did were really pushing the frontiers. Through this book you see how much effort and hunger they had at the time, and how things went south in recent years from the perspective of sciences. Places like NASA should lead advances in sciences and mankind, not whatever is going on now, which is utterly frustrating. Young generation, myself includes, need to get things back on track, inspire, and innovate. We are being chased by countries like China. I also read the book "Last Man on the Moon" by Gene Cernan, at the end of which he was holding his granddaughter and pointed at the Moon, saying he went there before. What can we tell our grandchildren when we turn 70 or 80? What legacies can we leave?

United States on Jul 03, 2023

Paul Ellis: I've always thought of the Apollo missions as not just landing on the moon, but of how a nation and a bunch of people who when working together and for each other can achieve anything.
This is a great behind the scenes look at NASA, great learning experience for any organisation and team.
Once you get your head around some of the jargon and acronyms, an easy read.

Australia on Mar 31, 2023

Frédéric L.: Ce livre m'a permis de découvrir d'autres aspects de la conquête spatiale US : cela à été vraiment passionnant !

France on Mar 19, 2023

Marga: Das Buch wurde in einem Film erwähnt. Das Buch hat meine Erwartungen übertroffen.
Abgesehen davon, das es ein Stück Raumfahrtgeschicht erzählt und eine Fülle von Hintergrundinformationen und Einblicke in die Geschichte des Raumflug liefert, gibt es einen Einblick in die Führungsstruktur, das Leadership und das Teamwork das dahinter steckt. Die damaligen Stars (wir wollten damals alle Astronauten werden) treten in den Hintergrund. Man bekommt deutlich gezeigt wieviel Manpower nötig war (- und ist- ), um die paar Leute in den Weltraum zu befördern. Wie viele faszinierenden Persönlichkeiten mit genialen Ideen, Wissen, Können und Risikobereitschaft unter einen Hut gebracht werden mussten. Wie man mit (auch katastrophalen) Fehlern umgeht und daraus lernt. Was in Mission Control abgelaufen ist, wie optimiert und knapp im entscheidenden Moment die Kommunikation abläuft - Dinge die man damals im Fernsehen nicht vermittelt bekommen hat. (Astronaut? Mission Control! Das wäre mein Platz gewesen)
Das Buch vermittelt nicht trockene technische Fakten. Wer sich dafür interessiert ist hier nicht richtig.
Wer sich für die Geschichte hinter der Geschichte interessiert, findet...

Germany on Dec 09, 2020

Terry D: Based on his experience as a flight director for the American space programme from Mercury through to the Apollo moon landings, Gene Krantz has written a gripping biography of those years. He takes us behind-the-scenes and we see the pressures faced by the controllers and everyone – not just the astronauts – connected with the programme. The resources involved are, quite literally, vast.

After 16 successful launches they overcame the death of three astronauts in the pad fire that destroyed Apollo 1. But, despite that disaster, the programme continued and we are given a gripping account of the moon landings, subsequent lift off and rendezvous. There’s also an near-light-hearted summary – remember the film? – of the way in which the astronauts put together that air scrubber using a fan, bits of cardboard and a fair amount of duct tape. But it worked and averted another near disaster.

At the end of the book Gene Krantz expresses – strongly – his views about the way in which the United States terminated that particular part of the space programme. But, of course, he was unaware of the way in which projects like the International Space Station and Mars...

United Kingdom on Feb 16, 2017

John M. Vizcarra: I was first introduced to the idea of Gene Kranz when I first saw the film Apollo 13, and then again shortly after I saw the excellent HBO miniseries, From the Earth to the Moon. I found his steely-eyed, take-no-bull, calm and collected attitude, portrayed by Ed Harris in Apollo 13 and Dan Butler in the HBO series, to be an integral part of the NASA equation.

So when this book, Failure is Not an Option, came up as a daily deal from Audible, I jumped on it. I couldn’t have made a better decision. This book is a personal memoir of Kranz, following his career at Nasa through the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. The beginning of the book is a bit awkward, as it starts out immediately with the Mercury program, then provides an entire section on his own background, qualifications and training, then resumes with Gemini. It is a bit jarring at the point where you read it, but once you’re past it, you don’t think of it again.

The thing I like the best about this book is how it is not just effusive praise of the astronauts. This by no means diminishes their contribution, but Kranz seems to go out of his way to hammer into your head that everything was a team effort,...

United States on Aug 13, 2016

Amazon Customer: ..., aber hier meldet sich jemand, der die "Helden" überhaupt erst einmal hochgeschossen hat. Das Buch ist unglaublich lehrreich. Gene Kranz war von Anfang an dabei. Er vermittelt glaubhaft, wie unbedarft man sich damals in das Space-Race mit der Sowjetunion begeben hat. Jeder Flug, jedes Manöver - immer war es ein "first ever" mit offenem Ausgang. Hier waren Risikobereitschaft und Improvisationstalent gefragt, absolute Hingabe, Disziplin und Verantwortungsbereitschaft. NIX für winselnde Sozialarbeiter. Die Berichterstattung beginnt mit den ersten unbemannten Raumflügen und endet mit dem Auslaufen des Apollo-Programms. Drei Jahrzehnte nach seinem Ausscheiden fasst der Autor seinen Weg als "FLIGHT" zusammen. Er beklagt, dass aus seiner Sicht nach der CHALLENGER Katastrophe der NASA die Visionen ausgegangen sind. Und er hat wohl auch Recht: Die USA besitzen kein Raumfahrzeug mehr, mit dem man Menschen auch "nur" zur Internationalen Raumstation transportieren könnte, das ARES Programm wurde nach einem Testflug eingestellt, das Know-How ist verloren gegangen, die Russen wollen sich von der ISS zurückziehen, aber die soll ja auch schon um 2020 aufgegeben werden. WAS KOMMT DANACH?...

Germany on Oct 12, 2014

Lawrence Effler Jr: Growing up as a kid watching the Gemini and Apollo missions is what first sparked my interest in science and engineering. The other kids wanted to be astronauts; I wanted to be one one the engineers in Mission Control, ideally the flight director. Astronauts went into space once, twice if they were lucky. The engineers in Mission Control got to go on each one (or so it seemed). I wanted to know what it was like to ride into space with a headset, an oscilloscope and a chart recorder. Having to make life and death decisions in seconds or fractions thereof.

Gene Kranz's book has finally given me that ride. Kranz tells of space exploration from the controllers viewpoint. And what a view it is, from the 4" flight of Mercury-Redstone 1, to the first Moon landing with Apollo 11 and the death defying flight of Apollo 13 Kranz allows us to live the adventure that he and his fellow controllers lived. The computers of the day were too big to place in the spacecraft. The computers controlling the craft were in Houston and a successful mission meant relaying results and limited code from Houston to the craft and vice versa. Poor decisions could mean a failed mission or worse, dead...

United States on Nov 03, 2013