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First published in 1989 and now with a new foreword, Apollo is the dramatic story of the Apollo space program from the perspective of the men and women behind the scenes who accomplished an extraordinary feat in less than a decade, and landed a man on the moon.
In 1961, when President Kennedy asked America to go to the moon, our space program was in shambles, and going to the moon was nothing more than a distant dream. Based on extensive interviews, many of them exclusive, Apollo follows the young, colorful engineers responsible for building a space program from scratch and realizing Kennedy’s goal.
In additional to offering vivid, often revelatory portraits of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and the astronauts, Apollo portrays Jim Webb, the smooth North Carolinian who saw that NASA got what it needed from Washington; Max Faget, the genius engineer behind the Apollo design; and Joe Shea, the brilliant manager who then left under a cloud of controversy. We are taken onto the towering gantries at Cape Canaveral—and sit at the consoles in Houston’s Mission Control as we relive the tragedy of the fire on Apollo 1, the narrow rescue of Apollo 13, and the triumphant first landing on the moon.
A fascinating story from the annals of science and a uniquely American tale about innovators overcoming monumental odds, Apollo captures in all its drama a critical era in American history.
“Apollo is a marvelous, deftly written book that captures the mood and spirit of the people who found a way to the moon."
—Michael Collins, The New York Times Book Review
“Rich, densely packed, and beautifully told. . . . Filled with cliff hangers, suspense, and spine-tingling adventure."
—Charles Sheffield, Washington Post Book World
“Heart-gripping. . . . So brilliantly told one can almost smell the perspiration in Mission Control."
—Charles Petit, San Francisco Chronicle
“Murray and Cox’s description of the final moments of lunar lander Eagle’s descent is tension defined."
—Philadelphia Inquirer
“An excellent new history . . ., an epic ‘captured in miniature.’”
—Thomas Mallon, Wall Street Journal
“Mission accomplished."
—Peter Spotts, The Christian Science Monitor
“This book is a ‘GO.’”
—Walter J. Boyne, Chicago Tribune
“Solid journalism. Must reading for those who always wondered just what happens in front of the TV screens of Mission Control."
—Business Week
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Apollo Abbreviations
Prologue: May 25, 1961
BOOK I. GATHERING
Chapter 1. “That famous Space Task Group is akin to the Mayflower”
Chapter 2. “I could picture the astronauts looking down at it with binoculars”
Chapter 3. “Those days were out of the Dark Ages”
Chapter 4. “He would rather not have done it”
Chapter 5. “We’re going to the moon”
BOOK II. BUILDING
Chapter 6. “The flight article has got to dominate”
Chapter 7. “We had more harebrained schemes than you could shake a stick at”
Chapter 8. “Somewhat as a voice in the wilderness. . .”
Chapter 9. “What sonofabitch thinks it isn’t the right thing to do?”
Chapter 10. “It aged me, I’m sure”
Chapter 11. “It sounded reckless”
Chapter 12. “Hey, it isn’t that complicated”
Chapter 13. “We want you to go fix it”
Chapter 14. “Did he say ‘fire’?”
Chapter 15. The Crucible
Chapter 16. “You’ve got to start biting somewhere”
Chapter 17. “And then on launch day it worked”
BOOK III. FLYING
Chapter 18. “We’re going to put a guy in that thing and light it”
Chapter 19. “There will always be people who want to work in that room”
Chapter 20. “The flight director may take any necessary action”
Chapter 21. “There was no mercy in those days”
Chapter 22. “You’ve lost the engines?”
Chapter 23. “It was darn scary”
Chapter 24. “We ...we’re go on that, Flight”
Chapter 25. “Well, let’s light this sumbitch and it better work”
Chapter 26. “I think we need to do a little more all-weather testing”
Chapter 27. “You really need to understand that the C.S.M. is dying”
Chapter 28. “You don’t have time to worry”
Chapter 29. “I hope the guys who thought this up knew what they were doing”
Chapter 30. “We drank the wine at the pace they handed it to us”
Epilogue: Twenty Years after the First Landing
Images of Apollo
Apollo as History
Notes
Glossary
About the Authors