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Hardcover
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Format: Bargain Price
A breathtaking, first-hand account of the early days of the NASA space program, through the eyes of the man who held it all together...
In 1957, the Russians launched Sputnik and the ensuing space race. Three years later, Gene Kranz left his aircraft testing job to join NASA and champion the American cause. What he found was an embryonic department run by whiz kids (such as himself), sharp engineers and technicians who had to create the Mercury mission rules and procedure from the ground up. As he says, "Since there were no books written on the actual methodology of space flight, we had to write them as we went along." Kranz was part of the mission control team that, in January 1961, launched a chimpanzee into space and successfully retrieved him, and made Alan Shepard the first American in space in May 1961. Just two months later they launched Gus Grissom for a space orbit, John Glenn orbited Earth three times in February 1962, and in May of 1963 Gordon Cooper completed the final Project Mercury launch with 22 Earth orbits. And through them all, and the many Apollo missions that followed, Gene Kranz was one of the integral inside men--one of those who bore the responsibility for the Apollo 1 tragedy, and the leader of the "tiger team" that saved the Apollo 13 astronauts. Moviegoers know Gene Kranz through Ed Harris's Oscar-nominated portrayal of him in Apollo 13, but Kranz provides a more detailed insider's perspective in his book Failure Is Not an Option. You see NASA through his eyes, from its primitive days when he first joined up, through the 1993 shuttle mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope, his last mission control project. His memoir, however, is not high literature. Kranz has many accomplishments and honors to his credit, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, but this is his first book, and he's not a polished author. There are, perhaps, more behind-the-scenes details and more paragraphs devoted to what Cape Canaveral looked like than the general public demands. If, however, you have a long-standing fascination with aeronautics, if you watched Apollo 13 and wanted more, Failure Is Not an Option will fill the bill. --Stephanie Gold
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| Great account of the event |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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We actually bought this book as a gift for my father-in-law who was in the USAF during this time. We had the opportunity to hear Gene Krantz speak at an event recently, and were intrigued by his book. The combination of the book and hearing him live really gave an amazing account of the event - many more details than we had ever heard before.
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| A Great Book for People Who Are Not Literary Snobs |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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My god what a page turner. Especially for a baby boomer. The innocense from the beginning of man space flight and it's maturation by the early 1990's as seen by an insider is very exciting. And it leaves us as readers not affected so much by the mistakes or later the shuttle disasters. Instead we see people using slide rulers (yes the nuns taught us to use them even though caculators were already cheap) and low tech equipment (from our standards of today) and ask ourselves how did they get so much right! They just don't make these kind of people anymore.
One other note - gosh damn - isn't it nice to actually read someone and have them "talk" like most of us talk. No ghostwritting here. Just plain,understandable sentences and paragraphs.
And for that the critics panned the book.
As Al Swearengen of HBO's "Deadwood" asks the newspaper writer of the town "is it your duty to inform your readers or make them feel stupid". This is one reader that thinks that less and simple is more.
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| Amazing |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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Really amazing, a book written by a man who contributed to create the dream of american space exploration. It's unbelieveble to read HOW we were technologically far from today. A nostalgic narration, absolutely MUST HAVE.
ALESSANDRO MARIANI
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| Great read. Feels like you were there. |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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I've always been fascinated with space and technology. Born in the early 70s, I missed the higher nationwide space race hype, but am still drawn to the history of the whole thing. This book really gives an insider's look at the space program - through its challenges and triumphs. Kranz makes you feel like you're sitting at the console with him, and you're transported back in time as the excitement builds.
This isn't a complete story about the space program -- it's specifically about Kranz' duties from when he got started with NASA until he left. If you've read other books about the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs, this book not only fills out the missing details, this enhances the story and provides an emotional element. I was particularly drawn to personal feelings that Gene speaks about in the book (like when he threatened to quit or when he lost his temper), and when he mentions what else was going in the world which also affected things. As I said, it's an incredibly human story about a huge historical time period.
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| A remarkable guy |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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I had the unexpected pleasure of meeting Gene Kranz in person and talking with him very briefly during the celebration of the 40th anniversary of Apollo 8 in San Diego last winter. I already knew from his book that his rather forbidding appearance is just a facade, but I was still surprised at how approachable he was. I also had the chance to talk briefly with a few astronauts, but meeting Kranz was still the night's highlight for me.
What impressed me most about Kranz's book, aside from his very straightforward and no-nonsense writing style, was the importance he placed on giving credit to others, especially those he felt hadn't been properly recognized over the years. Near the top of his list were the training and simulation supervisors.
Kranz talks quite candidly about those seemingly endless training sessions. He freely admits that they often had him pouring out sweat. Many got the better of him, such as his decision to abort a launch that came so late that the capsule landed on a mountain taller than the altitude at which the parachutes opened, killing the "crew". Sometimes he even wondered if he was up to the job of flight director. (I'd be far more concerned about anyone who didn't have those doubts.)
The story of Steve Bales' "go" call that saved the Apollo 11 landing is legendary, but I never knew the *reason* for Bales' correct call until Kranz wrote about it. In the very last training session before the flight, Simulation Supervisor Dick Koos simulated those very same computer overload alarms. Bales called an unnecessary abort. Kranz had Bales and his team go through the entire list of computer alarm codes and prepare a response for each one. So when the alarm happened for real, he was ready. (When the call came, someone on the flight controller's loop says: "Yeah, it's the same one we had!") Some might just consider this lucky, and Kranz himself toys with the notion. But I can't think of many better examples of the principle that luck always favors the prepared.
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