Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man's First Journey to the Moon

by Robert Kurson

Overview

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The riveting inside story of three heroic astronauts who took on the challenge of mankind’s historic first mission to the Moon, from the bestselling author of Shadow Divers.

“Robert Kurson tells the tale of Apollo 8 with novelistic detail and immediacy.”—Andy Weir, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Martian and Artemis

By August 1968, the American space program was in danger of failing in its two most important objectives: to land a man on the Moon by President Kennedy’s end-of-decade deadline, and to triumph over the Soviets in space. With its back against the wall, NASA made an almost unimaginable leap: It would scrap its usual methodical approach and risk everything on a sudden launch, sending the first men in history to the Moon—in just four months. And it would all happen at Christmas.

In a year of historic violence and discord—the Tet Offensive, the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy, the riots at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago—the Apollo 8 mission would be the boldest, riskiest test of America’s greatness under pressure. In this gripping insider account, Robert Kurson puts the focus on the three astronauts and their families: the commander, Frank Borman, a conflicted man on his final mission; idealistic Jim Lovell, who’d dreamed since boyhood of riding a rocket to the Moon; and Bill Anders, a young nuclear engineer and hotshot fighter pilot making his first space flight.

Drawn from hundreds of hours of one-on-one interviews with the astronauts, their loved ones, NASA personnel, and myriad experts, and filled with vivid and unforgettable detail, Rocket Men is the definitive account of one of America’s finest hours. In this real-life thriller, Kurson reveals the epic dangers involved, and the singular bravery it took, for mankind to leave Earth for the first time—and arrive at a new world.

“Rocket Men is a riveting introduction to the [Apollo 8] flight. . . . Kurson details the mission in crisp, suspenseful scenes. . . . [A] gripping book.”—The New York Times Book Review

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780525589938
Publisher:	Diversified Publishing
Publication date:	04/03/2018
Edition description:	Large Print
Pages:	592
Sales rank:	736,007
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.24(h) x 0.99(d)

About the Author

Robert Kurson earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the University of Wisconsin and a law degree from Harvard Law School. His award-winning stories have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, and Esquire, where he was a contributing editor. He is the New York Times bestselling author of Shadow Divers, the 2005 American Booksellers Association’s nonfiction Book Sense Book of the Year; Crashing Through, based on Kurson’s 2006 National Magazine Award–winning profile in Esquire of the blind speed skier, CIA analyst, and entrepreneur Mike May; and Pirate Hunters. He lives in Chicago.

Hometown:

Chicago, Illinois

Place of Birth:

Chicago, Illinois

Education:

B.A. in Philosophy, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1986; J.D., Harvard Law School, 1990

Website:

http://www.robertkurson.com

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Rocket Men"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Robert Kurson.
Excerpted by permission of Diversified Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Prologue: Countdown 3

Chapter 1 Do You Want To Go To The Moon? 5

Chapter 2 The Space Race 13

Chapter 3 A Secret Plan 29

Chapter 4 Are You Out Of Your Mind? 39

Chapter 5 Frank Borman 53

Chapter 6 Just Four Months 69

Chapter 7 Jim Lovell 84

Chapter 8 Pushed To Superhuman Speeds 99

Chapter 9 Bill Anders 108

Chapter 10 How's Fifty-Fifty? 126

Chapter 11 My God, We Are Really Doing This 136

Chapter 12 Leaving Home 151

Chapter 13 A Deeply Troubled Year 169

Chapter 14 A Critical Test 183

Chapter 15 An Astronaut In Trouble 196

Chapter 16 Equigravisphere 205

Chapter 17 Racing the Moon 220

Chapter 18 Our Most Ancient Companion 228

Chapter 19 Earthrise 233

Chapter 20 The Heaven and the Earth 250

Chapter 21 Aiming for Home 264

Chapter 22 Please Be Informed-There is a Santa Claus 273

Chapter 23 Help From an Old Friend 287

Chapter 24 The Men Who Saved 1968 299

Epilogue 314

Acknowledgments 337

Diagram of Apollo 8 342

Author's Note 345

A Note On Sources 351

Index 357

Editorial Reviews

For people who were not alive in 1968—or kids whose dads did not chart the craft's every move on a family bulletin board—Robert Kurson's Rocket Men is a riveting introduction to the flight. The book takes off when Apollo's massive launch vehicle, the Saturn V, rises—an experience like "watching the Empire State Building leave Earth." Kurson details the mission in crisp, suspenseful scenes, interspersed with quieter history-driven chapters.

The New York Times Book Review - M. G. Lord

01/01/2018
With the 50th anniversary of the trailblazing Apollo 8 mission approaching in December 2018, Kurson (Pirate Hunters) affably reminds readers of the days when America’s dreams and goals lay far beyond Earth’s surface. Kurson sets the stage swiftly: President Kennedy had promised in 1961 that U.S. astronauts would land on the moon, but as the decade drew to a close, the Soviet Union remained the unquestionable leader of the space race. After the CIA reported that cosmonauts planned a lunar flyby late in 1968, NASA altered Apollo 8’s mission. Instead of orbiting the Earth, astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders would fly to the moon, orbit, and return. This was an especially challenging journey, because the August announcement meant that NASA’s astronauts and engineers had only four months to prepare. Kurson effectively recreates the era, recalling the tumult of a changing nation, as well as the tension felt by those involved both on Earth and in space, of a mission with little margin for error. Kurson writes in clear, simple language, avoiding technical matters and cryptic NASA jargon to focus on the people involved. Fans of explorers and adventurers will enjoy Kurson’s vibrant, accessible history. Agent: Philippa Brophy, Sterling Lord Literistic. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

With Rocket Men, Robert Kurson tells the tale of Apollo 8 with novelistic detail and immediacy, expertly capturing the urgency and suspense behind the mission that gave America the lead in the Space Race.”—Andy Weir, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Martian and Artemis

“Rocket Men is a riveting introduction to the [Apollo 8] flight. . . . Kurson details the mission in crisp, suspenseful scenes. . . . [A] gripping book.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Kurson’s first-rate account of this remarkable spaceflight starts by reminding us what a gamble it was, a revelatory wake-up nudge for anyone who thinks moon flights were routine. . . .  There are many pieces to the Apollo 8 story, but Kurson brings them together effortlessly.”—USA Today

“Rocket Men is close-to-the-bone adventure-telling on a par with Alfred Lansing’s Endurance and Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air. It’s as close to a movie as writing gets.”—Mary Roach, The Washington Post

“Kurson tells the behind-the-scenes story of Rocket Men with the pace of a thriller and the sensibility of a screenwriter. . . . With his focus on the astronauts’ young families, Kurson holds readers rapt to the heartwarming finale.”—Vanity Fair

“Engrossing . . . Kurson builds suspense around a mind-bendingly complex and dangerous journey.”—Associated Press

“Spectacular . . . [Rocket Men] carries on in great style through 350-some pages of ‘daring, adventure, risk-taking’ and so much more. . . . Kurson’s portraits of the men, as well as their wives, their families and space-program colleagues, are intimate and artfully drawn.”—Chicago Tribune

“Refreshing . . . The book will bring long-deserved attention to a mission that has been overshadowed. . . . Apollo 8’s success not only salvaged the space program but also managed to relieve the pessimism regarding the future into which the country had plunged.”—Lincoln Journal Star

“Apollo 11 grabbed the glory, but Apollo 8 was the mission that proved humans could travel to the Moon, and its crew (Jim Lovell, Frank Borman and William Anders) captured the landmark photo of Earthrise over the lunar horizon. This is the story of their mission, told in cinematic detail.”—NBC News

“An account of what could be America’s most stunning achievement: Apollo 8 and the world’s first journey to the Moon. This is a great story. . . . The best book I’ve read this year.”—Jim Bridenstine, administrator of NASA

“In 1968 we sent men to the Moon. They didn’t leave boot prints, but it was the first time humans ever left Earth for another destination. That mission was Apollo 8. And Rocket Men, under Robert Kurson’s compelling narrative, is that under-told story.”—Neil deGrasse Tyson

“A timely and thrilling reminder of a heroic American achievement . . . It has it all—suspense, drama, risk, and loving families. We could use those days again.”—Tom Brokaw

“Flat-out terrific . . . The tale is told with the care and clarity, and the heart-banging drama, that Robert Kurson's legion of readers have come to expect from him.”—Scott Turow

“Kurson presents not only the challenges, risks, ambition, and success of Apollo 8, but a story of human spirit.”—Nicole Stott, NASA ISS and space shuttle astronaut

From the Publisher

★ 01/01/2018
Many are familiar with the stories of Apollo 11 and the pioneers who took "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" on the moon, and of Apollo 13 and the astronauts who survived an explosion on their spacecraft while circumnavigating the moon. Yet, less widely known but equally gripping, is the account of Apollo 8 and the three bold men who were the first to orbit earth's lunar companion. Kurson (Shadow Divers) recounts the historically significant mission, which served as a crucial test run for the eventual landing on the moon and was noted for capturing the famous "Earthrise" photograph. He frames this well-researched story with an overview of the events that shaped the year leading up to the December 1968 launch, including the Vietnam War and the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy. At the heart of Kurson's narrative are astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders, and their families. However, unlike Robert Zimmerman's Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, Kurson does not delve extensively into the religious views of the astronauts. VERDICT Space buffs will enjoy this accessible and engaging account of human ingenuity and exploration.—Donna Marie Smith, Palm Beach Cty. Lib. Syst., FL

Library Journal

2018-01-23
An exuberant history of a major turning point in early American spaceflight, possibly "the riskiest and most thrilling of all the Apollo missions."Man's first flight to the moon occurred seven months before the actual landing. While not ignored, the Apollo 8 mission has never achieved the iconic status of Apollo 11. This enthusiastic account aims to remind readers of its significance. "This is the best space story of all, I thought, and I wasn't the only one," writes journalist Kurson (Pirate Hunters: Treasure, Obsession, and the Search for a Legendary Pirate Ship, 2015, etc.). He notes that after the national horror at the 1957 launch of Sputnik, everyone assumed that the Soviet Union enjoyed technical superiority and was racing to beat us to the moon. In fact, only the latter was true. Kurson opens the narrative in summer 1968 with a top-secret intelligence report that the Soviets might attempt a manned circumlunar flight by year's end. The Apollo mission was scheduled for 1969, but George Low, one official, maintained that the U.S. could match the Soviets. Some NASA leaders objected, and almost everyone agreed that "Sending Apollo 8 to the moon in December might be the boldest and riskiest and most important mission NASA ever attempted." Since beating the Soviets to the moon was Apollo's purpose, it had to be tried. The author offers biographies of those involved, a nuts-and-bolts account of four months of training and the flight itself, which was not without glitches, and digressions into events of 1968 America, torn by strife over civil rights and the Vietnam War. Most readers know how the story turned out, so Kurson strains to generate suspense, and space buffs will quickly realize that this is a journalistic account aimed at a mass audience (clue: the astronauts' courtships and family lives receive prominent attention).An overly breathless yet entertaining account of a pioneering space mission that deserves to be better known.

Kirkus Reviews