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Read Craig Nelson's posts on the Penguin Blog.
"Celebrates a bold era when voyaging beyond the Earth was deemed crucial to national security and pride."
-The Wall Street Journal
Restoring the drama, majesty, and sheer improbability of an American triumph, this is award-winning historian Craig Nelson's definitive and thrilling story of man's first trip to the moon. At 9:32 a.m. on July 16, 1969, the Apollo 11 rocket launched in the presence of more than a million spectators who had gathered to witness a truly historic event. Through interviews, 23,000 pages of NASA oral histories, and declassified CIA documents on the space race, Rocket Men presents a vivid narrative of the moon mission, taking readers on the journey to one of the last frontiers of the human imagination.
Craig Nelson is the author of four previous books, including The First Heroes and Let's Get Lost. His writings have appeared in Salon, The New England Review, Blender, Genre, and a host of other publications. He was an editor at HarperCollins, Hyperion, and Random House for almost twenty years and has been profiled by Variety, Interview, Manhattan, Inc., and Time Out.
Part I
1 Behemoth 3
2 The General's Command 11
3 Anything but What He Is 17
4 The Sons of Galileo 32
5 Mr. Cool Stone 42
6 Don't Eat Toads 57
7 A Way to Talk to God 71
Part II
8 How the Pyramids Were Built 89
9 Total Cold War 111
10 The Bluff at Nobleman's Grave 135
11 The Fluid Front 145
12 The Transfiguration 180
Part III
13 The Great Black Sea 207
14 The Birth of the Moon 216
15 The Eagle Has Wings 232
16 One of Those Sad Days When You Lose a Machine 237
17 "Mr. President, the Eagle Has Landed" 264
18 To Rediscover Childhood 277
19 A tenuous Grasp 291
20 We Missed the Whole Thing 306
21 Through You, We Touched the Moon 316
22 When All Those Curves Lined Up 324
Acknowledgement 353
Notes 355
Sources 377
Index 395
Anonymous
Posted June 17, 2012
Focused mostly on what made Apollo 11 possible, the book not only explains the technical innovations, but also the political motivations that made the space race a priority for the US.
Entertaining, reads like a train.
Anonymous
Posted October 22, 2010
I found this book in the bargain book section in the store when I was checking out. What a terrific use of $5! This book dives very deeply into the early glory days of NASA. My favorite part is the depth of interviewing done by Mr. Nelson with the key players of the Apollo program. Several long quotes were included, and one really gets a sense of being there on the Moon with Neil and Buzz. I hope he continues to write other books about the Space Program!
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Overview
Read Craig Nelson's posts on the Penguin Blog.
"Celebrates a bold era when voyaging beyond the Earth was deemed crucial to national security and pride."
-The Wall Street Journal
Restoring the drama, majesty, and sheer improbability of an American triumph, this is award-winning historian Craig Nelson's definitive and thrilling story of man's first trip to the moon. At 9:32 a.m. on July 16, 1969, the Apollo 11 ...