Destination Moon: The Remarkable and Improbable Voyage of Apollo 11

The history of NASA's Apollo program from Earth orbital missions to lunar landings in a propulsive nonfiction narrative.

Only now, it is becoming clear how exceptional and unrepeatable Apollo was. At its height, it employed almost half a million people, many working seven days a week and each determined that "it will not fail because of me."

Beginning with fighter pilots in World War II, Maurer traces the origins of the Apollo program to a few exceptional soldiers, a Nazi engineer, and a yo...