The Race to Space: Countdown to Liftoff (Epic Fails Series #2)
In this second installment of the Epic Fails series, explore the many failures that made up the Race to Space, paving the way for humanity’s eventual success at reaching the stars.

Today, everyone is familiar with Neil Armstrong’s famous words as he first set foot on the moon: “one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind.” He made it look easy, but America’s journey to the moon was anything but simple. In 1957, when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the world’s first satellite, into orbit, America had barely crossed the starting line of the great Space Race. Later that year, our first attempt was such a failure that the media nicknamed it “Kaputnik.” Still, we didn’t give up. With each failure, we gleaned valuable information about what went wrong, and how to avoid it in the future. So we tried again. And again. And each time we failed, we failed a little bit better.

The Epic Fails series by Erik Slader and Ben Thompson explores the humorous backstories behind a variety of historical discoveries, voyages, experiments, and innovations that didn't go as expected but succeeded nonetheless, showing that many of mankind's biggest success stories are the result of some pretty epic failures indeed.

This title has Common Core connections.

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The Race to Space: Countdown to Liftoff (Epic Fails Series #2)
In this second installment of the Epic Fails series, explore the many failures that made up the Race to Space, paving the way for humanity’s eventual success at reaching the stars.

Today, everyone is familiar with Neil Armstrong’s famous words as he first set foot on the moon: “one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind.” He made it look easy, but America’s journey to the moon was anything but simple. In 1957, when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the world’s first satellite, into orbit, America had barely crossed the starting line of the great Space Race. Later that year, our first attempt was such a failure that the media nicknamed it “Kaputnik.” Still, we didn’t give up. With each failure, we gleaned valuable information about what went wrong, and how to avoid it in the future. So we tried again. And again. And each time we failed, we failed a little bit better.

The Epic Fails series by Erik Slader and Ben Thompson explores the humorous backstories behind a variety of historical discoveries, voyages, experiments, and innovations that didn't go as expected but succeeded nonetheless, showing that many of mankind's biggest success stories are the result of some pretty epic failures indeed.

This title has Common Core connections.

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The Race to Space: Countdown to Liftoff (Epic Fails Series #2)

The Race to Space: Countdown to Liftoff (Epic Fails Series #2)

The Race to Space: Countdown to Liftoff (Epic Fails Series #2)

The Race to Space: Countdown to Liftoff (Epic Fails Series #2)

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Overview

In this second installment of the Epic Fails series, explore the many failures that made up the Race to Space, paving the way for humanity’s eventual success at reaching the stars.

Today, everyone is familiar with Neil Armstrong’s famous words as he first set foot on the moon: “one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind.” He made it look easy, but America’s journey to the moon was anything but simple. In 1957, when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the world’s first satellite, into orbit, America had barely crossed the starting line of the great Space Race. Later that year, our first attempt was such a failure that the media nicknamed it “Kaputnik.” Still, we didn’t give up. With each failure, we gleaned valuable information about what went wrong, and how to avoid it in the future. So we tried again. And again. And each time we failed, we failed a little bit better.

The Epic Fails series by Erik Slader and Ben Thompson explores the humorous backstories behind a variety of historical discoveries, voyages, experiments, and innovations that didn't go as expected but succeeded nonetheless, showing that many of mankind's biggest success stories are the result of some pretty epic failures indeed.

This title has Common Core connections.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781250150622
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
Publication date: 07/10/2018
Series: Epic Fails , #2
Pages: 160
Product dimensions: 5.00(w) x 7.40(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range: 8 - 11 Years

About the Author

About The Author
Ben Thompson is a writer, podcaster, and author of fourteen books on various awesome historical subjects, including the Guts & Glory and Epic Fails series. He has appeared on television programs for the History Channel, Discovery, and the American Heroes Channel, and has written articles for outlets such as Cracked, Mental Floss, and The American Mustache Institute. He currently owns four swords (if you count a letter opener shaped like Glamdring the Foe-Hammer), and is very happy that he appears on the Wikipedia disambiguation page alongside a famous gunfighter, Count Rumsford, and like a dozen Australian Rules Football players.

Erik Slader is the creator of “Epik Fails of History” a blog and podcast about the most epic fails… of history.

With Ben Thompson, Erik is the coauthor of the Epic Fails series, including The Wright Brothers: Nose-Diving Into History and Race to Space: Countdown to Liftoff.

Tim Foley was born in Flint, Michigan, and since attending college at the Kendall School of Design, has made his home in Grand Rapids on the west side of the state. A freelance illustrator for the past three decades, his work has appeared in magazines and newspapers around the world and books have included many titles in the bestselling young adult "Who Was" biography series, as well as several adult coloring books.

Table of Contents

Introduction: "Failure Is Not an Option" 1

Chapter 1 It's Just Rocket Science! 5

Chapter 2 Failure to Launch 13

Chapter 3 Dawn of the Atomic Age 21

Chapter 4 Sputnik 33

Chapter 5 The Birth of NASA 41

Chapter 6 The Mercury Seven 51

Chapter 7 Project Gemini 69

Chapter 8 A Dangerous Rendezvous 81

Chapter 9 Tragedy 89

Chapter 10 Apollo 99

Chapter 11 One Small Step, One Giant Leap 105

Chapter 12 We Have a Problem 115

Chapter 13 The Final Frontier 133

Timeline 142

Acknowledgments 144

Bibliography 146

Index 147

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