Rocket Men; The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon

New York: Viking, 2009. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. xii, 404 pages. Illustrations. Notes. Sources. Index. DJ has sticker residue and some wear and other soiling. Black mark on bottom edge. Some soiling to fep and edges. One corner creased. Craig Nelson is the author of Pearl Harbor: From Infamy to Greatness and the New York Times bestseller, Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon, as well as several previous books, including The Age of Radiance (a PEN Award Finalist chosen as one of the year's best books by NBC News, the American Institute of Physics, Kirkus Reviews, and FlavorWire), The First Heroes, Thomas Paine (winner of the Henry Adams Prize), and Let's Get Lost (shortlisted for W.H. Smith's Book of the Year). His writing has appeared in Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal, Salon, National Geographic, The New England Review, Popular Science, Reader's Digest, and a host of other publications. Derived from a Kirkus review: A thorough recounting—as full in human terms as in scientific and technical detail—of NASA's first manned Moon landing. Ever since that day, Jul. 16, 1969, when the Apollo 11 mission put its lunar module on the surface of the Moon and astronaut Neil Armstrong took the last long step down its ladder, critics have argued the purpose and strategic value of that incredibly daunting, expensive and risky project. In the capable hands of Nelson, however, those arguments simply give way to inspirational history. The event seems strangely remote, something brief and shining. The author's real achievement is the vivid re-creation of the atmosphere within the program, complete with unsolvable problems, oscillating team morale and serious career envy. For example, astronaut Buzz Aldrin was initially slotted to step first to the surface, but mission commander Armstrong exercised the privilege of rank. Nelson also offers lucid insights into the gilded bureaucracy of the space program—NASA's tech-speak often served to isolate the press and public. Nelson capably decodes it as the tale unfolds.