This wonderfully maintained paperback looks unread with no spine creases and minimal shelf wear. The edges of the textblock are lightly tanned. Has a remainder mark on the edge of the textblock.

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Bibliographic Details

Title

Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and

Publisher

Berkley Publishing Group May 2001

Publication Date

2001

Language

English

ISBN 10

0425179877

ISBN 13

9780425179871

Binding

Trade Paperback

Condition

Very Good

Seller catalogs

Science - General

About this title

Synopsis

Relays an insider's account of NASA Mission Control from the early years of trying to catch the Russians, to the end of the manned space program by the man who headed the "tiger team" that saved the Apollo 13 astronauts. Reprint.

Review

In 1957, the Russians launched Sputnik and the ensuing space race. Three years later, Gene Kranz left his aircraft testing job to join NASA and champion the American cause. What he found was an embryonic department run by whizz kids (such as himself), sharp engineers and technicians who had to create the Mercury mission rules and procedures from the ground up. As he says, "Since there were no books written on the actual methodology of space flight, we had to write them as we went along".

Kranz was part of the mission control team that, in January 1961, launched a chimpanzee into space and successfully retrieved him and made Alan Shepard the first American in space in May 1961. Just two months later they launched Gus Grissom for a space orbit, John Glenn orbited Earth three times in February 1962, and in May 1963 Gordon Cooper completed the final Project Mercury launch with 22 Earth orbits. And through them all, and the many Apollo missions that followed, Gene Kranz was one of the integral inside men--one of those who bore the responsibility for the Apollo 1 tragedy and the leader of the "tiger team" that saved the Apollo 13 astronauts.

Moviegoers know Gene Kranz through Ed Harris's Oscar-nominated portrayal of him in Apollo 13, but Kranz provides a more detailed insider's perspective in his book Failure Is Not an Option. You see NASA through his eyes, from its primitive days when he first joined up, through the 1993 shuttle mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope, his last mission control project. His memoir, however, is not high literature. Kranz has many accomplishments and honours to his credit, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, but this is his first book, and he's not a polished author. There are, perhaps, more behind-the-scenes details and more paragraphs devoted to what Cape Canaveral looked like than the general public demands. If, however, you have a long-standing fascination with aeronautics, if you watched Apollo 13 and wanted more, Failure Is Not an Option will fit the bill. --Stephanie Gold

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Book People RVA has been serving readers around the world since 1980. Known as the Richmond metro-area book provider for those who prefer a warm, customer-focused buying experience, Book People offers new and used fiction and non-fiction titles and many literary genres. No matter the interaction--through its new store conveniently located in Henrico's far West End or online, customers experience the friendly and rapid service that has convinced so many buyers over the years to use Book People for all their book purchases. We fulfill orders requested via email, online, or telephone, and we accept special orders such as out-of-print books, international mail orders, and titles from boutique publishers. Book People has long had a strong community presence and sponsors several book clubs and numerous book and author events. The store supports educators and provides them a 20% discount. As part of its advocacy for free speech, Book People takes a stand against book banning and keeps an up-to-date display of books currently under threat in schools and libraries across the country. Our history: Book People founder Ruth Erb first opened the store at an earlier incarnation of the Willow Lawn shopping center. Because she loved books, loved working with people, and wanted to combine the two, she called her new store Book People. In 1986, Erb moved the store to Granite Avenue in the Westhampton part of Richmond, where it did a brisk business. Former store employee David Shuman purchased Book People from Erb in 2018, and he has recently relocated the store to larger quarters in the Gleneagles shopping center in western Henrico.

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