Eight years to the moon : the history of the Apollo missions

**A Behind-the-Scenes Look At NASA’s incredible Journey to the Moon**Space journalist and insider Nancy Atkinson weaves together the riveting story of NASA’s mission to complete “the greatest adventure on which humankind ever embarked.”This incredible account is a keepsake celebrating some of the most important and dramatic events in modern history. Told through over 60 personal interviews and oral histories, as well as personal photographs, this tribute to the men and women who made the Apollo 11 mission a reality chronicles the highs and lows that accompanied the race to the Moon: the devastating flash fire that killed the crew of Apollo 1; the awe of those who saw their years-in-the-making contributions to space exploration blast off from Cape Canaveral; the knuckle-biting descent of Apollo 11 to the lunar surface; a near-catastrophic event on the crew’s flight home; the infectious excitement and jubilation across the world after the astronauts returned safely to Earth.These little-known stories of the dedicated engineers, mathematicians and scientists in the 1960s reveal the “hows” of the Apollo missions and bring to life the wonder and excitement of humanity’s first steps on the Moon. July 16, 2019 will be the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission, celebrating an incredible decade in science history. In Eight Years to the Moon, unique personal stories of NASA engineers and MIT computer experts are interwoven with Nancy's gripping style to tell the story of Apollo 11 in a fresh and riveting way. Despite incredible hurdles and catastrophes, Apollo 11 launched a successful mission within President Kennedy's proposed timeline. The employees of NASA made the impossible possible--creating new technology and completely reimagining space travel. In Eight Years to the Moon, readers are transported into the space race of the 1960s. Nancy begins in 1962--when NASA had to build the Manned Spacecraft Center and space exploration first became a priority--and spans to the successful Apollo 11 mission. With firsthand accounts from Henry Pohl (director of engineering at Johnson Space Center), Glynn Lunney (Apollo flight director), and Frank Hughes (lead test engineer for the Apollo command and lunar module simulators), it's easy to get wrapped up in the excitement of what it was like. In the words of Henry Pohl when he saw his first rocket test launch, When that thing lit off I had never seen such power in my life...I decided right then and there that's what I wanted to be part of... And he was far from alone. Filled with stories from those involved and interviews with other Apollo experts, Eight Years to the Moon is a book that will delight anyone who has ever looked up at the moon and wondered how we got there A Behind-the-Scenes Look At NASA’s incredible Journey to the Moon Space journalist and insider Nancy Atkinson weaves together the riveting story of NASA’s mission to complete “the greatest adventure on which humankind ever embarked.” This incredible account is a keepsake celebrating some of the most important and dramatic events in modern history. Told through over 60 personal interviews and oral histories, as well as personal photographs, this tribute to the men and women who made the Apollo 11 mission a reality chronicles the highs and lows that accompanied the race to the Moon: the devastating flash fire that killed the crew of Apollo 1; the awe of those who saw their years-in-the-making contributions to space exploration blast off from Cape Canaveral; the knuckle-biting descent of Apollo 11 to the lunar surface; a near-catastrophic event on the crew’s flight home; the infectious excitement and jubilation across the world after the astronauts returned safely to Earth. These little-known stories of the dedicated engineers, mathematicians and scientists in the 1960s reveal the “hows” of the Apollo missions and bring to life the wonder and excitement of humanity’s first steps on the Moon. In July of 1969, three astronauts set off on a historic mission to land on the moon. Fifty years later, this book celebrates the achievement of the Apollo missions, detailing an incredible period of science and engineering history. The book tells the unique personal stories of over 60 engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program possible. The eight years from President Kennedy's challenge in 1961 to the first Moon landing in 1969 are filled with stories of the dedication and perseverance it took to overcome the challenges, hurdles and conflicts of doing things that had never been done before. The stories are fun, heart-warming, and heart-breaking - and they provide a glimpse into the lives of some of the hundreds of thousands of people who made it possible to land humans on the Moon.--adapted from publisher's description