Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond

Amazing story of brilliant people achieving an even more amazing goal. Amid all the turmoil of the 60's they achieved what still seems impossible while using a slide rule at the dawn of the computer era.

This book tells the inside stories of every manned spaceflight, from Alan Shepard’s Mercury-Redstone “lob” shot to Apollo 17, in a colorful and emotional fashion. Though a historical piece, it reads like a fine novel. Michener could have written this book. Highly, highly recommended.

As an engineer, I really enjoyed this personal account of the early days of the space program, showing how perseverance and exacting determination produced astonishing feats of human accomplishment, using limited knowledge in the face of the unknown. Whether you are interested in professional teams, technology, or history, this book offers a wonderful impression of a special time in our technological past, and leaves the reader longing to reach for their own stars.

I lived through most of the events the author recounts, and, at the time, they seemed to be pretty neat adventures. The advantage of age and Gene Kranz's detailed descriptions made me realize how daring, brave, and trusting, the first astronauts were!

I first learned about this book after I saw Apollo 13. I was inspired by Kranz's (Ed Harris in the movie) zealousness to bring our asronaughts home. I then purchased this book. As I got into it I found that I could not put the book down.. There is NEVER A DULL MOMENT.. somthing always seems to go haywire.. and when it does, The good ol boys at mission control with the skill of the astronaughts do their damnest to fix it. a Truly awe inspireing book not only for space buffs but for any one who needs a good pick er upper. A true tribute to our Space Program. Kranz inspired by Kennedy's words "ask not what your country can do for you .. ask you can do for your country" and "We choose to go to the moon - in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy but because they are hard." A true Patriot Kranz is. I wish there were more people like Gene Kranz out there. I salute you Gene Kranz!

Very inspiring. In this first person account which includes the good, the bad and the ugly, I marveled at the dedication of so many. Their commitment to their goal and refusal to accept less that perfect out of themselves in inspiring. The leaders that took us to the moom seem to have disappeared as quickly as the end of the space program with Apollo 17.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was especially fun to read this book and then watch the movie "The Dish" as they complement each other quite well! In addition to the events at Nasa, this also doubles as a semi-biography of Gene Krantz, also interesting, but not what I was expecting! All in all this is a great read representing a unique period in American history.

Tone deaf planning and editing. This is more of a diary or historical account than a non-fiction story. Easily half of the text of any paragraph or chapter is a litany of names and people who were part of the team. The "story" -- the successes-failures and near misses seem a minority of the book. I would estimate that most people want to read about the missions themselves, not the endless training and names and schedules of those in mission control. The book succeeds but only on the effort of the reader who has to endure all the "extraneous" stuff to get to the topics of interest. This is Kranz' book. No doubt this is the book he wanted to write. He's going to fairly significant effort to give credit to others. He comes across as a humble man who understood the moment in history but has no interest in claiming the spotlight as an individual. But I grew tired of all the minutia sparingly interspersed between the "meat" of the book - at least IMO.

This book made me grateful that people like Gene Kranz were on hand, setting high standards for themselves; often having grueling schedules and high anxiety situations, but training themselves to keep their eyes on the ball--some magic mix of training, education, intuition, and guts. Very impressive. THANKS to all who did this vital work!

A great book. Applies to much more than space. Any industry or field where severe extreme cautions exist and extreme precautions must be taken are discussed in this book. I would recommend this to anyone interested in space or really any technical field.

Fascinating look at the inner workings of the early space program. From Mercury through Apollo and beyond, Gene Kranz was eyewitness to all of the ups, downs, joys and sorrows that took place during these years.
You will find that you can't put it down.

Gene's memories from the first halting attempts to launch rockets into space through the successfull Apollo moon program paint vivid pictures of what happened inside the space agency on a non-technical level in building the space program. Good review of challenging and motivating people to envision the what-if and do it step by step. Small references to lack of vision in senior leadership of space program after the Kennedy moon goal was achieved.

Even if this book would maybe not appeal to those not deeply in love with the Apollo Era, I found it very engaging and fascinating. Mr. Kranz found just the right balance between technicalities and personal anecdotes to tell the story of the unsung heroes of Mission Control. His first-hand account of key events like the first landing on the moon and the last days of the Apollo program brought literally tears to my eyes. A real treat to read.

Mr. Krantz tells it like it is, the difficulties in running a space program on a very tight deadline to get a man to the moon. This book does an excellent job of showing some of the effort that took to get Neal Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin (plus others) to the Moon. A must read!

This book was very interesting from a historical standpoint. However, there was so much technical information, it read kind of like a technical manual at times. There also wasn't a lot of personal stories; it was mostly just a chronology. At times, this book seemed like a NASA PR piece. Everybody was great at what they did; they were all geniuses in one way or another. That got old after a while. If you're looking for inside dirt, this is not the book for you.

Excellent book. Well written about the inner circle at ground control. Only minus is the lack of pictures. In a biography it is usually nice to break up the story with some pictures from the life of the man in question. Other than that, this is a book I would recommend to anyone interested in the origin of manned space exploration. Gene Kranz did not fail in this book either.

Outstanding autobiography of the man who saved the Apollo 13 mission from total disaster that led to the crew's triumphant return. An excellent lesson in leadership that should be required reading for anyone aspiring to a leadership position.

If you know anything about NASA you know that Gene Kranz is the glue that held the space program together for many years. This is an amazing book. Extremely fascinating to see what that time looked like from his point of view.