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Apollo: The Race To The Moon
The classic account of how the United States got to the moon. It is a book for those who were part of Apollo and want to recapture the experience and for those of a new generation who want to know how it was done. It is an opinon shared by many Apollo veterans.
Librarian's note: alternate cover to ISBN 067170625X (ISBN13: 9780671706258)
Librarian's note: alternate cover to ISBN 067170625X (ISBN13: 9780671706258)
509 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
219 people are currently reading
2964 people want to read
About the author
Charles Murray
87 books576 followersCharles Alan Murray is an American libertarian conservative political scientist, author, and columnist. His book Losing Ground: American Social Policy 1950–1980 (1984), which discussed the American welfare system, was widely read and discussed, and influenced subsequent government policy. He became well-known for his controversial book The Bell Curve (1994), written with Richard Herrnstein, in which he argues that intelligence is a better predictor than parental socio-economic status or education level of many individual outcomes including income, job performance, pregnancy out of wedlock, and crime, and that social welfare programs and education efforts to improve social outcomes for the disadvantaged are largely wasted.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 167 reviews
March 3, 2014
This book is, by far, my favorite book about the early days of America's space program and about the Apollo missions. Unlike most books which are largely narrative of the missions and that focus on the launches, landings, and activities of the astronauts, this book focuses on the development of the launch vehicles, spacecraft, and mission management systems that took the astronauts to the moon. It immerses the reader in three cultures: one formed around the captured German rocket engineers who designed the immense Saturn V launch vehicle; one formed around the perfectionist aircraft designers from the N.A.C.A.'s Langley Aeronautical Center who designed the spacecraft; and one that branched off from the second group that became Mission Control.
If you ask Apollo insiders which book to read about what they did, this is the book they recommend. It is funny and tragic, action-packed and intellectually engaging, about the technology and about the people. I have read this book at least fifteen times and still come back to it at least once a year. Even now, as I write my third military science fiction novel, it is beside my desk. If you have the slightest interest in space exploration, or if you have read a dozen other books on the subject, you should read this book. I cannot praise it highly enough.
If you ask Apollo insiders which book to read about what they did, this is the book they recommend. It is funny and tragic, action-packed and intellectually engaging, about the technology and about the people. I have read this book at least fifteen times and still come back to it at least once a year. Even now, as I write my third military science fiction novel, it is beside my desk. If you have the slightest interest in space exploration, or if you have read a dozen other books on the subject, you should read this book. I cannot praise it highly enough.
February 3, 2018
I cannot help but believe that there are better books out there about the Apollo Program. There must be books that are well written and well organized, and present the path and the people that made the moon landing possible. Apollo makes this attempt, but it falls short.
While reading Apollo it felt like Murray and Cox realized that they tried to accomplish too much and then tried to save what they had already done. The result is an informative book, that also leaves many questions unanswered and topics undiscussed. For instance, the Gemini flights that played an integral part in the development of the Apollo program are hardly mentioned. Another example, is the seemingly abrupt closing of the book after covering Apollo 13 as if nothing of interest happened in the time spanning the five Apollo flights that followed.
The book’s organization also hinders a smooth presentation of its contents. It frequently flips between biographies of the main characters and the chronology of the program such that both timeline and characters become obscured. In hindsight, reading this book while keeping notes of names, organizational structures, and timelines would have helped to keep the characters and events in their proper place.
Overall, Apollo imparts detailed information about the Apollo Program and some of the people that made the program possible. However, I think the enjoyment of what this book has to offer is proportional to the degree of in-depth knowledge that the reader already has about the program before the first word is ever read.
While reading Apollo it felt like Murray and Cox realized that they tried to accomplish too much and then tried to save what they had already done. The result is an informative book, that also leaves many questions unanswered and topics undiscussed. For instance, the Gemini flights that played an integral part in the development of the Apollo program are hardly mentioned. Another example, is the seemingly abrupt closing of the book after covering Apollo 13 as if nothing of interest happened in the time spanning the five Apollo flights that followed.
The book’s organization also hinders a smooth presentation of its contents. It frequently flips between biographies of the main characters and the chronology of the program such that both timeline and characters become obscured. In hindsight, reading this book while keeping notes of names, organizational structures, and timelines would have helped to keep the characters and events in their proper place.
Overall, Apollo imparts detailed information about the Apollo Program and some of the people that made the program possible. However, I think the enjoyment of what this book has to offer is proportional to the degree of in-depth knowledge that the reader already has about the program before the first word is ever read.
August 30, 2011
"Apollo" is the story of how a nation went from having limited space flight capability to landing a man on the lunar surface within the space of a decade, and the people who made that happen. The narrative concentrates on the stories of NASA administrators, engineers, flight controllers, and technicians, with a supporting cast of Presidents, astronauts, and contractors. Rather than telling the story of the astronauts (as many Apollo program histories do quite well), "Apollo" describes who designed and built Apollo and planned how the hardware would be used to fulfill Kennedy's charge of placing a man on the moon and returning him safely within the decade of the 1960s.
Portions of "Apollo" read like engineering case studies. Lucid explanations of scientific and engineering topics add tremendous value to "Apollo," and the descriptions of problems encountered (especially the F-1 engine's combustion instability with its functional but unsatisfactory resolution and the mysterious error codes from Apollo 11's lunar lander guidance computer) are easily understandable. As an engineer, I was fascinated by the contrast in philosophy between the German conservatism of the Marshall rocket designers, the iterative flight testing approach of former N.A.C.A. engineers, and the "all-up" approach of the ICBM systems engineers.
What is as impressive as the engineering accomplishment of Apollo--probably the greatest engineering feat of human history--is the story of how procedures for getting to the moon developed. The flight controllers' mission planning, rule design process, and precepts for risk evaluation, as well as the "flight controller cool" in dealing with events like the lightning strike to the Apollo 12 C.S.M., is one of the most fascinating parts of "Apollo." I am as in awe of the preparation and expertise of the flight controllers as I am of the designs of the engineers.
For all that, "Apollo" is never dry, and never loses sight of the human element. The personalities and backgrounds of major administrators, engineers, and technicians are described, and their anecdotes and quotations bring them to life. At times when the narrative could become overwrought--especially the fire on Apollo 1 and the stress and ultimate exultation during the Apollo 13 crisis--the authors choose an authoritative, factual tone that highlights emotions more than a maudlin recounting would. "Apollo" is ultimately a book about thousands of people sharing a common goal, and I found myself devouring it because the people of Apollo were so compelling.
I cannot read "Apollo" without reflecting how we left the moon 25 days before my birth and have not returned since. Contrast between the great things accomplished in a single decade of manned space flight and the slow pace of progress in the nearly four decades afterwards is inescapable. Reading "Apollo" and its description of the maturation of the lunar program gives hope that we have not lost this capability but merely placed it on a shelf. May we soon continue in the footsteps of Max Faget, Caldwell Johnson, Jim Webb, Joe Shea, Chris Kraft, George Mueller, Gene Kranz, Scott Simpkinson, George Low, Joe Kinzler, Gus Grissom, Neil Armstrong, Jim Lovell, and the countless others who led us to the moon and back.
Portions of "Apollo" read like engineering case studies. Lucid explanations of scientific and engineering topics add tremendous value to "Apollo," and the descriptions of problems encountered (especially the F-1 engine's combustion instability with its functional but unsatisfactory resolution and the mysterious error codes from Apollo 11's lunar lander guidance computer) are easily understandable. As an engineer, I was fascinated by the contrast in philosophy between the German conservatism of the Marshall rocket designers, the iterative flight testing approach of former N.A.C.A. engineers, and the "all-up" approach of the ICBM systems engineers.
What is as impressive as the engineering accomplishment of Apollo--probably the greatest engineering feat of human history--is the story of how procedures for getting to the moon developed. The flight controllers' mission planning, rule design process, and precepts for risk evaluation, as well as the "flight controller cool" in dealing with events like the lightning strike to the Apollo 12 C.S.M., is one of the most fascinating parts of "Apollo." I am as in awe of the preparation and expertise of the flight controllers as I am of the designs of the engineers.
For all that, "Apollo" is never dry, and never loses sight of the human element. The personalities and backgrounds of major administrators, engineers, and technicians are described, and their anecdotes and quotations bring them to life. At times when the narrative could become overwrought--especially the fire on Apollo 1 and the stress and ultimate exultation during the Apollo 13 crisis--the authors choose an authoritative, factual tone that highlights emotions more than a maudlin recounting would. "Apollo" is ultimately a book about thousands of people sharing a common goal, and I found myself devouring it because the people of Apollo were so compelling.
I cannot read "Apollo" without reflecting how we left the moon 25 days before my birth and have not returned since. Contrast between the great things accomplished in a single decade of manned space flight and the slow pace of progress in the nearly four decades afterwards is inescapable. Reading "Apollo" and its description of the maturation of the lunar program gives hope that we have not lost this capability but merely placed it on a shelf. May we soon continue in the footsteps of Max Faget, Caldwell Johnson, Jim Webb, Joe Shea, Chris Kraft, George Mueller, Gene Kranz, Scott Simpkinson, George Low, Joe Kinzler, Gus Grissom, Neil Armstrong, Jim Lovell, and the countless others who led us to the moon and back.
February 21, 2009
I have a growing collection of books about the Apollo program. Apollo, The Race To The Moon, by Murray and Cox, is very much unlike the others. It focuses on the cast of thousands who brought the program to life, instead of on the more famously well-known astronauts. Names like Armstrong, Aldrin and Lovell barely make cameo appearances, while others like Kranz and Kraft run throughout the book. Getting to know them and watching them do something they truly loved is the point here. Not so much getting to the moon, but their commitment to doing it.
There are a few names here that will be familiar to you if you grew up in the Space Age: Werner von Braun is probably the one nearly anyone would remember. But even though I was one of those astronaut wanna-bes who took for granted that I’d land a job some day as a rocket pilot, or at least a moon bus driver, there were quite a few names I hadn’t known before that were staggeringly significant to the space program. How could I have ever considered myself a science geek and not known and loved engineers with names like Rocco Petrone and Mad Don Arabian? I hang my head in shame to think of it.
Murray and Cox spent three years interviewing them, and put together this refreshingly personal history, instead of the geek-o-rama you often get when you crack open a book about the space program. Not that this wasn’t a long pleasure cruise on the Empress Of The Nerds. Reading about engineers building the biggest rocket ever and shooting it into space was a geek trip that took me back to my younger days, when I looked up to these professional ubernerds as heroes worthy of worship.
My only disappointment was that, after interviewing more than 150 people over a period of three years, all Murry and Cox could write was one slim volume, when they could have easily gone on and on until it was a boxed set big enough to make Stephen King’s gape in awe. If only I could run across that on the used book shelves at Saint Vinnie’s.
There are a few names here that will be familiar to you if you grew up in the Space Age: Werner von Braun is probably the one nearly anyone would remember. But even though I was one of those astronaut wanna-bes who took for granted that I’d land a job some day as a rocket pilot, or at least a moon bus driver, there were quite a few names I hadn’t known before that were staggeringly significant to the space program. How could I have ever considered myself a science geek and not known and loved engineers with names like Rocco Petrone and Mad Don Arabian? I hang my head in shame to think of it.
Murray and Cox spent three years interviewing them, and put together this refreshingly personal history, instead of the geek-o-rama you often get when you crack open a book about the space program. Not that this wasn’t a long pleasure cruise on the Empress Of The Nerds. Reading about engineers building the biggest rocket ever and shooting it into space was a geek trip that took me back to my younger days, when I looked up to these professional ubernerds as heroes worthy of worship.
My only disappointment was that, after interviewing more than 150 people over a period of three years, all Murry and Cox could write was one slim volume, when they could have easily gone on and on until it was a boxed set big enough to make Stephen King’s gape in awe. If only I could run across that on the used book shelves at Saint Vinnie’s.
March 21, 2022
I LOVED this book.
But i'm a massive space nerd, and a history nerd. This was a fantastic book for a guy who wants all the details and doesn't fear a deep dive. I can completely understand how this book can intimidate or overwhelm some...it's a day-by-day, incredibly detailed look at the first 20 years of the American space program...from before NASA through the Apollo programs. It focuses almost exclusively on the engineers who made the programs, from design through mission control, and only brings in astronauts when needed.
If you watched Apollo 13 and wanted more of what happened in Houston and less of Lovell, Swigert and Haise, this is your book.
But i'm a massive space nerd, and a history nerd. This was a fantastic book for a guy who wants all the details and doesn't fear a deep dive. I can completely understand how this book can intimidate or overwhelm some...it's a day-by-day, incredibly detailed look at the first 20 years of the American space program...from before NASA through the Apollo programs. It focuses almost exclusively on the engineers who made the programs, from design through mission control, and only brings in astronauts when needed.
If you watched Apollo 13 and wanted more of what happened in Houston and less of Lovell, Swigert and Haise, this is your book.
June 3, 2025
Great historical account of the Apollo programs in particular. Lots of intricate details about complex design decisions and management structures. Highly technical but wonderfully engaging at the same time. Kind of hard to believe he’s going to go into this much detail on Apollo and leave out the tale of Katherine Johnson and the computing team at Langley. I’m OD’d on space/engineering/Apollo stuff ready to pivot for a bit. This one was a lengthy read.
March 24, 2025
There is very little I love more than the history of NASA, especially the Apollo program. To me, Apollo represents the peak of human ingenuity. I love everything from the design of the Lunar Module to the magnitude of the Saturn V's power. In "Apollo," Charles Murray and Catherine Bly Cox lay bare the genius behind the engineering.
"Apollo" is not a story about the astronauts. It is a history--and a love letter--to the engineering of America's moonshot. The authors divided the book into three sections: Gathering, Building, and Flying.
"Gathering" recounts the story of NASA's earliest days and how each major player came to work there. "Building" is a peak behind the curtains that hid the development of the Saturn V, Lunar Module, Rocketdyne F-1 engine, Command Service Module, and more. (This section is one of my favorites. The statistics alone are mind-blowing. Did you know that the Saturn V consumed 20 tons of fuel per second? Did you know it only took the Saturn V 60 seconds from launch to break the speed of sound? Did you know that each F-1 engine beneath the first stage of the Saturn V provided 1.5 million lbs of thrust? Did you know that the first stage of the Saturn V had FIVE F-1 engines?)
"Flying" is the climax of the book and also the longest section. It begins after the Apollo 1 tragedy and focuses primarily on the first three lunar missions: Apollo 11, Apollo 12, and Apollo 13. Apollo 13 gets the most attention because it was the most intense moment in NASA history for its engineers. The moments in the back rooms are brilliantly depicted in Ron Howard's 1995 film, Apollo 13. I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it recently.
Just about everything about the Apollo program was superlative. Its size, scope, importance, and global popularity all exceed my ability to describe. Reading "Apollo" frequently made me emotional. I'm eagerly looking forward to Artemis II and Artemis III, which we anticipate will launch in 2026. Artemis III will be humanity's first return to the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972.
We live in unprecedented times. It's commonplace for people to forget that the heroes of our golden age of spaceflight are still with us. Six of the twenty-four astronauts that traveled to the Moon are still alive: Buzz Aldrin, David Scott, Charles Duke, Harrison Schmitt, Jim Lovell, and Fred Haise. Four of those men walked on the Moon. The youngest of them, Charles Duke, is only 89 years old. He was the youngest person to visit the Moon, being only 36 years old when he landed. Gene Kranz, the Lead Flight Director portrayed by Ed Harris in the movie Apollo 13, is also still with us. He's 91 years old. He may not be as famous as some of the astronauts, but his contributions to spaceflight are just as important. He was the Lead Flight Director for both Apollo 11 and Apollo 13.
"Apollo" remains one of my top five favorite books of all-time. It is a truly incredible history that I believe everyone should read.
-----------------------------------------
2020 Review: This book is incredible. It is absolutely worth all the praise it gets. Pretty much all my knowledge about the Apollo program comes from watching Ron Howard’s Apollo 13, so this book provided an extensive amount of context for my juvenile understanding of what happened. Luckily for me, the authors spend a good deal of time describing the Apollo 13 incident.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Some parts I even revisited to remind myself they weren’t hyperbole. (Did you know the Vehicle Assembly Building is so large it could fit the Statue of Liberty inside it with room to spare?)
If you’re interested in the history of the Apollo program and you’re new to the topic, this is the book for you.
"Apollo" is not a story about the astronauts. It is a history--and a love letter--to the engineering of America's moonshot. The authors divided the book into three sections: Gathering, Building, and Flying.
"Gathering" recounts the story of NASA's earliest days and how each major player came to work there. "Building" is a peak behind the curtains that hid the development of the Saturn V, Lunar Module, Rocketdyne F-1 engine, Command Service Module, and more. (This section is one of my favorites. The statistics alone are mind-blowing. Did you know that the Saturn V consumed 20 tons of fuel per second? Did you know it only took the Saturn V 60 seconds from launch to break the speed of sound? Did you know that each F-1 engine beneath the first stage of the Saturn V provided 1.5 million lbs of thrust? Did you know that the first stage of the Saturn V had FIVE F-1 engines?)
"Flying" is the climax of the book and also the longest section. It begins after the Apollo 1 tragedy and focuses primarily on the first three lunar missions: Apollo 11, Apollo 12, and Apollo 13. Apollo 13 gets the most attention because it was the most intense moment in NASA history for its engineers. The moments in the back rooms are brilliantly depicted in Ron Howard's 1995 film, Apollo 13. I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it recently.
Just about everything about the Apollo program was superlative. Its size, scope, importance, and global popularity all exceed my ability to describe. Reading "Apollo" frequently made me emotional. I'm eagerly looking forward to Artemis II and Artemis III, which we anticipate will launch in 2026. Artemis III will be humanity's first return to the Moon since Apollo 17 in 1972.
We live in unprecedented times. It's commonplace for people to forget that the heroes of our golden age of spaceflight are still with us. Six of the twenty-four astronauts that traveled to the Moon are still alive: Buzz Aldrin, David Scott, Charles Duke, Harrison Schmitt, Jim Lovell, and Fred Haise. Four of those men walked on the Moon. The youngest of them, Charles Duke, is only 89 years old. He was the youngest person to visit the Moon, being only 36 years old when he landed. Gene Kranz, the Lead Flight Director portrayed by Ed Harris in the movie Apollo 13, is also still with us. He's 91 years old. He may not be as famous as some of the astronauts, but his contributions to spaceflight are just as important. He was the Lead Flight Director for both Apollo 11 and Apollo 13.
"Apollo" remains one of my top five favorite books of all-time. It is a truly incredible history that I believe everyone should read.
-----------------------------------------
2020 Review: This book is incredible. It is absolutely worth all the praise it gets. Pretty much all my knowledge about the Apollo program comes from watching Ron Howard’s Apollo 13, so this book provided an extensive amount of context for my juvenile understanding of what happened. Luckily for me, the authors spend a good deal of time describing the Apollo 13 incident.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Some parts I even revisited to remind myself they weren’t hyperbole. (Did you know the Vehicle Assembly Building is so large it could fit the Statue of Liberty inside it with room to spare?)
If you’re interested in the history of the Apollo program and you’re new to the topic, this is the book for you.
April 28, 2016
Interesting and informative history of the Apollo program via the engineers and flight controllers and mission control people.
June 7, 2012
What a superb history. After finishing it, I found that it did several things that I liked. First of all, it stayed true to its title and concentrates tightly on the Apollo Program only, tracing its journey from the creation of NASA in the late-50s post-Sputnik panic to the splashdown of Apollo 17. Secondly, it focused on the engineers who designed and guided the Apollo rather than either the astronauts who flew it or the politicians who oversaw it - this was a side of the story I'd never heard about before and ended up being fascinated by. Thirdly, it was told mainly through interviews, which both gave it an extremely strong and skillfully-conveyed narrative, and grounded it concretely in actual facts and events, making it much more powerful than a book told only through archival research or secondary sources.
What I took away from it is a strong sense of heroism, which is a much-abused word, but seems like the only appropriate one for the group of men who where given an impossible job and ended up doing it almost perfectly in a dizzyingly short amount of time. A mere decade after the creation of NASA, the US space program went from a collection of exploding rockets and second-place finishes to placing human beings on the moon, something that even to a hardened science fiction fan like me still doesn't quite seem real and gets only more incredible after reading the litany of technical challenges that had to be overcome to do it. As The Onion memorably put it, "Holy Shit, Man Lands On Fucking Moon" - these guys did that!
However, just as interested as I was by the technical difficulties - engines larger than any before, guidance systems more precise, mechanical systems more complex - I was also captivated by the way that the men themselves talked about the organizations they worked for and how they were run, the ways in which their managers channeled and refined their energies into this superhuman endeavor. In a sense, the only real secret to building a good organization, be it a large corporation, a public agency, or a small team, is recruiting the right people and then managing them appropriately. This trick is so difficult than an entire sub-sector of the publishing industry is devoted to it, but check out the advice Charles Murray gave in an interview on the 20th anniversary of the book's publishing to someone who wanted to duplicate the feats of the Apollo Program: "Disband NASA. Bulldoze all the centers. Identify a couple of hundred guys at Marshall who are obsessed with rockets and keep them. Choose forty-five people from Langley and Lewis - half of them space nuts, and half of them people whose supervisors want to get rid of them. Give them a mission and a lot of money and stand back."
To see the paradoxical combination of freewheeling engineering creativity and serious detail-oriented procedural adherence is very illuminating, and I'm sure this era of NASA will be a staple of business books for decades to come, both in its allowance for creativity and initiative and in its ability to deal with crises like the Apollo 1 fire or the explosion in Apollo 13's oxygen tank. Maybe it's simply impossible for that combination of attributes to be sustained forever, in the same way that every society or company or group of people seems to have a golden age that lasts for a brief time and then can never be recaptured. Certainly the era of moribund bureaucracy that NASA is currently trapped in seems like a cruel parody of the time period in this book, where people set about turning fantasy into reality with a sense of purpose, determination, and even joy. In that same interview, Murray has another thought-provoking, fairly pessimistic comment about the limits of efforts to replicate projects like this: "Apollo, like the Manhattan Project, proved that humans are capable of extraordinary feats in unbelievably short periods of time, but only if five conditions are met: The people doing the work have to have a concrete goal. They must have a sense of urgency - because of a specific calendar deadline in the case of Apollo, or beating the Germans in the case of the Manhattan Project. The concrete goal has to be technological, not social (we just don't know how to change human behavior on a large scale). The people paying for the work must be willing to spend lavishly. And, most importantly, the people paying for the work must get the hell out of the way of the people doing the work."
I'm not certain that he's completely right about the social aspect of the goal (despite their slow pace and often high costs, initiatives like anti-racism, the war on poverty, increased access to health care, gay rights, or feminism have achieved astonishing things in what seems like a very short time in world-historical terms), but it's worth pondering that bit about standing back and letting engineers design their dreams without interference from the world around them, even as everyone acknowledges the many fruits of the space race. Is that the way we want to run our big national priorities, the moon projects of the future (even Kennedy had to be convinced that space was really a priority, and Johnson was all along the bigger visionary)? Well, as Joe Shea, one of the most important managers in the program recalls, the question is "You really want to go there?" Sometimes you have to trust in people, and trust in the project you've set for them. The cost-effectiveness of going to the moon has always been under debate, and the story told here won't necessarily change your opinion either way, but if you want to know how it was done and who did it, you can't find a better history.
What I took away from it is a strong sense of heroism, which is a much-abused word, but seems like the only appropriate one for the group of men who where given an impossible job and ended up doing it almost perfectly in a dizzyingly short amount of time. A mere decade after the creation of NASA, the US space program went from a collection of exploding rockets and second-place finishes to placing human beings on the moon, something that even to a hardened science fiction fan like me still doesn't quite seem real and gets only more incredible after reading the litany of technical challenges that had to be overcome to do it. As The Onion memorably put it, "Holy Shit, Man Lands On Fucking Moon" - these guys did that!
However, just as interested as I was by the technical difficulties - engines larger than any before, guidance systems more precise, mechanical systems more complex - I was also captivated by the way that the men themselves talked about the organizations they worked for and how they were run, the ways in which their managers channeled and refined their energies into this superhuman endeavor. In a sense, the only real secret to building a good organization, be it a large corporation, a public agency, or a small team, is recruiting the right people and then managing them appropriately. This trick is so difficult than an entire sub-sector of the publishing industry is devoted to it, but check out the advice Charles Murray gave in an interview on the 20th anniversary of the book's publishing to someone who wanted to duplicate the feats of the Apollo Program: "Disband NASA. Bulldoze all the centers. Identify a couple of hundred guys at Marshall who are obsessed with rockets and keep them. Choose forty-five people from Langley and Lewis - half of them space nuts, and half of them people whose supervisors want to get rid of them. Give them a mission and a lot of money and stand back."
To see the paradoxical combination of freewheeling engineering creativity and serious detail-oriented procedural adherence is very illuminating, and I'm sure this era of NASA will be a staple of business books for decades to come, both in its allowance for creativity and initiative and in its ability to deal with crises like the Apollo 1 fire or the explosion in Apollo 13's oxygen tank. Maybe it's simply impossible for that combination of attributes to be sustained forever, in the same way that every society or company or group of people seems to have a golden age that lasts for a brief time and then can never be recaptured. Certainly the era of moribund bureaucracy that NASA is currently trapped in seems like a cruel parody of the time period in this book, where people set about turning fantasy into reality with a sense of purpose, determination, and even joy. In that same interview, Murray has another thought-provoking, fairly pessimistic comment about the limits of efforts to replicate projects like this: "Apollo, like the Manhattan Project, proved that humans are capable of extraordinary feats in unbelievably short periods of time, but only if five conditions are met: The people doing the work have to have a concrete goal. They must have a sense of urgency - because of a specific calendar deadline in the case of Apollo, or beating the Germans in the case of the Manhattan Project. The concrete goal has to be technological, not social (we just don't know how to change human behavior on a large scale). The people paying for the work must be willing to spend lavishly. And, most importantly, the people paying for the work must get the hell out of the way of the people doing the work."
I'm not certain that he's completely right about the social aspect of the goal (despite their slow pace and often high costs, initiatives like anti-racism, the war on poverty, increased access to health care, gay rights, or feminism have achieved astonishing things in what seems like a very short time in world-historical terms), but it's worth pondering that bit about standing back and letting engineers design their dreams without interference from the world around them, even as everyone acknowledges the many fruits of the space race. Is that the way we want to run our big national priorities, the moon projects of the future (even Kennedy had to be convinced that space was really a priority, and Johnson was all along the bigger visionary)? Well, as Joe Shea, one of the most important managers in the program recalls, the question is "You really want to go there?" Sometimes you have to trust in people, and trust in the project you've set for them. The cost-effectiveness of going to the moon has always been under debate, and the story told here won't necessarily change your opinion either way, but if you want to know how it was done and who did it, you can't find a better history.
March 21, 2018
APOLLO: The Race to the Moon” is widely regarded as one of the best accounts of the Apollo program. It’s a reputation that is well deserved. No single volume is ever going to do justice to the moon program but this history by Murray and Cox is masterful. The focus of their history is on the engineers who designed and ran the program. For those who have read many of the other outstanding accounts, this APOLLO fills in a number of gaps. So no matter which other accounts you have read, add this to your reading.
August 18, 2019
This book doesn’t really focus much on astronauts, but on the engineers. It really captures the amazing achievements of each step in the Apollo programme from the buildings involved, the equipment even to move the rocket about and the various parts of the rocket. It really managers to impart how big the hurdles were. I loved the way the authors described some parts such as a rocket launch where they manage to give the reader how nerve racking it was for the controllers and engineers when a rocket was being launched.
August 16, 2023
This book is a super good read on the history of the Apollo manned-space missions. From everyone involved, to the work that had to be done, to the missions themselves was conveyed in the most interesting manner.
December 20, 2022
Loved this book, a fantastic detailed look into one of the greatest adventures men have ever embarked on. Made me want to be an American
November 8, 2023
Amazing story of the people that put the astronauts on the moon.
December 30, 2024
Phenomenal book, captivating description of the behind the scenes that made it all possible. For those who are fascinated about engineering and human ingenuity and determination this is a highly recommended read that describes humanity’s greatest triumph to date!
September 28, 2018
One of the best things I've read in a long time, if not overall. Chronicles the folks of NASA and its early iterations (Space Task Group, Marshall, etc.) that are not portrayed by square-jawed matinee idols; engineers, systems analysts, drafters and designers - the people responsible for getting those incomprehensible flying machines off the ground and, in some cases, managing the bonkers task of mid-flight trouble shooting.
In an era of knee-jerk doubt and cynicism from most people towards most topics, it can be psychically rejuvenating to read something that, with great lucidity, champions intelligence and a no-fuss, impossibly comprehensive work ethic.
In an era of knee-jerk doubt and cynicism from most people towards most topics, it can be psychically rejuvenating to read something that, with great lucidity, champions intelligence and a no-fuss, impossibly comprehensive work ethic.
February 27, 2018
Murray and Cox's "Apollo: The Race to the Moon" is a collection of stories about the people in flight operations and leadership that made humanity's first visits to another celestial body reality. It is not a by-the-numbers history of each any every flight, rather, it is a collection of stories and anecdotes about the overall effort woven into a compelling, quick narrative. The people, their interactions, the management, the processes, the politics and their interplay are related with interest and care. Mission Control — really MOCR, SPAN, MER, and the back rooms — are discussed in detail. Coverage of struggles in Saturn V and CSM development (the LM is touched upon) and Apollo flights 7 to 13 is provided, as is AS-204, later renamed Apollo 1. Later flights aren't covered in detail because of the authors' and many of their subject's view that the "classical" Apollo program ended with Apollo 13. An excellent book, well worth both the serious space enthusiast's and casual reader's time. Combined with Chaikin's more formal history, "A Man on the Moon" and HBO's, "From the Earth to the Moon" and you have a good lay-person's primer on the Apollo program. Throw in the book and movie "The Right Stuff" and Ron Howard's "Apollo 13" and you're well on your way to your space geek degree.
February 25, 2008
Charles Murray and Catherine Bly Cox wrote this book. It was originally published in 1989 and was out of print until the authors republished it in 2004. It is an essential text on the United States' Apollo Program.
This book is the story of the engineers, scientists and technicians who made the dream a reality. It is not about the astronauts. In fact, the astronauts are conspicuously absent from the story. The focus here are the legions of people who worked in obscurity to conceive, design, build, modify, rebuild, launch, adapt and support the technology, equipment and machines that sent twelve humans to the surface of the moon and safely returned them to the earth.
Students of humanity's greatest adventure will find this book to be an indispensible resource.
This book is the story of the engineers, scientists and technicians who made the dream a reality. It is not about the astronauts. In fact, the astronauts are conspicuously absent from the story. The focus here are the legions of people who worked in obscurity to conceive, design, build, modify, rebuild, launch, adapt and support the technology, equipment and machines that sent twelve humans to the surface of the moon and safely returned them to the earth.
Students of humanity's greatest adventure will find this book to be an indispensible resource.
May 20, 2020
I don't really get the big praise this book has. It is not just the story of how Apollo got to the moon. The book goes on way more about what this director had for lunch and what kind of talk goes between all the politicians... The Gemini and mercury programs are so little referenced that I had to read about them somewhere else to even understand their full context. And the Apollo program didn't die with 13... There were four more moon missions after it and they get less than a chapter out of 20 something...
March 24, 2013
Utterly fascinating. This book combines the truly awesome (in the real sense of that word) accomplishments of the Apollo missions with the personal stories that add a human element to one of humanity's greatest achievements. Highly, highly recommended.
January 17, 2020
Had I realized who the author was, I probably would have skipped this. It was a good read, though I felt like it barely skimmed the surface of the many good stories that could have been told of this era never to be repeated again (in both good and bad senses).
June 20, 2023
This book was incredible. I bought it years ago when it was on sale because of its high ratings, but I kinda forgot about it until just recently when I was looking for something to read and checked out my anti-library. And wow -- this book was really great.
I've only read a few books about the history of manned space flight, like Michael Collins' Carrying the Fire (which I Very Much Liked) and more recently, Todd Zwillich's The Man Who Knew The Way to the Moon (which I Very Much Did Not Like), and I suppose Richard Feynman's What Do You Care What Other People Think? which, among many things, covered the Challenger disaster.
This book was an excellent macro view of the entire Apollo program, and understandably focused on several key moments like the Apollo 1 fire, the Apollo 11 moon landing, and the Apollo 13 incident. I especially liked that this book covered so many POVs from individuals working at NASA and related companies and agencies - I felt like I really got a picture of the individuals who worked on these programs, and I'll be honest, as an engineer, I am obsessively curious about how these folks managed such complex programs and I'm always finding ways to relate some of their operational learnings to my own (much less life-and-death) work.
There's way too much in this book to do any justice with this review, so I'll mention just a few things that I still have on my mind afterwards:
The Apollo 13 accident was an especially interesting section of this book, and in hindsight I really didn't know anything about it. I was so jazzed about this section that I decided to watch Ron Howard's excellent Apollo 13 (1995) before I even finished it, which ended up being a nice visual companion to the book (despite taking plenty of creative liberties with the facts).
One thing that especially stuck with me was from one of the afterwords (I don't recall if it was from the 20th anniversary of the book or the 50th since both were included), but in short, it included follow-up interviews from many of the engineers and personnel who were key players during the Apollo program. And their main theme decades later was that although they were proud of their work, they felt remorseful for missing their children growing up, and leaving their spouses at home alone for so long. And I think there's something really important in there -- yes, they see their roles as being pivotal to the success of the program, but in hindsight, they realized that all the notoriety in the world and incredible feats of engineering won't bring back lost time with their children and families.
I've only read a few books about the history of manned space flight, like Michael Collins' Carrying the Fire (which I Very Much Liked) and more recently, Todd Zwillich's The Man Who Knew The Way to the Moon (which I Very Much Did Not Like), and I suppose Richard Feynman's What Do You Care What Other People Think? which, among many things, covered the Challenger disaster.
This book was an excellent macro view of the entire Apollo program, and understandably focused on several key moments like the Apollo 1 fire, the Apollo 11 moon landing, and the Apollo 13 incident. I especially liked that this book covered so many POVs from individuals working at NASA and related companies and agencies - I felt like I really got a picture of the individuals who worked on these programs, and I'll be honest, as an engineer, I am obsessively curious about how these folks managed such complex programs and I'm always finding ways to relate some of their operational learnings to my own (much less life-and-death) work.
There's way too much in this book to do any justice with this review, so I'll mention just a few things that I still have on my mind afterwards:
The Apollo 13 accident was an especially interesting section of this book, and in hindsight I really didn't know anything about it. I was so jazzed about this section that I decided to watch Ron Howard's excellent Apollo 13 (1995) before I even finished it, which ended up being a nice visual companion to the book (despite taking plenty of creative liberties with the facts).
One thing that especially stuck with me was from one of the afterwords (I don't recall if it was from the 20th anniversary of the book or the 50th since both were included), but in short, it included follow-up interviews from many of the engineers and personnel who were key players during the Apollo program. And their main theme decades later was that although they were proud of their work, they felt remorseful for missing their children growing up, and leaving their spouses at home alone for so long. And I think there's something really important in there -- yes, they see their roles as being pivotal to the success of the program, but in hindsight, they realized that all the notoriety in the world and incredible feats of engineering won't bring back lost time with their children and families.
March 6, 2020
Anyone who knows me, knows that I love NASA and anything to do with the space race. The idea that we are exploring the far reaches of our known universe and doing so with little knowledge is absolutely fascinating to me. In the same way that the explorers of the previous millennium didn't know if they would have sailed off the end of the world, these brave astronauts didn't know if they would explode in space. They didn't know if they would burn up when they got outside of protection of the atmosphere. They didn't know if there were strange space diseases that would take destroy them. Most importantly they didn't know how to get there.
This book is considered the preeminent book on the Apollo missions (I.E. the missions that took us to the moon). It covers the science well, without being to obscure (lets be real. There was an example in the book that to do a space EVA, the physicists had to be so precise in their math, that is was the equivalent of hitting a stick with a rifle shot from 30 miles away), or complex, which to me is the most important thing. The science and math is what I feel people don't really comprehend. It wasn't just basic arithmetic, but intensified physics. The Astronauts even had to have this knowledge, because, at times, they had to make adjustments while they were in the space craft. Let alone the fact that we basically put these men on the top of a bomb to shoot them far away from our world.
We also get great understanding of the people themselves, and a much better dive into the actual people behind the missions, and not the spotlight of the astronauts which is usually the case in books like this.
What I took the star away for was the lack luster coverage of the J missions, otherwise known as the science missions. After we landed on the moon, we went back (a fact that, I'm shocked, but many people don't realize). Apollo missions 14 through 17 were about gathering data about the moon. These were all composed into a section about as big as the coverage of the creation of the hangar at the Kennedy Space center. I just needed more on these missions, because, frankly, I can't find much information on them, other than who ran them, and what their purpose was. I know it's not a glamorous concept, but I thought there would be better coverage of it here.
This book is considered the preeminent book on the Apollo missions (I.E. the missions that took us to the moon). It covers the science well, without being to obscure (lets be real. There was an example in the book that to do a space EVA, the physicists had to be so precise in their math, that is was the equivalent of hitting a stick with a rifle shot from 30 miles away), or complex, which to me is the most important thing. The science and math is what I feel people don't really comprehend. It wasn't just basic arithmetic, but intensified physics. The Astronauts even had to have this knowledge, because, at times, they had to make adjustments while they were in the space craft. Let alone the fact that we basically put these men on the top of a bomb to shoot them far away from our world.
We also get great understanding of the people themselves, and a much better dive into the actual people behind the missions, and not the spotlight of the astronauts which is usually the case in books like this.
What I took the star away for was the lack luster coverage of the J missions, otherwise known as the science missions. After we landed on the moon, we went back (a fact that, I'm shocked, but many people don't realize). Apollo missions 14 through 17 were about gathering data about the moon. These were all composed into a section about as big as the coverage of the creation of the hangar at the Kennedy Space center. I just needed more on these missions, because, frankly, I can't find much information on them, other than who ran them, and what their purpose was. I know it's not a glamorous concept, but I thought there would be better coverage of it here.
December 17, 2019
I listened to this book via Audible.
Apollo is a behind-the-scenes look at what it took to achieve John F. Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the moon before the end of the 1960s. It focuses on the engineers, fabricators, controllers, rocket scientists, managers, and politicians that made the journeys of the astronauts possible. If you're interested in more than the missions, this is the book for you.
Murray and Cox start by going back to the days of NACA at Langley and Lewis and goes from there. A lot of time is spent describing the engineering and evolution that went from launching Redstone rockets in the days of Mercury to the huge scale and challenges faced to launch the massive Saturn rockets for Apollo. Of course the many new techniques and design philosophies that were required to develop the spacecraft themselves were covered too. Then there's the science and math and number-crunching that had to be done to figure out if it was even possible and what the best way to get to the moon was. I had read a bit about each of these things in the past, but it was very enlightening to get a deeper look here.
And after all of that, you still get to meet the controllers who trained as much as the astronauts to be ready for each flight. All through the retelling, we get glimpses at the politics and management decisions that went on to keep the space program going, especially after the many setbacks and tragedies suffered early on.
Eventually we get to the actual missions, and Apollo 7, 8, 11, 12, and 13 were covered in great detail from the ground, as each presented its own new and unique objectives and trials. I was a bit disappointed that after Apollo 13 the book pretty much wrapped up. In the context, it makes sense, since at this point all of the hard work to get everything ready had been done. But still - they went to the moon - and I wanted to hear more about it!
I'm definitely glad to have read this book, and thoroughly enjoyed every second of it. It has absolutely left me wanting more, however, and I now have a slew of other books on my wishlist to hopefully scratch that itch. If you want to dive into the world of Apollo, this is a great place to start.
Apollo is a behind-the-scenes look at what it took to achieve John F. Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the moon before the end of the 1960s. It focuses on the engineers, fabricators, controllers, rocket scientists, managers, and politicians that made the journeys of the astronauts possible. If you're interested in more than the missions, this is the book for you.
Murray and Cox start by going back to the days of NACA at Langley and Lewis and goes from there. A lot of time is spent describing the engineering and evolution that went from launching Redstone rockets in the days of Mercury to the huge scale and challenges faced to launch the massive Saturn rockets for Apollo. Of course the many new techniques and design philosophies that were required to develop the spacecraft themselves were covered too. Then there's the science and math and number-crunching that had to be done to figure out if it was even possible and what the best way to get to the moon was. I had read a bit about each of these things in the past, but it was very enlightening to get a deeper look here.
And after all of that, you still get to meet the controllers who trained as much as the astronauts to be ready for each flight. All through the retelling, we get glimpses at the politics and management decisions that went on to keep the space program going, especially after the many setbacks and tragedies suffered early on.
Eventually we get to the actual missions, and Apollo 7, 8, 11, 12, and 13 were covered in great detail from the ground, as each presented its own new and unique objectives and trials. I was a bit disappointed that after Apollo 13 the book pretty much wrapped up. In the context, it makes sense, since at this point all of the hard work to get everything ready had been done. But still - they went to the moon - and I wanted to hear more about it!
I'm definitely glad to have read this book, and thoroughly enjoyed every second of it. It has absolutely left me wanting more, however, and I now have a slew of other books on my wishlist to hopefully scratch that itch. If you want to dive into the world of Apollo, this is a great place to start.
February 16, 2023
I've read a lot of early man space flight and Apollo history. As such as hard to find a book that has a lot to teach me outside of minute details. This truck breaks the mold and is one of the best. Andrew Chaikin's "A Man on the Moon" is the best one about the missions themselves. Michael Collins's "Carrying the Fire" is the best astronaut autobiography. This is hands down the best about everything else that went into the Apollo program. Almost histories touch on the Apollo 1 fire, The landing radar issue on Apollo 11, Apollo 13, and a handful on the Apollo 12 lightning strike, none of them get into the level of detail that this book does. For once the heroes are not but those in mission control and even further behind the scenes who help them accomplish the missions. I learned so much about the details and lives of the controllers who are only mentioned elsewhere for the problems they solved. Rarely does anyone get into the problems they prevented because they did the work ahead of time. Unfortunately that's the nature of focusing on individuals in history rather than putting them in context with their teams. this book does a great job of making up that deficit. My only complaints are that at times it is maybe a little too detailed on that like many other Apollo books it focuses very heavily on 8 & 11 - 13, butt glasses over the rest pretty quickly. Still with the level detail of this book had I can't imagine how long it would have been if the elevations have been gone into in the same depth and I think we got to know the main characters and see them solve the major problems in the early admissions anyway. Hands down this book is top five if not top three like the ones mentioned about when it comes to Apollo histories. If you want stories about the astronauts avoid this book, but if you want to hear the rest of the story there's no better source.
This review was written using speech to text, please disregard any miss steaks.
This review was written using speech to text, please disregard any miss steaks.
May 28, 2023
Absolutely superb!
These two brilliant writers make it clear that their Apollo is not definitive (it doesn’t say much about the astronauts, for example, but there are scores of books by and about astronauts). This Apollo focuses on the program itself, and the key engineers and technocrats who built the amazing machines and then made them fly, supporting the astronauts every mile, as they traveled farther than any human has to date. Apollo 13 would not have returned safely had it not been for the program managers and engineers in Houston, the Cape, and from private companies and universities from coast to coast. Apollo is a miracle of focused energy on achieving a single goal. Lots of heartache and conflict and friction along the way, of course, but that energy remained laser-focused. And this book weaves it all together elegantly and beautifully. The audiobook performer is also exceptionally good. If you’re interested in Apollo, this book belongs on your shelf, in your kindle, or on your phone as an audiobook.
Written in the 1980s, many participants were still alive and willing to talk. It could not have been the same book today now that so many have passed away.
What an achievement!
These two brilliant writers make it clear that their Apollo is not definitive (it doesn’t say much about the astronauts, for example, but there are scores of books by and about astronauts). This Apollo focuses on the program itself, and the key engineers and technocrats who built the amazing machines and then made them fly, supporting the astronauts every mile, as they traveled farther than any human has to date. Apollo 13 would not have returned safely had it not been for the program managers and engineers in Houston, the Cape, and from private companies and universities from coast to coast. Apollo is a miracle of focused energy on achieving a single goal. Lots of heartache and conflict and friction along the way, of course, but that energy remained laser-focused. And this book weaves it all together elegantly and beautifully. The audiobook performer is also exceptionally good. If you’re interested in Apollo, this book belongs on your shelf, in your kindle, or on your phone as an audiobook.
Written in the 1980s, many participants were still alive and willing to talk. It could not have been the same book today now that so many have passed away.
What an achievement!
November 10, 2024
2.5 stars, counted as 2.
Because my ebook version lacks the pictures! It could score higher if I read another edition, though. But the fact is, I fell asleep a dozen times reading the middle part. Things pick up nicely when it comes to Apollo 13, so it's still worth a try.
Some quotes:
and a direction for my intended career of engineering.
Words learned: halcyon, ebullient, adroit, "life was more unbuttoned", verity
Now can someone point me to a link of the pics?
Because my ebook version lacks the pictures! It could score higher if I read another edition, though. But the fact is, I fell asleep a dozen times reading the middle part. Things pick up nicely when it comes to Apollo 13, so it's still worth a try.
Some quotes:
a Florida panther came up to the chain-link fence near Hangar S every evening and sat there, peering in—"like a zoo in reverse,"
The joke that made the rounds of NASA was that the Saturn V had a reliability rating of .9999. In the story, a group from headquarters goes down to Marshall and asks Werner von Braun how reliable the Saturn is going to be. Von Braun turns to four of his lieutenants and asks, "Is there any reason why it won't work?" to which they answer: "Nein." "Nein." "Nein." "Nein." Von Braun then says to the men from headquarters, "Gentlemen, I have a reliability of four nines."
Under the heat of Apollo, your marriage either melted or annealed.
and a direction for my intended career of engineering.
Words learned: halcyon, ebullient, adroit, "life was more unbuttoned", verity
Now can someone point me to a link of the pics?
November 12, 2019
I loved this book. Space and rocketry are coming back to the mainstream thanks to Rocket Labs and Space X. You can watch launches all the time. Thanks to YouTubers like Tim Dodd, the Everyday Astronaut, you can learn about the engineering behind these amazing developments. To find out stories of the early years I would need to recommend this book.
The technical details and depth of the research sets this apart. This was a expansive story covering the less known heros and events throughout Apollo. So many interviews and clips from the people who were there. The personalities and nuances.
The book begins from the early days when going to the moon was a dream. When it seemed impossible and doing in the decade was insane. You dig into how it was made possible and the new disciplines which needed to be invented. As the program unfolds you encounter the trials and triumphs.
There are times I laughed. There are times I cried. In the end, I am filled with immense respect for the men and women who were the Apollo Program.
Be prepared for the complete story from those closest to it. Recommended to anyone who loves space or science or fantastic stories. I hope you love it too.
The technical details and depth of the research sets this apart. This was a expansive story covering the less known heros and events throughout Apollo. So many interviews and clips from the people who were there. The personalities and nuances.
The book begins from the early days when going to the moon was a dream. When it seemed impossible and doing in the decade was insane. You dig into how it was made possible and the new disciplines which needed to be invented. As the program unfolds you encounter the trials and triumphs.
There are times I laughed. There are times I cried. In the end, I am filled with immense respect for the men and women who were the Apollo Program.
Be prepared for the complete story from those closest to it. Recommended to anyone who loves space or science or fantastic stories. I hope you love it too.
March 12, 2020
If you ever wanted to know HOW we got to the moon, this is the book for you. But if you want the simple version of how we got to the moon, this ISN'T the book for you. I learned about not just Apollo but the entire manned space program, from the early days of rocketry to the barely up-before-he-came- down-sub-orbital flight of John Glenn, the Mercury and Gemini programs, the deaths of three astronauts and the near loss of Apollo 13, to the final trip to the moon in 1972. A reader might get bogged down in all the science and the dozens of acronyms that a thorough telling requires, but the writing! The writers brings such life and humor to what can be a pretty dry subject.They manage to capture and reveal the humanity--the emotions, the drama, the commitments and sacrifices,the dedication and tenacity--of these men (and the exceedingly few women) who made it all happen. I laughed often, and I cried a fair amount too. We didn't get to the moon without tragedy. If the space program was a part of your life in the 1960s and 70s, you will like this book--and just skip over the parts you find boring.
January 4, 2021
Apollo is a detailed look at the program to put a man on the moon. It is not about the astronauts or the moon mission itself, but rather about the effort, beginning in the late 1950s, to create a US space program. The effort kicks into high gear when in 1961 Kennedy commits the US to sending a man to the moon and bringing him safely back to earth before the end of the decade. This was an unreasonable, even ridiculous goal given the primitive state of the US space program at that time. Apollo traces the story of the people who answered Kennedy's call and the spectacular story of how they rose to the challenge. It's very well written, based on hundreds of interviews and primary documents. While a lot of the story is about clever engineers solving difficult technical problems, the bigger part of the story is about how the program's managers organized and coordinated the energies and efforts of thousands of people working on every aspect of the program.
A word about the author. Yes, it's that Charles Murray, author of several awful books about poverty and social policy. But Apollo is not infected by the faulty logic and false inferences that characterize these other books.
A word about the author. Yes, it's that Charles Murray, author of several awful books about poverty and social policy. But Apollo is not infected by the faulty logic and false inferences that characterize these other books.
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