What do you think?
Rate this book
Countdown to Launch!: Rockets, Computers, and Coming of Age in the Cold War
In the desperate early years of the Cold War, a young boy and his middle school friends launch a homemade rocket on a farm near Boeing Wichita, a target of Soviet bombers. If the rocket doesn't fly, the boy's science project will fail.
Building and launching rockets through early college, the rocketeer analyzes their performance using primitive digital computers while his classwork suffers. He perseveres, calculating that his latest rocket will reach into the stratosphere. But suddenly, all such thoughts are forced aside by a significant life change.
Later, while starting work on his PhD in physics, happiness turns to sadness, forcing him to leave school. Now, at the pinnacle of the Cold War, at North American Aviation, he is designing crucial computer software for the new Minuteman III ICBM, the country's response to a rapid buildup of Soviet hardened ICBM sites - threatening a first-strike capability. If his team doesn't succeed in this enormous effort, the U.S. may be in grave danger.
Aviation and space enthusiasts who embrace the telling of true stories filled with unvarnished facts will relate to this compelling memoir.
Building and launching rockets through early college, the rocketeer analyzes their performance using primitive digital computers while his classwork suffers. He perseveres, calculating that his latest rocket will reach into the stratosphere. But suddenly, all such thoughts are forced aside by a significant life change.
Later, while starting work on his PhD in physics, happiness turns to sadness, forcing him to leave school. Now, at the pinnacle of the Cold War, at North American Aviation, he is designing crucial computer software for the new Minuteman III ICBM, the country's response to a rapid buildup of Soviet hardened ICBM sites - threatening a first-strike capability. If his team doesn't succeed in this enormous effort, the U.S. may be in grave danger.
Aviation and space enthusiasts who embrace the telling of true stories filled with unvarnished facts will relate to this compelling memoir.
276 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 15, 2024
2 people are currently reading
1 person want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 30, 2024
“Find a job you. love and you will never work a day in your life”..Mark Twain
For me as a drama/English teacher, this quote is the theme of the book. I was drawn to this book because my 1st teaching job was in a small town in Missouri, better known as Whiteman AFB, at the time a SAC base with missile sites surrounding the farm fields where cows contentedly munched grass. I often marveled thinking, “if they had any idea what they were on top of. “
I laughed at some of the remembrances such as the duck & cover drills. Even in grade 2, like the author I wondered how sitting under a desk was going to save me from an atomic bomb. Later in my life I was a high school principal in a large suburban high school, & my students fell in love with robotics. One night I got a call at about 3:00 AM from security saying, “we just found these kids inside your school & they say they are experimenting with a robot. What do you want us to do with them? “ I could just imagine the look on the faces of the police who found Mr. Hollis & his friends in much the same circumstance in Chapter 11. Just as in Chapter 9 of this book, my students complained about having to go to a school board meeting to explain what robotics was. They too couldn’t be bothered by the novices & the media. As the book progressed, I became entranced at the perseverance and determination when the experiments didn’t come to fruition as they wished. I recommend this book as reading for future scientists and creators and their current teachers, parents, and sponsors. One never knows what a youthful dedication will bring later life, and I recommend the epilogue summarizing the cold war and the work, not of those who flew higher and faster, but of those heroes who made it possible for life to progress.
For me as a drama/English teacher, this quote is the theme of the book. I was drawn to this book because my 1st teaching job was in a small town in Missouri, better known as Whiteman AFB, at the time a SAC base with missile sites surrounding the farm fields where cows contentedly munched grass. I often marveled thinking, “if they had any idea what they were on top of. “
I laughed at some of the remembrances such as the duck & cover drills. Even in grade 2, like the author I wondered how sitting under a desk was going to save me from an atomic bomb. Later in my life I was a high school principal in a large suburban high school, & my students fell in love with robotics. One night I got a call at about 3:00 AM from security saying, “we just found these kids inside your school & they say they are experimenting with a robot. What do you want us to do with them? “ I could just imagine the look on the faces of the police who found Mr. Hollis & his friends in much the same circumstance in Chapter 11. Just as in Chapter 9 of this book, my students complained about having to go to a school board meeting to explain what robotics was. They too couldn’t be bothered by the novices & the media. As the book progressed, I became entranced at the perseverance and determination when the experiments didn’t come to fruition as they wished. I recommend this book as reading for future scientists and creators and their current teachers, parents, and sponsors. One never knows what a youthful dedication will bring later life, and I recommend the epilogue summarizing the cold war and the work, not of those who flew higher and faster, but of those heroes who made it possible for life to progress.
Displaying 1 of 1 review