The Astronaut Maker: How One Mysterious Engineer Ran Human Spaceflight for a Generation

by Michael Cassutt

   One of the most elusive and controversial figures in NASA’s history, George W. S. Abbey was called “the Dark Lord,” “the Godfather,” and “UNO”—short for unidentified NASA official. He was said to be secretive, despotic, a Space Age Machiavelli. Yet Abbey had more influence on human spaceflight than almost anyone in history. His story has never been told—until now.
   The Astronaut Maker takes readers inside NASA to learn the real story of how Abbey rose to power, from young pilot and wannabe astronaut to engineer, bureaucrat, and finally director of the Johnson Space Center. During a thirty-seven-year career, mostly out of the spotlight, he oversaw the selection of every astronaut class from 1978 to 1987, deciding who got to fly and when. He was with the Apollo 1 astronauts the night before the fatal fire in January 1967. He was in mission control the night of the Apollo 13 accident and organized the recovery effort. Abbey also led NASA’s recruitment of women and minorities as space shuttle astronauts and was responsible for hiring Sally Ride.
   Written by Michael Cassutt, the coauthor of the acclaimed astronaut memoirs DEKE! and We Have Capture, and informed by countless hours of interviews with Abbey and his family, friends, adversaries, and former colleagues, The Astronaut Maker is the ultimate insider’s account of ambition and power politics at NASA.

Genres: Space, Nonfiction, History, Biography Memoir, Science, Biography

480 pages, Hardcover

Published August 15, 2018

Reviews

[CatReader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Michael Cassutt is an American TV producer, screenwriter, and writer of science fiction and fantasy books; 2018's The Astronaut Maker, about the life of the late NASA administrator and "astronaut maker" George Abbey (1932-2024) appears to be his foray into nonfiction. This is an interesting read, but I wouldn't really call it a biography of Abbey as much as a history of NASA from the Apollo era to the Shuttle era with occasional glimpses of George Abbey on the side. Abbey, whose most prominent role involved astronaut candidate selection and mission assignments, is portrayed largely impersonally at at-arms'-length, which was surprising given the scope and length of the book. While it does seem that Cassutt spoke with some of Abbey's extended family members, I'm unclear as to whether and to what extent Cassutt interviewed Abbey himself as part of the research for this book (I listened to the audiobook edition which, like most audiobooks, didn't include footnotes or references). Much of the research seems derived from astronaut memoirs of the era as well as NASA's oral history projects.

Further reading:
Failure is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond by Gene Kranz
Riding Rockets by Mike Mullane

My statistics:
Book 29 for 2025
Book 1955 cumulatively

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fine biography of one of the leaders in NASA's history.

Three things I didn't like about the book:
1. In a few places, Cassutt seemed to be hinting (or not just hinting) at disagreements Abbey had with others, and I think it's supposed to be an "Ohhh... *This* is what that one fight was about" moment, but he doesn't give much detail, just kind of breezes over it. For example, there's one place (and I'm paraphrasing), where the NASA director had a meeting with an astronaut and later called Abbey "because of something said or implied" by the astronaut, and then Abbey reassured him. ... WHAT?!? What was said or implied? Why was this a big enough deal that the director (I think) of NASA was calling in reinforcements? I don't know if this goes to Abbey's character of keeping private things private, or just bad writing.

2. Cassutt brings up things that then don't seem to matter to the story he's telling. In one section, he makes a definite point of saying that an American astronaut who was working with the Russian cosmonauts moved his family to Russia to be close to where he was training. ... And? Like, it's a random sentence in that section. Cassutt will also end sections with random sentences that I kept thinking were foreshadowing, but no.

3. (There was a third main thing that bothered me, but now that I've gone on and on about the other two things, I don't remember what the third thing was.)

But it was a good history of NASA, and how one man shaped the agency but was also affected by events in the agency.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Astronaut Maker
Author: Michael Cassutt
Publisher: Chicago Review Press Incorporated
Date: 2018
Pgs: 460
Dewey: B 629.4092 ABB
Disposition: Irving Public Library - South Campus - Irving, TX
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REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

Summary:
The manned space programs story passed through George Abbey’s fingers. He stayed an elusive, behind the scenes figure throughout his career. He was dedicated to the advancement and safety of manned spaceflight. This put him at odds with politicians and men dedicated to protecting their fiefdoms instead of doing the right thing regardless of consequence. He’s called the Dark Lord, the Godfather, the UNO for Unidentified NASA Official, and a Space Age Machiavelli. He was all those things and more. This is the story of his life from a Seattle childhood to the Air Force to NASA, the Moon, vicariously, the Shuttle program, disasters, recovery, and finally political expediency and a Henry II-Thomas Beckett relationship with his boss, who failed to understand America’s manned space program and what shuttle cancellation would do to manned American expeditions beyond the atmosphere. Air Force officer, pilot, wannabe astronaut, engineer, bureaucrat, and Director of teh Johnson Space Center, George Abbey was a big piece fo America in space for a lot of years.
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Genre:
History
Biography
Engineering
Transportation
Aerospace
Astronautics
Space Flight
Science
Astronomy
Space Science
Aeronautics
Astrophysics

Why this book:
NASA, space, astronauts...I’m in.
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Favorite Character: George Abbey. Abbey is almost Gumpian when you follow his career track and the people he encounters. The 24/7 nature of his job and drive at NASA, a divorce was probably alway sin George’s future. This is the story of a man who climbed a mountain of red tape and lived there for 30 years. It’s a story of the old boys network. It’s the story of an insider who enjoyed his power in the system and tried to use it for good; community outreach, diversity, etc. Not an abuser of power, but it’s obvious that Abbey enjoyed being involved in manned space flight.

Least Favorite Character: Dan Goldin. Goldin comes across as a person who doesn’t share success and credit easily and accepts blame never.

The Feel:
The book is very behind the scenes, not in the TMZ sense, more the Ken Burns sense. It has a good docu-history feel throughout. While the second half of the book had that “other shoe about to drop” feel to it.

Favorite Scene / Quote:
The last paragraph of the prologue ending with “The story begins on a deserted roadside in Montana staring into a freezing, huge, panoramic, star filled sky watching Sputnik traverse the sky.”

Pacing:
The pace was slow. Luckily the subject matter was interesting.

Plot Holes/Out of Character:
Truly chased Abbey out of NASA and, then, tried to pigeon hole him out of all NASA ops. George’s move to Bush 1’s Space Council pissed Truly off because, then, NASA admin couldn’t slip stuff passed as easily. Some of this is subtextual but logical.

Hmm Moments:
Wonder if the brusque face-to-face immediate peer review that he was subjected to at Dyna-Soar are both part and parcel of his success and, then, ultimately, as the International Space Station flew his dismissal from NASA. Though on further reading, he was going to be forced out by Goldin at some point.

When you are put in the position of being the boss or management’s blunt instrument, you are in the position of facing future vengeance for your actions and being tossed aside by those who you did that service for.

Is Schirra was so determined to not fly on Apollo 7 that he complained and fought with Mission Control all the way to the Moon and back, I wonder why he flew. He retired after landing and walked away. But his and his crew’s performance led to the dead end assignments which dogged Eisele and Cunningham for the balance of their careers. Neither ever flew in space again. In the shadow of Apollo 1 you’d think that astronaut concerns would have carried much more weight.

Abbey had to know that his partnership with Goldin had a sell by date. If not, the Proton-Zveyda launch at Baikonur should have told him so. Requiring Abbey to sign off on a note guaranteeing the Russian launch’s success, before it launched, even though it was strictly a Russian operation. And there is a huge question of whether Abbey or Goldin could have stopped the launch if they had wanted to. After the Proton Zveyda incident, Goldin actively started distancing from Abbey. Goldiin was worried about Goldin. Abbey was worried about his astronauts and the future of NASA.

WTF Moments:
That was horrible. So many of them wanted the Apollo 1 test cancelled since there were so many last minute changes and since, effectively, it was an unnecessary test since all subsequent flights were going to use the Block II fuselage instead of the Block I. Reading this and knowing what is coming a few pages down the line is horrible. Grissom knew that it was wrong the continual changes and the dangerously slow escape procedure and lead his crew onboard anyway. Good soldier to the end.

After Challenger, Abbey was shoved aside and promoted out of his direct involvement. If he wouldn’t been aware of the o-ring issue, George Abbey would have moved heaven and Earth to stop the launch. Those people were his friends. He chose them to be astronauts. He guided them.

Mistakes are written out of corporate history and repeated by the next generation. The contractors on the ISS repeating mistakes made during Apollo, when many of them were the same companies who had done similar work on the previous project is an example of that.

Meh / PFFT Moments:
The lessons of Apollo 1 seem to be lost over and over at NASA. I fear for the future of manned spaceflight.

Wisdom:
And Columbia arrives at the Cape, the checkout specialist who helped clear vehicles for launch says what everyone knows that Columbia won’t be ready for her original launch window, and he’s transferred by his boss. That sounds like an organization that didn’t learn the lessons of Apollo 1.

The Unexpected:
The description of what happened to Grissom, White, and Chaffee in Apollo 1 was horrid. It was the most detailed version I’ve ever read. I’m going to have to take a break from the book and come back to it later.

Racism and sexism at NASA makes me sad. Two of these men really disappointed me. I’m not naming them. If you read it, you’ll know exactly who I mean.

I don’t recall if I ever knew that 2 techs died during Columbia’s initial preflight testing in a nitrogen purge test on the pad. And while the author notes that Abbey wanted Young and Crippen to acknowledge them during the flight, their names are not mentioned here. That’s wrong. John Bjornstad died on route to the hospital. Forrest Cole died 2 weeks later. They had been cleared to enter without air packs after the nitrogen purge. Three other men lost consciousness before a 6th man discovered them and dragged the victims from the compartment. These were the first, and forgotten, fatalities to strike the space program since Apollo 1. If we don’t count all the T-38 and other aircraft crashes that dogged the crews over the years.
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Last Page Sound:
Goldin played politics with man in space. Abey played human. Goldin was an ass. Abbey deserves a Congressional Medal of Honor.

Author Assessment:
I am going to actively look at other works by Michael Cassutt.

Editorial Assessment:
Well edited.

Knee Jerk Reaction:
really good book,
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[Tyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Michael Cassutt has has written an outstanding biography of George Abbey, covering his life from his birth on August 21, 1932 in Seattle, Washington through his time at the Naval Academy, the Air Force, NASA employee in Houston working on Apollo, JSC Director of Flight Operations, special assistant to the NASA Administrator in Washington, D.C., JSC Director, to his continued passion for human spaceflight in his mid eighties. Since the previous accounts of Abbey in print have been somewhat negative, Cassutt does well to highlight the positive influences he had on the space agency. I was especially struck by Abbey's knowledge of personnel, his willingness to accept women and minorities at NASA, and his willingness to reach out to the Houston community to keep them engaged in JSC's work. He even helped historians like myself by suggesting the creation of the JSC Oral History Project, which has really benefited me personally. All of us who feel the zeal for human spaceflight owe a debt of gratitude to him and now historians will know much more about him thanks to this book.

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved reading about the progression of his leadership skills.

[Herb Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Astronaut Maker by Michael Cassutt is a fascinating dive into the life and career of George W. S. Abbey, one of NASA’s most influential behind-the-scenes figures. It tells the story of how Abbey shaped the astronaut program and played a key role in some of NASA’s biggest human spaceflight moments.

What makes this book stand out is how it focuses on the less glamorous, but no less important, aspects of space exploration. Abbey wasn’t the guy in the spacesuit—he was the one making sure the right people got there and that the missions succeeded. Cassutt takes you through Abbey’s career, showing how his decisions impacted everything from the Apollo program to the Space Shuttle era.

The book doesn’t shy away from the complexities of Abbey’s leadership style and how it rubbed some people the wrong way, but it also highlights his dedication and the respect he earned. It’s packed with insight into NASA’s inner workings and offers a perspective you don’t often see in space history books.

I spent 42 years at NASA, mostly at the Johnson Space Center (JSC), including the years that George Abbey was Center Director so I was eagerly looking forward to reading this book. It was even better than I expected it to be. Having been involved in some of the events and having known or worked with many of the people mentioned in the book made it especially interesting for me. Most people either loved him or despised him depending, of course, on how his decisions impacted them personally – especially with regards to his selection of astronauts for flight opportunities. I had no idea that he had been a pilot and wanted to be an astronaut himself until reading this book. I also had not been aware of his significant role in saving the early Space Station program from being canceled and of his dedication to diversity (including women and minorities) in the astronaut corps. Like him or not, I don’t believe anyone (not even Chris Kraft) is more responsible for making JSC what it is today.

You can read about how Abbey created the Astronaut Memorial Grove to honor the astronauts lost in the Challenger accident. Trees are now dedicated in a solemn ceremony to every astronaut that has passed. To stay abreast of the status of the ISS Program during its early phases, Abbey established a series of weekend meetings officially called the George Abbey Saturday Review (GASR) – called the “Gasser.” Abbey also established the Longhorn Project, making open land on the JSC campus available to the local high school’s agricultural students for raising cattle. And it was his idea to create JSC’s Oral History Project, which now includes hundreds of documented interviews of astronauts, flight directors, and other NASA employees.

If you’re interested in the history of human spaceflight – from the Apollo Program to the International Space Station – I highly recommend this book.

[Chris Friend · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a solid, effective document of what happened in one man's career. Readers get a sense of what happened, and what the subject did, but the author fails to shape the story meaningfully and add weight, or an overriding theme (or through-line) to the telling of the story. I was left with the impression that this is a sequence of events, or a list of facts, more than a narrative about the life—or, more appropriate in this case, the legacy—of a person's life. In other words, this is an excellent historical record while being a mediocre story.

Put differently, after reading this book, I'm left understanding what the person did, what the person dealt with, and what challenges the person overcame throughout his life, but I have no sense of what brought him to life. I don't know what made him smile, what brought him to tears, or what caused him to wring his hands. It's as though the subject of this biography is a cardboard cut-out of a person, rather than a living, breathing human.

It's a shame, because Abbey deserves remembered for being a person, not just for being a remarkably effective paper-pusher. After reading this book, I'm left thinking that more people should know about the amazing, world-changing, tireless, empathic, selfless work of George Abbey, but not that they should read this book.

[Mark Reynolds · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of details, people, meetings, contracts, names. Not really my cup of tea. A few cool stories. For example:

There were amusing moments. One of the questions later facing the CCB [configuration control board] was the inclusion of a television camera in the Apollo command module. Ed Fendell, a flight controller in Kraft’s team, made the presentation, starting with his first chart and the statement “Flight Operations has no requirement for television on board the spacecraft."
Kraft immediately roared to his subordinate, “You’re crazy as hell. I am Flight operations and I have a requirement for television!"
Without blinking, Fendell announced, “What I meant to say is, ‘flight Operations has a firm requirement for television on board the spacecraft.’ "

and

Chris Kraft’s motto “To err is human, but to do so more than once is contrary to flight operations directorate policy."

[Ed Bernard · Rating 3 out of 5]

More like 2.5 stars.
As a NASA freak, I knew the name George Abbey, who was a central figure in the behind-the-scenes story of the space agency. This book tells his story, and give Abbey his due, even claiming the US would not have accomplished Kennedy’s challenge to get a man to the moon (and back) before the end of the 60s. Not sure about that, though Abbey was certainly an important player. Unfortunately, this books is pretty damn dull, getting bogged down in many details, and insisting on referring to the hardware by technical names, which is not conducive to an audio book (that’s not the author’s fault, but it really lessened my enjoyment of the book. It’s great to see a behind the scenes tribute to one of the zillions who worked on the less glamorous aspects of the moon program, but the book itself doesn’t really do justice to the man or the story.

Grade: C+

[Valerie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good summary of U.S. Space Program

This is the story of U.S. manned space flight from Apollo through the launch of ISS as seen through the eyes of long time NASA employee George Abbey. Working in the background for most of his 50 year career, Abbey eventually became head of Johnson Space Center and was heavily involved in development of the space shuttle, the space station, and space partnerships with Russia. This is not, however, a biography of George Abbey, presenting few personal details. Well written and easy to read I would recommend this to anyone looking for insights into the development of our achievements in space.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is primarily the biography of George W. S. Abbey, a NASA administrator who is by no means a household name for most Americans. He was, however, a key player throughout NASA’s manned space program and his life is certainly an interesting one. More than a biography, however, this book doubles as a pretty thorough history of NASA itself. And having read several such NASA related histories. I think this was the lengthiest; maybe even a little too detailed for my interest level (which is pretty high). So I’m giving it 3.5. stars. But for the diehard NASA fan, this would no doubt be a fascinating read.

[Tettyk]

The author would have been better writing a book about the space agency in general, since the book subject had very little content about the subject outside of NASA. The one- or two-sentence mentions of his family were laughable. The author ran out of material really quickly during the space shuttle years, and the book became a list of mission crew assignments. I had to skip through to the interesting parts like the response to Challenger.

[Joann · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was referenced by Loren Grush in her The Six about the first American female astronauts. Reading that book piqued my curiosity about George Abbey so this book was the obvious source. And, indeed all my questions were answered and then some. At times the book reads like a major check list, flights, people involved, number of pay loads, number of hours, on and on. I did learn a lot about NASA and the space program but can only recommend the book to die hard space enthusiasts.

[Linnea · Rating 4 out of 5]

lots of name dropping and not much actual explanation of what he did or how. and some interesting life details, like his car collection, were only mentioned in passing, as if we already knew about it.
it was interesting to learn so much about the development of the space program after Apollo.
overall it was somewhat sad-broken families and pilots/astronauts lost their lives, but overall it was descriptive, with very little analysis

[Leonard Topolski · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very even handed biography of one of the most important and little known figures of the space program. The book acknowledges the flaws and contributions of Abbey, while noting that a person doing his jobs over the years would not be able to please everyone. It was enjoyable to finally see a person who mostly remained behind the scenes get recognized for their work.

[David Meyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A detailed biography of a man who had a huge effect on the history of NASA, particularly in the selection of astronauts. Plenty of interesting stories help show what some of the well known, as well as lesser known members of the space agency were like in their prime.

[Anita · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too technical and political! I was hoping for more stories of the astronauts Abbey worked with. The sections on the tragedies in the space program (Apollo 1, Apollo 13, Challenger) were not very detailed. Disappointed.

[Davec · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hope to see space travel be affordable and available in my lifetime.

[Samuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating look at the legendary George Abbey, who more than anyone else pushed human space flight forward during the Shuttle and Station eras.

[Will Austin · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The real book about the space program would be a book about George Abbey".

Awesome read about the most influential NASA employee you have never heard of.

[Arnold Grot · Rating 5 out of 5]

George Abby figures notably in must stories about NASA, most prominently in books about astronauts. In particularly, this book was recommended by Nicole Stott in her book “Back to Earth”. Who is this made whose rumbling voice struck awe, fear and anticipation all at once in astronauts in training? I found this wonderment placing this book on my want-to-reed list and now to my currently reading list.

[Kristine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve heard so much about Mr. Abbey in my years working at Johnson Space Center and was excited to read this book. I struggled to get through it, however. The writing style is more like a profile of spaceflight history with a few, very detached and impersonal notes about Mr. Abbey’s life scattered throughout.

[Mary]

Lots of behind the scenes details. More than I cared for right now.