Simon’s Reviews > Failure is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond > Status Update
Simon
is on page 303 of 416
Gene Kranz goes into exhausting detail about the technical side of NASA operations, not just the infamous accidents like Apollo 1 and 13 but also all the errors and defects that were detected in test flights and simulations, as well as the ones that COULD have derailed otherwise successful missions if they hadn't acted on. (in contrast to the more sociological angle Wolfe's "The Right Stuff" took)
— Aug 24, 2025 11:09AM
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Simon
is on page 209 of 416
interesting reading about the Gemini program which came in between Mercury and Apollo, how much of the technology used in the Apollo missions was first developed for Gemini as well as all the technical problems and things that went wrong - you really get a sense for how bad things could have gotten if the flight control crew had handled things differently
— Aug 19, 2025 12:31PM
Simon
is on page 117 of 416
interesting to read as a companion piece to Tom Wolfe's "The Right Stuff", covers many of the same events but from the perspective of one person (who goes into more detail about his own personal experiences)
— Aug 10, 2025 11:22PM
