Rocket Men/The Epic Story Of The First Men On The Moon[Paperback,2010] by Craig Nelson

Dec 06, 2010

Abe rated it

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A history of Apollo 11, along with much of the background that got us there, this book has a lot of flaws in the way it is written but is still an extremely interesting read.

The book covers the history of rocketry and the leadup to the space/missile race, as well as the race itself. It tends to jump around in time between this stuff and the days/months before Apollo 11, which doesn’t always work. The book used lots of material from NASA interviews and relies too heavily on quotes, of...more

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Apr 13, 2010

Patrick Sprunger rated it

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Shelves: american-history, general-nonfiction

Rocket Men is a study in missed opportunity. The author, snared in the spell of his subject, failed to see what he really had: A good book about the Cold War arms race.

At the center of this book is a close study of the rocket and missile science essential to Cold War policy on both sides of the iron curtain, most notably how the space race served as a demilitarized proxy for testing communist versus capitalist preeminence. Mr. Nelson explains the Cuban Missile Crisis and quiet agreem...moreRocket Men is a study in missed opportunity. The author, snared in the spell of his subject, failed to see what he really had: A good book about the Cold War arms race.

At the center of this book is a close study of the rocket and missile science essential to Cold War policy on both sides of the iron curtain, most notably how the space race served as a demilitarized proxy for testing communist versus capitalist preeminence. Mr. Nelson explains the Cuban Missile Crisis and quiet agreement to forego development of anti-satellite weapons as well as any other author of recent memory. More importantly, he delivers it in an accessible style that casual readers will "fly" to (if you'll pardon the pun).

However, acts 1 and 3 deal almost exclusively with Apollo 11 and the engineering triumphs of the summer of 1969. The author went to great lengths to collect comprehensive oral accounts, and captured something of the culture of NASA in the 60s through unadorned preservation of the idioms and manner of speaking of those close to the action. But a little bit goes a long way. Mr. Nelson is too dependent on long quotations; rather than flavor the narrative in a positive way, they bog it down.

Nelson also relies heavily on figures and technical information. This alone isn't a problem, except the author appears to lack academic discipline. Agencies are sometimes referred to by their acronyms before they are referred to by their proper names. Also, the alphabet soup of acronyms is a little heavy - a courteous writer should try to limit his dependence on them when writing to a casual audience.

The biggest problem of all is the haphazard way Mr. Nelson has structured the narrative. Arranging the composition in three acts isn't bad, but the acts are both out of chronological order and redundant. I cannot see how acts 1 and 3 (which deal essentially with the Apollo 11 mission itself) perform different functions within the manuscript. They feel like heavy bookends, buttressing the middle act with unnecessary ornament.

Rocket Men is not completely without enjoyment. It's full of trivia and the author uses some of the quirkiest metaphors I've ever seen applied to a technical subject (comparing the Eagle lunar module to a bacteriophagic virus, landing on a foreign body and discharging its human genetic material will forever "infect" my memory). And, of course, act 2 (concerning the Cold War arms race) is a thrill. Reading Rocket Men is a little like being atop a Saturn V at launch: It lurches, is erratic and utterly beyond one's control. It's a bumpy ride, but one that may ultimately be worth the discomfort. (less)

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Mar 07, 2010

Sean O'Hara rated it

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Rocket Men is a rather preposterous novel about the United States sending a space craft to the moon in 1969. The story begins with the rocket on the launchpad, waiting for blast off, with brief flashbacks to the launch prep, as the administrators make last minute checks on mission readiness and the "astronauts" undergo final training.

(The astronauts are named -- and I swear I'm not making this up -- Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. And "Buzz" isn't a nickname -- th...moreRocket Men is a rather preposterous novel about the United States sending a space craft to the moon in 1969. The story begins with the rocket on the launchpad, waiting for blast off, with brief flashbacks to the launch prep, as the administrators make last minute checks on mission readiness and the "astronauts" undergo final training.

(The astronauts are named -- and I swear I'm not making this up -- Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. And "Buzz" isn't a nickname -- that's the character's legal name. Thankfully the third astronaut isn't Al American. He's Michael Collins. Why Nelson would name a character after a prominent member of the Irish Republican Army is beyond me.)

Then, just before lift-off, the story goes into an extended flashback. First comes a big infodump on the history of rocketry, from Oberth, Goddard, and Tsiolkovsky, to the German development of the V2. And this is where the book goes off the rails, launching into an absurd conspiracy wherein the Nazi scientists flee from the Red Army and seek asylum in America, where they're welcomed with open arms. This introduces a bizarre subplot involving these former Nazis settling in a small town in Alabama, where they establish themselves as members of the community while working on new rocket systems.

At the same time, the Soviets launch a bit of tinfoil into space with a radio transmitter. They follow this up by launching a crockpot with a dog inside, and cooking it on reentry. These feats, combined with a perceived Soviet superiority in ballistic missiles, prompt a young American President to brashly promise that the US will place a man on the moon within ten years.

What follows would be, in a movie, a musical montage, as the American space agency perfects the technology necessary and locates the best-of-the-best to fly the ship. The book loops around on itself as we finally get back to the launch and the mission proceeds.

And what a bizarre mission. Instead of building a ship that can go from the Earth to the Moon, land, take-off and return to the Earth, the US has built a vessel that will go into lunar orbit and then launch a shuttle craft for the actual landing. Nelson offers some technobabble about why this is a better design, but it never entirely makes sense. To his credit, though, Nelson does make the engineers dubious of the idea when it's first proposed, having them point out all the flaws.

The upshot of this mission profile is that one of the astronauts -- Collins -- has to stay on the ship while the other two take the shuttle to the surface. Exactly what Collins does while they're gone is never explained. Sounds like the most boring job in the world -- the ship is too small for him to do much, and the computers are absurdly weak, so he can't even play chess or solitaire.

The best part of the novel is the landing sequence, which features several technical flaws that almost derail the mission. First, the flight computer has insufficient RAM to deal with the sensor input and keeps freezing up. Then, despite the best laid plans, the crew finds their pre-picked landing site covered with boulders. Armstrong has to use an enormous amount of fuel to stay aloft, only sighting a flat piece of ground when he's within seconds of having to abort. The scene strains credibility, but Nelson's writing makes it exciting despite itself.

The actual time on the moon is rather anti-climactic. You'd think something exciting would happen there, but no. No aliens, no disasters, no Great Discoveries that change the way we see the world. The biggest problem faced by the crew is that the touchdown was so soft that it didn't trigger the shock-absorbers and retract the landing struts. As such, there's a three foot gap between the ladder and lunar surface. This renders Armstrong's first words on the moon ironic -- "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." (That's the exact quote -- you'd think an editor would've caught the missing article in the first clause. As it stands, the sentence doesn't make a lot of sense.) The other challenges faced are pretty minor -- the top-soil (if you can call it that) is so thin the astronauts have a hard time getting the flag to stand up; Buzz describes a rock as looking like mica, which pisses off the geologists at mission control.

The crew lifts off and makes an unremarkable rendezvous with the mothership, followed by an uneventful return to Earth.

The characters are borderline cardboard -- everyone who works for this NASA organization is an uber-professional expert who seems to have stepped out of the 1950s. Nelson even mentions this, explaining that the scientists, engineers and astronauts are so focused on their jobs that they don't pay attention to the changing world outside. The only exception is the, uh, let's say "feisty," Buzz. One memorable scene has him arguing about whether he or Armstrong should be the first on the surface. Unfortunately for him, plot-logic dictates that the guy named Buzz must be the wacky sidekick and Armstrong the jut-jawed hero. You just know that in the movie, Armstrong would be played by Leslie Nielsen and Buzz by Earl Holliman. Too bad there's no room for Anne Francis.

The book does well enough in depicting what space might really be like, but this whole "mundane sci-fi" movement does nothing for me. No Robbie the Robot, no sale.(less)

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Nov 09, 2010

Skyring rated it

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I love reading the story of the moon race. It all seemed so easy on the diagrams printed in the paper. Just fly to the moon, descend to the surface, walk around a bit, fly back up, light the rocket and come home.

But every step of the long way there was difficult, once you begin to "drill down" into the details. Things like gimbal lock and Max-Q emerge from the murk of technology. Every tiny problem had to be solved, and solved in a way that didn't cause problems for anything ...moreI love reading the story of the moon race. It all seemed so easy on the diagrams printed in the paper. Just fly to the moon, descend to the surface, walk around a bit, fly back up, light the rocket and come home.

But every step of the long way there was difficult, once you begin to "drill down" into the details. Things like gimbal lock and Max-Q emerge from the murk of technology. Every tiny problem had to be solved, and solved in a way that didn't cause problems for anything else. Make a support member stronger and it makes it heavier, which means more fuel needed to lift it, which means more fuel needed to lift the extra fuel, which means bigger tanks, which leads to a point where you have to make compromises.

It's a fascinating tale of engineering and systems, let alone the people who gave up years of their lives to do it all. A whole generation of engineers and pilots barely got to share in their children's lives. Meetings were regularly scheduled for two in the morning.

You'd think after reading the same tale so many times, i'd know all the details, but no, every retelling adds fresh perspectives, fresh anecdotes. This book is no exception, drawing on political perspectives long suppressed for security reasons. We know a lot more about the Soviet effort now, for example.

And, despite those inspiring words which rang out in the early Sixties, JFK really had no great interest in spaceflight.

I enjoyed this book immensely. The oral history interviews, the memories freed up after decades, the embarrassing details of the German scientists running slave camps, the explanations of the reasons why certain things were done that way - it's all a great read for anyone with a passing interest.

I envy the reader coming in "cold". This book would seem like magic to the younger folk who have grown up with no direct experience of those great days. I saw the moonwalk at school, but for so many it's just a fuzzy, grainy video clip from the olden days.

The olden days when great deeds were done, when the curves all lined up to impel nations to do wondrous things. Nowadays, we just go to war and try to pound the other guy flat.

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Sep 09, 2009

Mattfrey54 rated it

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I've just recently become very interested in the history of NASA, which is somewhat surprising to me since my grandfather was an engineer for Rocketdyne through all of NASA's ballistic rocket development up until 1982 (when he passed). After checking out the science section at the local bookstore, I decided to make this the first book i read on the subject. I was a little concerned about all the reviews claiming hundreds of factual errors, but i picked it up regardless. I'm glad i did. While it ...more

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Jul 19, 2011

Tim rated it

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Rocket Men by Craig Nelson is a good, solid book on the origins of the space program, the space race, and Apollo 11. Having completed it, I feel I learned a great deal.

The largest portion of the book is focused on the Apollo 11 mission and astronauts. The book begins with the lead-up to the Apollo 11 launch and then takes a detour to cover the origins of the space program, with a significant amount of time explaining the cold war fueled space race between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. The birt...moreRocket Men by Craig Nelson is a good, solid book on the origins of the space program, the space race, and Apollo 11. Having completed it, I feel I learned a great deal.

The largest portion of the book is focused on the Apollo 11 mission and astronauts. The book begins with the lead-up to the Apollo 11 launch and then takes a detour to cover the origins of the space program, with a significant amount of time explaining the cold war fueled space race between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. The birth of NASA, the Mecury, Gemini, and early Apollo missions are all given the high light reel treatment. After this overview, we return to the Apollo 11 narrative, covering the launch, the mission, and lives of the Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins. Very little is mentioned of the later Apollo missions, which I found disappointing. The book concludes with an indictment of the current space program and an appeal to regain the magic that took us to the Moon and back.

Nelson uses a large number of quotes from those involved to tell most of this story, which works surprisingly well. It does make the narrative dry at points, but not enough to drag the book down. I recommend the book to anyone that has an interest in the space race period of the 60's or the Apollo 11 mission.

As someone who has always loved the idea of space exploration, I share Nelson's sentiments regarding the decline of NASA and America's drive to reach to the stars. Its sad to think that after the success of Apollo, a commission presented President Nixon with three options for the future of the space program: funding the development of the space shuttle and a space station, funding a manned mission to Mars, or funding both of the aforementioned with the addition of a lunar station. Nixon chose none of the above, and cut NASA's funding, telling them to focus on the space shuttle alone.

The decline of the manned space program is a tragedy and one that I hope will one day be rectified. In the meantime, however, you can read about the amazing things that man was able to accomplish in such a brief period of time, with combined strength of a few brilliant minds, determined people, and the support of the American public. (less)

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Aug 06, 2010

Carlos Mendoza rated it

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A well-researched, honest description of the first moon landing, and much of the background story of the men, prior missions, and world events that made it happen. After a rousing beginning up to and including liftoff of Apollo 11, The middle third goes into a lot of detail on the cold-war aspects of the space race and the personal stuggles of the astronauts and their families.

There was quite a bit of information and insight that I had never heard before. For example, I've never see...more

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Aug 11, 2010

Chris rated it

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What a cool book. I checked this one out in hopes of finding some inspiration for my next novel. Mission accomplished. (Shameless tease: I'm actively brainstorming The Rocket Riders, which I hope to finish in 2013.) This book is full of interesting anecdotes and details about the personalities and events of the Space Race. The book's third act, which focuses on the details of the Apollo 11 mission itself, was absolutely riveting. I loved the first-person accounts of what it looks and feel...more

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Sep 02, 2011

Leto2 rated it

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Very informative and interesting. The format was a little odd -- it seemed to bounce around quite a bit from one topic to another. However, I think this also made it a bit more entertaining and not as boring as a simple chronological story might have been.

Upon reading this, I found myself thinking a lot more about the purpose and value of NASA. Recently I have tended to question NASA's value and whether it should be funded at all. This book helped me to see some of the benefits of th...more

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Feb 01, 2012

Russ rated it

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If I could, I would give this book a minus 5 star rating. At first I thought they were just.. errors. But very quickly I could see - this writer was PURPOSELY writing lies upon lies. NO WRITER could possibly make the 'mistakes' this writer has published.

Recall the 'faux' news nonsense about America's Apollo program, that we didn't really go to the Moon..? This is much more than that. Think: sinister. Seriously.

What has happened to America..? How far we have fallen. TV, ...more

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Sep 24, 2009

Noelle rated it

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This book to me is the "bible" of the space race. Lots of new details but presented in a manner that will still hold the interest of the everyday non rocket scientist reader .. sort of human interest aspects, intermingled with new trivia (did you know they had to prop the door open on the lunar lander as the design had omitted to put a handle on the outside to get back in - the ultimate "I've locked myself out" nightmare!!) mixed with a very few tecnical passages that the a...more

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Jul 25, 2011

Ryan Overall rated it

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This book has a very intriguing topic, and had interesting portions. However, it was hard to get through as the author frequently got bogged down in mundane and hard to follow text. The book jumped back and forth between several missions making it hard to follow which mission they were currently describing. It was also frustrating how the author changed back and forth with units of measure: using metric, english, miles per hour, kilometers per hour, feet per second, miles per second, kilomete...more

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Nov 26, 2009

Andy rated it

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There are countless books and documentaries on the U.S. space program and many times more armchair experts on the subject, and so any new account of the space race is bound to encounter criticism. One online reader notes 150 “doozies” in Nelson's book, critical lapses like this: “Thor is an ICBM on pg. 113, but downgrades to an IRBM by pg. 117” and “GET is Ground Elapsed Time, NOT ‘General’.”

I, however, think that Nelson’s book succeeds where it counts; it made me marvel at the sheer...more

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Aug 15, 2009

Acobb rated it

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This may be one of the finest books I have ever read. Sure, I'm old enough to have grown up during the space race. The moon landing happened July 20, 1969, about a month after I graduated from high school. This book weaves the public accounts with the thousands of individual people who actually accomplished the feat. From the roots of Nazi German V2 rocket bombs, through cold war missle technology to the massive Saturn V rocket. This book is full of emotional appeal, political intrigue, history,...more

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Dec 04, 2009

Jo rated it

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Shelves: biography-memoir, history, science

I listened to the audiobook. It was a fascinating, exciting & inspiring book, until the last chapter when it discussed what we (& the world) is currently doing & aspiring to in space, then it became interesting, depressing & kinda scary. I understand from reading reviews elsewhere that the author got a lot of the scientific & technical explanations wrong, but I didn't understand that part anyway (& wouldn't have understood it if it were correct either). I liked how the author put the U.S. space ...more

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Sep 03, 2010

Converse rated it

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Shelves: history, non-fiction, technology

Nelson's book focuses on Apollo, rather than NASA's entire human space program during the 1960s, and specifically on the events up to and including the first lunar landing (Apollo 11). The Mercury, Gemini, and later Apollo missions are mentioned only in passing. I liked how the author tied in aspects of military rocket programs into the narrative, such as how heat shield development started with the problem of how to get missile warheads back to earth intact (temporarily). It was also interest...more

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Jul 14, 2011

Andrew Hunter rated it

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I am really torn on how to rate this book. I only finished about half of the book and was absolutely fascinated by it. However, after doing a little research, I began to learn that there may be a good number of falsehoods and over-embellishments in the author's "facts" regarding the history and science of the rocket race.

I pretty much stopped reading the book after I learned that, because I felt that I needed to research these inconsistencies a little more before deciding i...more

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Feb 03, 2010

Raymond rated it

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What a curious rewarding/unrewarding book this is. Rarely do readers find such a tangle of names, acronyms, quotations, jargon. Nearly everyone, to being with, is presented in a single dimension. Shallow. Editing is needed badly. Patience brings the rewards. Nelson does (finally) do better and presents a story of the Apollo 11 moon landing which is rich with new material, fine anecdotes, the great story never paralleled in humankind's experience. Who will be the first man to walk on the moon - t...more

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Sep 26, 2010

Kevin rated it

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Fascinating story, as usual. This goes very deeply into the story of the engineers who really accomplished great things in designing and building the Apollo project. Even with as much NASA/space race history I've read (not that I'm an expert by any means) I learned a lot of new information. This is one of those books that I was sad to finish.

I listened to an audiobook version and it's still amazing to me how much hearing the words "the Eagle has landed" moves me - especial...more

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Jun 15, 2010

Quinn rated it

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This is an awesome account of the growth of the space program. Did you know that the Russians beat the US in almost every other space aceivement first satelite, first animal in space, first man in space etc.? It's inspirational to think about how a group of engineers, pilots and scientist, using machinery and computers that was totaly new to the corld to hurl three guys 220,000 miles to moon land on it take off from it and then land safely back on earth. And they did it with less technoligy b...more

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Jul 28, 2009

Michael rated it

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Shelves: non-fiction, spaceflight

It is not easy to tell a story that has been told numerous times before and hope to offer the reader something new. That was the challenge presented to Craig Nelson when he began writing the book Rocket Men: The Epic Story Of The First Men On The Moon. Overall the author does a good job in retelling a familiar story (at least familiar to the legions of human spaceflight nerds of which I am a proud member). The author provides interesting anecdotes throughout the text but, by and large, the story...more

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Dec 18, 2009

Jim Good rated it

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Shelves: non-fiction, history, science

Covers the American space program from conception through to Apollo 11 landing on the moon with some brief commentary on the current state and future direction of the space program moving forward from 2009. Interesting components are the testing of different component steps necessary to achieve the moon landing and the context given the space race. The personalities of the three astronauts and how that effected the mission and their legacies is also discussed and interesting to anyone who grew u...more

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Dec 22, 2010

Jordan rated it

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When I was in middle school I was fascinated by space travel. I could name the NASA programs and identify the rockets they each used. Now, at 28 years old, this book has brought that fascination and wonder to new life. The tale Craig Nelson unravels is a sweeping story of urgency, intelligence, ingenuity, fear, bravery and cooperation unlike any in human history and reading this book takes you into the midsts of it in such a way that I myself was, with bated breath, anticipating the Apollo 11 la...more

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Jan 03, 2011

Upom rated it

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Shelves: history, science, space, physics, astronauts, rockets, nonfiction

The space race was probably one of the most fascinating periods in American history. It was a time the U.S. came together to do something both literally and figuratively out of this world. But because of political polarization, detente, and poor PR on the part of NASA and scientists alike, nothing like the space race has happened since. "Rocket Men" does a great job of chronicling this forgotten time. Covering everything from the origins of rockets to the end of the Apollo program, Nel...more

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Oct 01, 2010

Dave Gaston rated it

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Shelves: nonfiction, 60-s, america, bull-ya-boy-book, classic, history, invention, mavric-of-industry, nerdy, science

Once every two years (if I’m lucky) I have the rare privilege of reading a true five star epic. Nelson’s detailed account of America’s amazing space race captures an essential historical decade. Several times I was shocked by the clarity of his story telling at both the macro and micro levels. Nelson achieves this effect by layering together a sweeping series of well edited personal cameos, each on to itself a fascinating victory or tragedy. I’m 46 and this is one of those invaluable books that ...more

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Oct 06, 2010

Jay rated it

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Listening to this as an audio book. On disc 11 of 14. Fascinating subject - one of the most important in American history.
One thing I don't like about this book so far is that the flow is hard to follow. The author jumps around the time line with no warning or explanation and I find I'm still thinking about one phase of the history while he's quoting someone from another phase. With a history like this that brings in so many parties, it's detracts from the work to be playing catch up. ...more

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Jan 29, 2010

Tom Gase rated it

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In Rocket Men, author Craig Nelson has done a great job bringing back to life the Summer of 1969 when the entire world watched as the United States sent Apollo 11 and it's crew of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins to the moon.

After a couple of good first chapters, I started to become a little bored with this book because Nelson went back and described the late 1950's and early 60's and the race against the Soviets to get to the moon. This was fine, except I had just read T...moreIn Rocket Men, author Craig Nelson has done a great job bringing back to life the Summer of 1969 when the entire world watched as the United States sent Apollo 11 and it's crew of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins to the moon.

After a couple of good first chapters, I started to become a little bored with this book because Nelson went back and described the late 1950's and early 60's and the race against the Soviets to get to the moon. This was fine, except I had just read The Right Stuff by Thomas Wolfe, and the material seemed to repeat itself. As an unbiast reader, however, this stuff absolutely needed to be in this book for people that haven't read the Right Stuff. My only problem with Nelson during these segments was all the scientific equations the engineers and pilots dealt with could have been broken down into more laymen terms.

Nelson did redeem himself in the last two thirds of the book, however, to the point where I was on the edge of my seat reading and couldn't put the book down. Look, I'm no dummy, I know how this turned out, but it's still amazing to me that we accomplished this feat.

That doesn't mean this book didn't offer any material I didn't know already. I found the story on Mike Collins unbelievable. I never knew the name of the third astronaut on this crew (everyone knows Armstrong and Aldrin) but I found Collins to be the most likeable. Collins was the one that went up in the rocket with the other two, but had to watch as Armstrong and Aldrin walked on the moon. Collins was basically the man responsible for getting all of them home. Imagine not only getting so close to the moon without touching it, but also having to wait BY YOURSELF in a spaceship for a couple hours. I'd be scared out of my mind. Collins said it was the most spiritual thing you could imagine.

Nelson not only does a great job bringing back what those eight days were like for the astronauts in July of 1969, (July 16-24) but also for everyone watching on earth and all the engineers watching in mission control. Nelson did great research on this, and as a writer myself, I know a great quote when I see one. Nelson had to be beaming when he heard this quote from astronaut Rusty Schweickart for the first time that he would use on page 211-212....

"Up there (space) you go around every hour and a half, time after time after time. You go around across North Africa and out over the Indian Ocan, and Ceylon off to the side, Burman, Southeast Asia, and up across that monstrous Pacific Ocean--you've never realized how big that is before. And you finally come up across the coast of California and look for those friendly things: Los Angeles, and Phoenix, and there's Houston, there's home. You identify with Houston, and Phoenix and New Orleans. And the next thing is you're identifying with North Africa. When you go around in an hour and a half you begin to recognize that your identity is with that whole thing. You look down there and and you can't imagine how many borders and boundaries you have crossed. At the Mideast you know there are hundreds of people killing each other over some imaginery line that you can't see. From where you see it, the thing is a whole, and it's so beautiful. And you wish you could take one from each side in hand and say, 'Look at it from this perspective. Look at that. What's important?'"

The 26 pages Nelson wrote for Chapter 16 (when the Eagle has finally landed) are some of the most descriptive and well written pages I have ever read, especially the last two pages of the chapter.

I'd give this book a five, and maybe in time I will, but like I said before, Nelson was losing me for a couple chapters in the beginning. If you can push through and get past some of those early chapters, this book is a must read for anyone.

Tip: Watch Ron Howard's 2008 documentary Shadow of the Moon after reading this. Very well done and it puts a picture in your head of all the things you just read about in Rocket Men by Craig Nelson.

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Aug 14, 2009

Marti Lewis added it · review of another edition

I'm not yet half-way through this book. It has some great information about the history of the space program that I didn't know about. The writing style is not good at all. I've decided to move on to Buzz Aldrin's recently-published book, Magnificent Desolation, and will return to this some time soon.

The book goes back to German research in rocket science when Hitler and the Nazis were in power there. Slave labor from the concentration camps were used to make rockets. Werner von B...more

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Nov 06, 2009

Jeff rated it

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I loved every minute of this book. This is a very detailed look at the Apollo 11 mission, with a good overview of the entire Apollo program and even a decent history of the entire space race thrown in for good measure.

The book starts with a detailed look at the preparation and final countdown of Apollo 11. At launch, the book breaks, and gives a full history of the space race, starting with the development of rocket technology before WWII. Once the history catches up to Apollo 11...more

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Aug 20, 2010

Emily rated it

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I listened to this on audiobook, so I probably had a different experience with it than reading the book, but I really liked it. Learned a lot and its broken up so that you aren't just listening to the straight chronological order of things which was kind of confusing at first, but then by the end of tangent you really understood why he had gone off in that tangent in the first place. Goes through the whole history of the space race and why it happened, the history of rockets, history of NASA and...more

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7738034-rocket-men-the-epic-story-of-the-first-men-on-the-moon-paperback-2010?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327981093m/7738034.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7738034-rocket-men-the-epic-story-of-the-first-men-on-the-moon-paperback-2010?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Rocket Men/The Epic Story Of The First Men On The Moon[Paperback,2010] by Craig Nelson[/url]

Rocket Men/The Epic Story Of The First Men On The Moon[Paperback,2010]

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Rocket Men/The Epic Story Of The First Men On The Moon[Paperback,2010]

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new topicDiscuss This Book

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Books by Craig Nelson

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Trivia About Rocket Men: The E...

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Other Editions (10)