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Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man's First Journey to the Moon

Robert Kurson (Goodreads Author)

4.53 · Rating details · 6,241 ratings · 932 reviews

The inside, lesser-known story of NASA's boldest and riskiest mission: Apollo 8, mankind's first journey to the Moon on Christmas in 1968. A riveting account of three heroic astronauts who took one of the most dangerous space flights ever, from the New York Times bestselling author of Shadow Divers.

In early 1968, the Apollo program was on shaky ...more

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Hardcover, 384 pages

Published April 3rd 2018 by Random House

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Nov 02, 2019 Angela M rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audiobooks

I don’t read very many nonfiction books and I haven’t listened to many audiobooks, but I’m sure that this one will remain one of my favorites in both categories. Before I listened to this book, when I thought of space missions and the moon, I thought of the moon landing and Apollo 11 - the planting of the American flag, Neil Armstrong’s comment “....one giant step for mankind.” While I remember Apollo 8, I had no idea of it’s importance in laying the groundwork for future missions. While I alway I don’t read very many nonfiction books and I haven’t listened to many audiobooks, but I’m sure that this one will remain one of my favorites in both categories. Before I listened to this book, when I thought of space missions and the moon, I thought of the moon landing and Apollo 11 - the planting of the American flag, Neil Armstrong’s comment “....one giant step for mankind.” While I remember Apollo 8, I had no idea of it’s importance in laying the groundwork for future missions. While I always thought that astronauts as a group were brave, I never really thought about their individual stories, their personalities, the affect on their families, especially their spouses, the intense training or what went into preparing for their mission. Even though I knew the efforts of NASA to prepare, plan, build, test and manage from mission control had to be enormous, I never gave it a lot of thought. I didn’t think a lot about the historical context of these space missions. All of that changed in such an impactful way for me while listening to this absolutely amazing account.

I was captivated by the intimate look that I got of the crew - Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders, how they grew up and became astronauts, how they met and fell in love with their wives, how their wives were impacted by what their husbands were doing, the sacrifice of family time. The wives of these men deserve a lot of credit and are heroes in their own right. Their personal stories are moving. I was on the edge of my seat as Kurson so skillfully gave me “a sense of being there”. I was surprised that some of the technical and scientific parts were made understandable and interesting and amazed at the scope of things that went into making decisions.

The way the mission is brought into historical context is simply stunning. I hung on every word as the picture is painted of a fractured time in American history with events that I remember- the race to space with Russia, John Kennedy’s dream of landing on the moon, the Vietnam war, civil rights protests, race riots , demonstrations in Chicago, unrest in the country, the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King. This book doesn’t just tell us about Apollo 8, it tells the story of our nation in 1968.

I loved the Epilogue finding out what the crew did afterwards and where they were in their lives at the time of the 50th anniversary of the mission. I very much appreciated the author’s note in his own voice, how he was inspired to write this book. Kurson’s research is extensive including time spent with Borman, Lovell, Anders , people from NASA, reading a multitude of documents, watching videos and so much more. This is a story of extraordinary men and their families, an extraordinary event in history. The narration by Ray Porter is absolutely wonderful.

Thanks to my Goodreads friend and book buddy, Diane S, whose terrific review led me to this book. ...more

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Sep 23, 2019 Dem rated it it was amazing

Recommended to Dem by: Diane S ☔

Shelves: 5-star, science-fiction, adventure, non-fiction

Absolutely loved this book. A meticulous, uplifting (pardon the pun) and beautifully written account of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts who made Man’s first Journey to the moon

I knew when one of my friends here at Goodreads whose reviews I respect and love reviewed and rated this book 5 stars that it was one I wanted to get my hands on sooner rather than later and was so happy to have sourced this one on Audible.

I read this along with my husband and we discussed and marvelled over the details eve Absolutely loved this book. A meticulous, uplifting (pardon the pun) and beautifully written account of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts who made Man’s first Journey to the moon

I knew when one of my friends here at Goodreads whose reviews I respect and love reviewed and rated this book 5 stars that it was one I wanted to get my hands on sooner rather than later and was so happy to have sourced this one on Audible.

I read this along with my husband and we discussed and marvelled over the details every day and to be honest I am going to miss the suspense and drama and company of this wonderful book.

Robert Kurson tells the story of the Apollo 8 and its crew and their amazing and riveting first mission to the Moon.

This book reminded me in ways of my reaction to the book Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption and while both books are totally different, I wondered going into this one did I really want to read a book about Rockets and space and the moon and yet the moment I started listening to this book I was hooked, I enjoyed reading about the men and their families, the challenges that they and their families and NASA faced with this mission. What it meant to Science and the average Joe all over the world. I wasn't very familiar with the Apollo 8 and the Astronauts but obviously knew they flew a very successful mission and yet the suspense created in this account had me totally gripped and at times so anxious for these guys (although I already knew the outcome of the mission).

On finishing this book I was as proud of the Rocket men as every American must have been back on Christmas 1968.

This is my second book by this author. I also enjoyed his book Pirate Hunters: Treasure, Obsession, and the Search for a Legendary Pirate Ship.

Really enjoyed the sense of time and place and the reminders of events and people mentioned in the book.
Above all I loved reading and discussing this one with my husband who is a huge fan of all things space and science and he found this an entertaining and informative read too.

The audio read by Ray Porter and Robert Kurson and was extremely easy to listen to and the narration really added to my enjoyment of this book. ...more

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Sep 14, 2019 Diane S ☔ rated it it was amazing

Shelves: lor-2019, 5000-2019

Space, planets, NASA are not usually subjects to which I gravitate .So why then did I not want this book to end, finished it ready eyes and gave it all the stars? Well for one, I'm firmly convinced this author cannot write a bad book, can make any subject interesting. It's also because though this is about Apollo 8, it is also about real men, their wives, families and our country in the tumultuous year of 1968.

Kurson includes the three astronauts backgrounds, their training, their flight, but al ...more

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Jun 03, 2019 Martin rated it it was amazing

Shelves: recently-reviewed, travel, history, science

Before Apollo Eleven landed on the Moon astronauts had to prove they could actually get there.
This was the record breaking mission of Apollo Eight.

The first men who;
left Earth's orbit,
flew to the Moon,
orbited the Moon,
saw the far-side,
mapped the landing site,
and returned safely to Earth.

description

The year 1968 was a disaster for America and the world. Dissent, revolution, the assassinations of Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy, the unraveling of Vietnam, the riots in Chicago - all were pulling the cou ...more

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Jan 26, 2020 Libby rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: history, non-fiction, published-2018, read-in-2020

Although I’d known about NASA’s Apollo 8 circumlunar mission, my knowledge was very very superficial. Robert Kurson takes the reader inside the mission with words that describe the incredible power and complexities of the Saturn V rocket that astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders rode to the moon on their incredible voyage in December 1968. He describes the lives of the men as they were growing up, how they came to be astronauts, their relationships with their wives, how they inte Although I’d known about NASA’s Apollo 8 circumlunar mission, my knowledge was very very superficial. Robert Kurson takes the reader inside the mission with words that describe the incredible power and complexities of the Saturn V rocket that astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders rode to the moon on their incredible voyage in December 1968. He describes the lives of the men as they were growing up, how they came to be astronauts, their relationships with their wives, how they interacted during this spectacular mission, and their lives afterward. The narrative has a very generous scope but Kurson’s laser focus reveals the mission’s significance to the world of science and even more importantly, its role in the psyche of the troubled nation that was America in 1968.

I was eleven years old at the time of the mission and my memory evokes only that family gathered around the TV and that I knew that something important was taking place. Back then I certainly wouldn’t have understood words like “a vehicle that will generate the energy of a small atomic bomb,” or “the six-and-a-half-million pound beast broke free from its bonds." I still find the fact of something that weighed that much blasting off from a launchpad into outer space almost incomprehensible, and the fact that a loved one would have been inside the beast unimaginable. And yet, the astronauts’ wives and children watched as their beloved husbands and fathers were sent on a journey that had been planned only months before. It was an aggressive move by NASA to jump ahead of the Soviets in the space race, who had been first to launch a manmade object that orbited the earth (Sputnik), the first to do a circumlunar unmanned orbit (Luna 1) and the first to land a probe on the moon (Luna 2) and the first to take pictures of the far side of the moon (Luna 3). Apollo 8 was America’s audacious answer to this competitive race.

One of the most heartrending chapters in “Rocket Men” is Chapter 13, ‘A Deeply Troubled Year,’ in which Kurson sets this event squarely in the history of the times, which were indeed troubled. With young people deciding “don’t trust anyone over 30” and the older generation complaining about the music of the young people and their lack of respect for authority and their government, the Vietnam war raged. Riots broke out on college campuses and after Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination, there was violence across the country. Politics seemed polarized and when Robert Kennedy was assassinated, many people were convinced that the country had gone crazy. Kurson shows how Apollo 8 was the one bright spot showing man’s true capabilities. It was not a panacea, but still, it was a moment of intense national pride and satisfaction.

While reading, I thought of the Apple TV series, “For All Mankind” where an alternate version of history has the Soviets landing the first man on the moon in 1969. In the TV series, the Soviet accomplishment actually offers an impetus to NASA’s space exploration in which they eventually far exceed what has in reality happened. It’s an interesting viewpoint and a 'what if' we can never know as our history took its own course shaped by the events of 1968 and years prior. The most fascinating section of the book (for me) dealt with how the human perspective of our blue planet changed with the pictures that Bill Anders took of Earthrise. These men traveled 240,000 miles and found the moon a lonely and isolated world of blacks and grays, while their habitable and troubled world beckoned out the window of their spacecraft, beautiful and mysterious. An environment that has cradled man since his origin and nurtured his biology and social adaptation, a world that is too often taken for granted. Against a backdrop of infinity, there came an almost mystical vision of our total dependence on 'the good earth' and our interconnectedness on this fragile blue planet, our home. ...more

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May 21, 2018 Cindy Burnett rated it it was amazing

Rocket Men is the masterfully depicted tale of the three courageous astronauts who pioneered humankinds’ first trip to the moon and the NASA engineers and other employees who made such a journey possible. 1968 was a tumultuous year in the United States with the escalation of the Vietnam War, the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F Kennedy, Nixon’s election as President, and massive protests and riots happening throughout the country. Meanwhile, the Soviet/United States space r Rocket Men is the masterfully depicted tale of the three courageous astronauts who pioneered humankinds’ first trip to the moon and the NASA engineers and other employees who made such a journey possible. 1968 was a tumultuous year in the United States with the escalation of the Vietnam War, the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F Kennedy, Nixon’s election as President, and massive protests and riots happening throughout the country. Meanwhile, the Soviet/United States space race was in high gear, and it began to appear that the Soviets might send someone to orbit the moon before the U.S. could. Kurson expertly sets the stage for these astronauts’ incredible mission by alternating between the backstories of those individuals who played roles in helping Apollo 8 orbit the moon and elaborating on the cultural and political issues that were rocking the United States in 1968.

Kurson provides just enough technical details to interest the reader and effectively relay the story without bogging down the reader with information that most people would find unnecessary (and potentially boring). I was so intrigued by the process of rushing Apollo 8 into space that my poor husband was the beneficiary of an almost constant stream of facts and items that I found fascinating to the point that he finally told me he wasn’t going to have to read the book himself since I had read most of it aloud to him. While my favorite part of the book was the amazing story Kurson tells, I also found some solace in the realization that the United States has previously survived a politically contentious time period similar to the one we are currently experiencing.

Rocket Men is a powerful and life-affirming story that will resonate with anyone who reads it. It was a joy to read from beginning to end.

Listen to my podcast at https://www.thoughtsfromapage.com for fun author interviews. For more book reviews, check out my Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/thoughtsfro.... ...more

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Sep 15, 2019 Chrissie rated it really liked it

Shelves: bio, audible-uk, 2019-read, race, history, relationships, science, politics, usa

I went into this book with hesitation—spacecraft and rockets are not my usual cup of tea. Understanding so little about them, I feared I would either be bored stiff or totally lost, confused by technical terms that would go over my head. I was neither bored nor confused. The book is directed toward the layman and SO exciting you simply do not want to put it down. Give the book a bit of time. Don’t even consider dropping the book until December 21, 1968, and the launching of the rocket. Durin ...more

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Jan 13, 2018 Kend rated it it was ok

Shelves: biographies, first-reads, merica, abhorribles, space-but-not-science-fiction, pop-science

How is it even possible to make a book about space that I don't love? Here are some ways:

- Continuous, unrepentant use of idioms and clichés. If you're quoting someone or deliberately reflecting the patterns of speech of your subjects (think Tom Wolfe in The Right Stuff ) that's one thing. If you're reaching for the easiest phrase in the phrasebook, that's ... lazy. This was definitely not the former.

- Indistinguishable voices. Every line of this book felt uniform in tone and pattern. This do How is it even possible to make a book about space that I don't love? Here are some ways:

- Continuous, unrepentant use of idioms and clichés. If you're quoting someone or deliberately reflecting the patterns of speech of your subjects (think Tom Wolfe in The Right Stuff ) that's one thing. If you're reaching for the easiest phrase in the phrasebook, that's ... lazy. This was definitely not the former.

- Indistinguishable voices. Every line of this book felt uniform in tone and pattern. This doesn't ever happen in real life, and I always notice when I'm fifty or a hundred pages into a book and can't even remember which character said which line in a dialogue because they all sound identical and have done so throughout.

- Invisible research. This is ostensibly a book documenting actual things which happened. In space. And yet I was about a quarter of the way in before I found the first evidence of research (quotation marks, block quotes, footnotes, asterisks, end-note citations, lines like "in early interviews, [x] was prone to saying [y]"). And there were only a handful of moments throughout this book's hundreds of collective pages when Kurson made reference to documentation. I literally had no clue that this book was based on interviews until I read the author's note at the very end of the book. I received an early copy, so there were no appendices or indices or end matter other than that note ... so there might be more to find in future finished editions. HOWEVER. It won't ever be enough to salvage the book from its lack of internal cues throughout. And it bothers me that Kurson adopted a journalist's supposedly objective "reporting" voice for conveying the internal feelings of people who have long since died and never recorded their feelings about these events in public. And just like the dialogue, these italicized internal thoughts felt uniform. They felt like Kurson's voice. It felt like a lie every time.

- Poor Susan. Kurson was clearly interested in developing her character, and he repeatedly (REPEATEDLY) notes how much Frank loves her. And I really think there probably is something fascinating about her, but her development of Alzheimer's means that she was not able to contribute her own thoughts and feelings to this book. Which means that every line and thought attributed to her struck me as ... you guessed it ... artificial. As projections of Kurson's own thoughts and feelings.

- Telling, not showing. I honestly can't remember a single evocative image from this book. It consists of hundreds of pages of Kurson telling his readers that things happened ... without him conveying or evoking the emotion of those moments. If you're not going to saturate your book with research (or are going to base it entirely upon personal interviews conveyed anecdotally and without confirmation) and you're not going to try and impress upon your readers the experience of the moment, what's left? You're not a McCullough or a Wolfe, obviously.

If I'd had a hand in editing this book, I would have recommended trimming the summarizing waaaaay back and finding a compelling through-line. This book has no narrative heart. It's ... technically correct in many ways, but always tedious.

I read sections of this book aloud to my roomies while at a graduate course intensive. They found it reductive in its approach to women and the idioms/clichés frustrating to parse. ...more

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Jul 03, 2019 Char rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This is an amazing story, made even more amazing by Ray Porter's excellent narration.

I can't help but feel that, much like 1968 when this tale took place, we need this kind of patriotic, inspiring story to get us through this tough time.

(And then I see something like this proposed Trump July 4th parade, and I think to myself, this is NOT what we need right now.)

Sorry to get political. These men were patriots, they were brave and they were Americans. It was a pleasure to learn more about them. ...more

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Jan 13, 2019 BAM The Bibliomaniac rated it liked it

Shelves: audiobooks, library, american-nonfiction, science

Comprehensive story, but I think I should have had a paper copy. The audio didn’t keep my attention.

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Jan 24, 2018 Dave rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-have, netgalley-books

Kurson's incredible book "Rocket Men" tells one of the greatest stories of adventure in the modern age, a story that captivated not just the nation, but the entire world. It's the story of the race to the moon. If you loved The Right Stuff and Apollo 13, you'll love this book. After the Soviets launched Sputnik, the space race had begun and, although John Kennedy set getting to the moon within ten years as a goal, it almost didn't happen. Growing up, we all knew the names of the three astronauts ...more

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Feb 08, 2020 ☮Karen rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to ☮Karen by: Diane S ☔

Shelves: nonfiction, hear-hear-on-bt, 5000-2020, audio, read-in-2020

1968 - A blast from the past. I remember 1968 well for its many tragedies and a pervasive gloominess about the country's future outlook. What I don't remember is how the year ended with the first manned trip to the moon on Apollo 8, set to launch Christmas day. One man even told NASA they dare not launch on Christmas, because it was sure to fail, kill everyone, and ruin the holiday for the entire country from that day forward. But the flight succeeded. Succeeded in ways one couldn't imagine at t ...more

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May 13, 2020 Howard rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: science, audiobooks, non-fiction

5 Stars for Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts who Made Man’s First Journey to the Moon (audiobook) by Robert Kurson read by Ray Porter. This is an amazing book. I believe that the Apollo 11 story has really overshadowed this story. The author does a wonderful job of introducing us to the men who oversaw and flew this mission. He also really put the mission into perspective for the country. This is a great audiobook.

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Aug 20, 2018 Scott rated it it was amazing

1968 - America was not having a particularly good year. Whether it was the surprise Tet Offensive, the capture of the USS Pueblo, the riots in the streets of Chicago during the DNC, or the double-tragedy of the Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy assassinations, many headline news stories were often casting a fairly bleak view for the country. But in the final weeks there was a story that, if only for a few brief moments, raised the spirits for some of the nation during the holiday season.

Kurso ...more

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Feb 09, 2019 Jeff rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science, non-fiction, year-2019-read

Apollo 8 was the first time human beings traveled beyond Earth orbit and through deep space to another world - three astronauts traveled to the moon and made ten orbits before returning to the Earth. Rocket Men is a fantastic recounting of this mission and the stories of the three astronauts that pulled it off: Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders. Despite the fact that the Apollo 8 mission took place during late December 1968 and was soon overshadowed by Apollo 11’s moon landing mission in Apollo 8 was the first time human beings traveled beyond Earth orbit and through deep space to another world - three astronauts traveled to the moon and made ten orbits before returning to the Earth. Rocket Men is a fantastic recounting of this mission and the stories of the three astronauts that pulled it off: Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders. Despite the fact that the Apollo 8 mission took place during late December 1968 and was soon overshadowed by Apollo 11’s moon landing mission in July 1969; those at NASA, including the Apollo 11 crew, talk reverentially about Apollo 8. And you will understand why when you read the book.

1968 was one of the worst years in the United States’ history, with the Viet Nam war raging, bloody DNC Chicago riots, and the assassinations of MLK and Robert Kennedy. NASA was facing increasing pressure to keep up with the Russians in the space race and meet JFK’s goal of landing a man on the moon before the decade was over. The US was lagging behind the Russians in all aspects of the space race - the Russians had put the first human in space, performed the first spacewalk, and had their eyes firmly set on the moon. Meanwhile, NASA was having issues with their massive and complicated space vehicle, the Saturn V, which was designed to carry the first astronauts to the moon. With intelligence coming back of an impending Russian mission to send cosmonauts to a lunar orbit, NASA gambled and decided to push Apollo 8 forward, despite the fact that engines malfunctioned during the unmanned Apollo 6 test flight. But after Apollo 7's successful October 1968 test flight, NASA felt confident enough to shoot for the moon in December 1968. There was a lot of hand wringing at NASA as the apex of the Apollo 8 mission would take place over Christmas and if something went wrong at the moon (or before) and the astronauts did not return, many would look at the moon differently and would remember Christmas with a heavy heart from that year forward.

Rocket Men contains a lot of biographical information about the three astronauts before and after Apollo 8, not just what they went through during the mission. The reader also gets to know their wives, which I though was pretty neat, because they went through so much while their husbands trained and flew their missions. In fact, Apollo 8 is the only NASA crew in which all the marriages remained intact.

I read this because I grew up mesmerized by the Apollo program (although I don’t really remember Apollo 8). I remember watching as much as I could of the subsequent missions, though. I visited the Apollo 8 capsule at the Chicago Museum of Science and Technology and we took a family trip to Florida in the late 90s and visited the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, and saw the Saturn V there. The Saturn V is an amazing sight, and still the most powerful machine ever made. I am nuts about all things space. But there is so much more to this book than just a space mission.

Take time to read the Sources section at the end of the book. I almost wish this would’ve been a part of the prologue as when I started reading I wondered how the author could possibly have known all of the information he included in the book. He spent several days with each of the astronauts and interviewed two of the astronauts’ wives for several hours as well (one has Alzheimer’s and could not be interviewed). He also spend days with then NASA Flight Director Chris Kraft, interviewed anyone connected with Apollo 8 still alive to get the full story, and pored over many once-secret declassified documents. The detail in the book is a testament to the amount of research carried out.

Apollo 8 is truly a great story of boldly venturing in to the unknown along the lines of other monumental quests like climbing Everest, sailing across the Atlantic for the first time, or traveling to the poles for the first time. I’m glad it was given its due in this book. ...more

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Nov 17, 2017 Jason rated it it was amazing

Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 is a very compelling narrative history of the first and very risky journey of man leaving earth to orbit the moon. Kurson, like in his previous work, Shadow Divers, delves deeply into the context of a singular event, and makes the unique fit into the larger history.

With Rocket Men, the primary focus is on astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders. While appropriate attention is devoted to their three families back in Houston, events in Missio Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 is a very compelling narrative history of the first and very risky journey of man leaving earth to orbit the moon. Kurson, like in his previous work, Shadow Divers, delves deeply into the context of a singular event, and makes the unique fit into the larger history.

With Rocket Men, the primary focus is on astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders. While appropriate attention is devoted to their three families back in Houston, events in Mission Control and a couple chapters to set the historical scene of the tumultuous 1968 in the United States, most of the text of this book takes place within the 11 x 13 sq foot space of the Apollo 8 command module. Even within that confined capsule, that traveled a quarter million miles, and with an outcome that is well known, the intensity of the flight, it's risky and aggressiveness and world historical importance are told with full impact.

The admiration the author has for the crew is clear. The respect he has for their families and ground control teams comes through well enough. He does perhaps hit on a bit too often the risks involved with the engines, and the lunar orbit insertion and extraction burns. That said, the he has written in a way that the reader can be the fourth member of the crew, understanding why events and decisions happened the way they did.

Kurson draws on great secondary sources, but the strength of this book is his access and extensive interviews of the three crew members and their families. Due to their age, this book may be the last time their full story can be told this way and so well. Each of the three astronauts, who later achieved success in the corporate world, goes to great lengths to show the love and connection they had and still have with their families and especially their spouses. As a the fifty year anniversary of this mission is approaching, reliving the important events of Apollo 8 for a new generation is very important.

As a narrative history, Rocket Men is quite enjoyable and a page turner. It is highly recommended. ...more

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Feb 24, 2019 Christopher rated it really liked it

Shelves: space, own-yes, non-fiction, read-no, space-apollo-program, space-moon

Short version: Wow, what a surprise.

In 2018, the 50th anniversary year after the flight of Apollo 8, I resolved to reread the two books devoted to the subject—Robert Zimmerman's Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, The First Manned Flight to Another World, and Jeffrey Kluger's Apollo 8: The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon.

To space fans, Apollo 8 is probably the least celebrated of the great spaceflights of the cold war. There wasn't a book devoted to covering the flight until Zimmerm ...more

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Sep 12, 2019 Carly Friedman rated it it was amazing

Shelves: because-science, nfbc-brs-and-botms, audiobooks

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! Kurson did an amazing job describing multiple aspects of the Apollo 8 mission. The book describes the background of the three astronauts: Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders. We also learn about how they were selected, the training and other preparation for the mission, and their wives and families. I loved the chapters that summarized the political and social environment during that time period. The description of the mission had me on the edge of my seat f ...more

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Dec 01, 2018 Ben rated it liked it

Shelves: space

The story of Apollo 8, the first manned trip to and around the Moon. For example, Bill Anders took his famous Earthrise photo in orbit around the Moon. There's very little new information here, but it is a good story.

Kurson's angle seems to have been to interview each of the astronauts and their families, so we hear about their thoughts, and family and marital problems. That's fine. There are extended biographical sketches of each astronaut. The book gives a good sense of the atmosphere for the ...more

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Jan 30, 2018 Linden rated it it was amazing

John F. Kennedy had promised to put a man on the moon before the end of the 1960’s and after his assassination, Lyndon Johnson supported this unlikely goal. The USA had a tremendous desire to win the space race, however, and against all odds, Apollo 8 was conceived and implemented, some said too quickly. Astronauts Borman, Lovell, and Anders went on the historic Christmas 1968 mission to orbit the moon, and after a terrible year of riots, carnage in Vietnam, and assassinations of two beloved lea ...more

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Feb 11, 2019 Laurens Ter Heegde rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction

This book has been one of the most thrilling reads of my life. Kurson managed to draw me into the command module and make me feel like I was there together with Borman, Lovell and Anders. The narrative extensively treats the context of the mission in relation to the tensions that were troubling the United States in 1968. Since I was born over three decades after the events, this greatly helped in explaining the motives behind taking the gigantic risks involved with the mission. The story conveys ...more

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Feb 18, 2019 Janine rated it it was amazing

So incredible! Much like with Shadow Divers and Pirate Hunters, I became fully immersed in the world of Rocket Men. Kurson has made me interested in topics I would have otherwise ignored: deep sea diving, the Golden Age of piracy, and NASA. The writing is stunning and the Epilogue left me weeping—his Author’s Note at the end is one of my favorites ever. Now....I wish he’d pen a tale about lesser-known women :)

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Feb 17, 2018 Victoria rated it liked it

Shelves: netgalley, abandoned

This is an excellent read and I think most with an interest in anything space will really enjoy it. For me, perhaps it's because I've read SO much about the space program, I found it it to be somewhat pedestrian. I didn't find too much here that I didn't already know something about and didn't think this telling brought that much new to the story.

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Apr 11, 2020 Christi Tulenko rated it it was amazing

Read while sheltering at home during a national pandemic. I absolutely loved this beautifully written account of Apollo 8 and the three Astronauts who made Mans first Journey to the moon.

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Sep 22, 2019 Cynda rated it liked it

Shelves: read-2019, reading-mostly-nonfiction-2019, travel, biography-or-memior, technology, moon

Very accessible for just about anyone interested in the topic.

I got to meet the astronauts,to meet their families of origin and generation, and to get a glimpse of what life was like on board Apollo 8. All of this written in a way that read like a novel--somethung important to many many readers.

I just wanted more technology and science. I will take less readability almost any day if I can get the information.

Overall: Enjoyable and Informative.

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May 25, 2018 Jim rated it it was amazing

I give Kurson's latest book ***** because it's an important story and an exciting one and told in a very compelling way. The main part of the book focuses on the three astronauts who were the first to go to the Moon--not to land on it, but orbit it--and those were the three men of Apollo 8- Borman, Lovell, and Anders. Kurson gives us a succinct background to Apollo, which was the Cold War and Kennedy's commitment to send men to the moon by the end of the 1960s. What I did NOT know about Apollo ...more

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Jan 24, 2018 Fredrick Danysh rated it really liked it

Shelves: advance-read, history, science

Rocket Men is a record of America's space program's efforts to beat the Soviets in getting to the moon. It mentions Apollo 1 disaster that took three lives and caused the acceleration of American efforts. Apollo 8's entire workup and mission is laid out. This is a decent work about space exploration and NASA. My copy was a free review copy through Goodreads.com.

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Sep 23, 2020 Val rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2020, non-fiction, astronauts

This is one of the best books I've ever read! Ever!! I'm embarrassed to admit how little I knew about Apollo 8 at the time it was taking place. (Probably because I was a teenager and thought everything was all about me, me, me.) I loved that there was more to the book than strictly the race to the moon. It also covered other things that were going on in 1968, like the Viet Nam war, race riots, assassinations, and violent protests. What a wretched time that was. It makes the wretched year we're i ...more

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Jan 31, 2019 Bill Shannon rated it it was amazing

I've read my share of books about NASA and the space program, and while most of them consider the 1969 Moon Landing to be the apex of the early program's accomplishments, it seems like the 1968 Apollo 8 mission -- the first to go around the moon without actually landing on it -- might be the more galvanizing of the two. I'd have to say this is probably the best book I've read so far about space exploration.

The flight of Apollo 8 was the first time that humans left the earth's gravitational pull ...more

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Feb 01, 2019 KatieSuzanne rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audiobook

This was such an amazing book and story. It was before my time, but not that much before, and I had no clue about any of this stuff. It's crazy how quickly things are lost. The story telling of everyone involved and the state of the country at the time was incredible. I had a friend in my car that listened to a half hour of the audiobook with me while they were in orbit and he had to borrow it and listen to the whole thing afterwards. The audiobook had a bit at the end by the author talking abou ...more

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About Robert Kurson

Robert Kurson

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Robert Kurson is an American author, best known for his bestselling book, "Shadow Divers," the true story of two Americans who discover a sunken World War II German U-boat and for "Crashing Through," the story of an entrepreneur who regains his eyesight after a lifetime of blindness.

Kurson began his career as an attorney, graduating from Harvard Law School and practicing real estate law. His profe ...more

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“After the meal, Borman dropped me off at my hotel, then went to visit his wife at the nursing home where she lives. As he drove away, it seemed to me strange—I felt I’d come to know Susan as well as I had Frank, despite having met her for just a few minutes, despite the fact that she had been too ill to speak. When I returned home and transcribed the tapes of my interviews, I understood why. Borman spoke of Susan constantly; there didn’t seem an aspect of his life he could explain without discussing how much she meant to him or how much he loved her. I’d heard the same from Lovell and Anders about their wives. When I discovered that Apollo 8 was the only crew in which all the marriages survived (astronaut careers were notoriously hard on marriages) it didn’t surprise me. In a singularly beautiful story, it seemed only fitting that the first men to leave Earth considered home to be the most important place in the universe.” — 5 likes

“Neither a wise man nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him.” Texas senator Lyndon Baines Johnson was” — 2 likes

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