One Giant Leap: The Impossible Mission That Flew Us to the Moon by Charles Fishman (PDF)

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The remarkable story of the trailblazers and the ordinary Americans on the front lines of the epic mission to reach the moon.President John F. Kennedy astonished the world on May 25, 1961, when he announced to Congress that the United States should land a man on the Moon by 1970. No group was more surprised than the scientists and engineers at NASA, who suddenly had less than a decade to invent space travel. When Kennedy announced that goal, no one knew how to navigate to the Moon. No one knew how to build a rocket big enough to reach the Moon, or how to build a computer small enough (and powerful enough) to fly a spaceship there. No one knew what the surface of the Moon was like, or what astronauts could eat as they flew there. On the day of Kennedy’s historic speech, America had a total of fifteen minutes of spaceflight experience—with just five of those minutes outside the atmosphere. Russian dogs had more time in space than U.S. astronauts. Over the next decade, more than 400,000 scientists, engineers, and factory workers would send 24 astronauts to the Moon. Each hour of space flight would require one million hours of work back on Earth to get America to the Moon on July 20, 1969. More than fifty years later, One Giant Leap is the sweeping, definitive behind-the-scenes account of the furious race to complete one of mankind’s greatest achievements. It’s a story filled with surprises—from the item the astronauts almost forgot to take with them (the American flag), to the extraordinary impact Apollo would have back on Earth, and on the way we live today. Charles Fishman introduces readers to the men and women who had to solve 10,000 problems before astronauts could reach the Moon. From the research labs of MIT, where the eccentric and legendary pioneer Charles Draper created the tools to fly the Apollo spaceships, to the factories where dozens of women sewed spacesuits, parachutes, and even computer hardware by hand, Fishman captures the exceptional feats of these ordinary Americans. One Giant Leap is the captivating story of men and women charged with changing the world as we knew it—their leaders, their triumphs, their near disasters, all of which led to arguably the greatest success story, and the greatest adventure story, of the twentieth century.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “In his meticulously researched and absorbingly written book, journalist Charles Fishman provides both a celebration of the Apollo 11 mission and a corrective to some of the myths that have crystallized around it.” —The Washington Post”Mr. Fishman is a veteran space reporter with a vibrant touch—nearly every sentence has a fact, an insight, a colorful quote or part of a piquant anecdote. What’s more, he has pondered the meaning of the moon landing and arrived at a surprising and persuasive answer. . . . Mr. Fishman is a connoisseur of fascinating detail, as well.” —The Wall Street Journal”With the upcoming 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, this compelling read is highly recommended. . . . [Fishman] skillfully tells the remarkable story of the event . . . [and] provides fasicinating details about the mission.” —Library Journal, starred review”A fresh, enthusiastic history of the moon mission . . . Rather than focus on the astronauts, journalist Fishman offers lively profiles of many tireless, imaginative, and innovative scientists, engineers, and technicians who contributed to the Apollo mission.” —Kirkus Reviews”Astronauts take a back seat to politicians, project managers, engineers, and the marvelous machines they created in this engrossing history of the moon landings. . . . Fishman’s knack for explaining science and engineering and his infectious enthusiasm for Apollo’s can-do wizardry make for a fascinating portrait of a technological heroic age.” —Publishers Weekly“A work that will reward readers with new angles on a familiar story.” —Booklist“The best Apollo anniversary treatment I’ve seen so far. . . In One Giant Leap, Charles Fishman has not only provided a vivid account of the historic Apollo 11 mission. He has also thought hard and written cogently about the character of Project Apollo, and especially about both John Kennedy’s continued commitment to a Moon landing ‘before this decade is out’ and the broad impacts of Apollo on American society. While I don’t agree totally with his conclusions, it is refreshing to see him go beyond the usual platitudes to careful analysis and reasoned judgments. This is a book worth careful reading.” —John M. Logsdon, author of John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon”This is the most comprehensive and detailed account of the Apollo 11 mission. Fishman investigates the myriad scientists and engineers behind the project, details the challenges of the untried computer systems and especially documents the dramatic race in time to meet President Kennedy’s mandate.” —Columbus Dispatch”Expansive and engaging.” —Financial Times”For a one-stop overview of how Apollo unfolded, One Giant Leap by journalist Charles Fishman wins.” —Nature”In Fishman’s One Giant Leap, the veteran space journalist ably explains the challenges facing NASA engineers as they sought to overtake their accomplished Soviet counterparts. . . .Most comprehensive.” —The San Francisco Chronicle”Thousands of people had to accomplish herculean and seemingly impossible tasks in order to get us to the moon—and it’s been 50 years since Neil Armstrong took that one small step. Fishman explains in dazzling form just how unbelievable it actually was.” —Newsweek About the Author Charles Fishman is the acclaimed author of One Giant Leap, A Curious Mind (with Brian Grazer), The Wal-Mart Effect, and The Big Thirst. He is a three-time winner of the Gerald Loeb Award, the most prestigious prize in business journalism. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. One Giant Leap Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Great book if you are interested in the organization, research, and politics that went into putting a man on the Moon

⭐I’m a space junkie, and this book was full of terrific things I’d never heard of and fleshed out partial things in my cobwebs. Thoroughly enjoyed the read!

⭐This book really stands out as THE book for today to understand Apollo and how it played a significant role in our culture, not only during the 1960s but in the five decades since. Very well done!Fishman took me back to the days when I watched Neil and Buzz hop around as TV ghosts on a surface that had never known a boot. And I got pulled back into reliving those days of upheaval and uncertainties with the Soviets and riots along with the excitement that was Apollo. He accurately puts into perspective what was happening in the world that led to President Kennedy’s decision to go to the Moon “in this decade”… and then page by page pulls you into the excitement, hard work and angst by so many people who got “us” there, letting them individually just tell their stories in their own way, from NASA leaders and engineers to the “little old ladies” who took many weeks to hand-stitch Apollo computer programs into memory. The author does a great job interweaving the culture outside with the culture inside NASA, with just the right amount of detail and personality, that you feel like you’re there, watching it happen.”One Giant Leap” brings out the story of how Apollo was successful, not only in that it did NOT impact/crash people on the Moon, but that it DID impact people back on Earth in a tremendous way, not only then but still today. The author makes that case well, showing how Apollo’s largest impact on society was done almost in the background, with most people hardly noticing, in much the same way that NASA made the “impossible” task of going to the moon and safely return look easy.This book is so needed today, to not just showcase this grand lunar adventure, and more so to inspire the next generation with endeavors greater than they are, enabled by the current generation who wield power and purse, in order to accomplish much more than anyone dreams of. Fishman takes us on the journey to the Moon and back, not just to be there in the moon dust with astronauts who are alive and young again, but also to see how the Moon and this adventure reflects back who we really are as the result.And for me as an old “software engineer” myself, its a great reflection!

⭐If Charles Fishman had been around in the 1960s, and working for NASA, the astronauts might have made it to the moon even sooner than they did. An endeavor like that requires attention to detail, linked to unquenchable enthusiasm — which is the combination Fishman brings to this remarkable book about the Apollo project. How do you edit one of the first big computer programs ever written, knowing that it will have to work perfectly or else men may be trapped in space? How do you pack an American flag on a lunar module so that it doesn’t actually add excessive weight or interfere with the vessel’s functioning? Why is it better to climb out of the module on a ladder than a rope? And above all, how do you motivate a vast team of engineers, programmers, designers, manufacturing workers, mathematicians, et al. to do something that’s never been done before, with no promise of substantial material gain, or even much fame, for any of them as individuals? The surprising answers are between these two covers, along with an unabashed and convincing answer to the biggest question of all: Was it worth it? Blurted out in a moment of what can only be called half-baked reaction to the Soviet space advances post-Sputnik, JFK’s promise to put a man on the moon “before this decade is out” was challenged, publicly and privately, as hubristic excess almost as soon as it was made. (JFK himself fretted endlessly about Apollo’s costs, as Fishman reports.) And yet we can now see in hindsight that the moon landing paved the way for advances in computers and rocketry that have more than paid for themselves, as Fishman argues; he also declares that there was great intangible benefit in showing that a free society could conquer space as well, or better than, a totalitarian one, the Soviet Union. In a time when the Cold War is increasingly regretted as a time of pointless conflict, it’s useful to be reminded that Kennedy was quite right to worry about the prestige of democratic capitalism vis-a-vis communism. One concludes the book admiring the sense of national purpose that triumphed in Apollo and hoping, as Fishman does, that we can regenerate it today.

⭐The motivation and determination to accomplish something never done before. 400,000 people creating, constructing, and flying us to the Moon.

⭐Cracking read. Extremely detailed and researched

⭐I read the book and enjoyed it. It brings to life a truly epic effort – going to the Moon – and also puts it in historical context, including the political and social events of the times. It also details some of the technological challenges that were tackled, such as designing a compact computer for the spaceships – with the latest available state of the art technoogy of the 1960s. Thank you for such a good read!

⭐O Museu Smithsonian fez uma artigo sobre a conquista da Lua extraindo informações deste livro, o que me motivou à comprá-lo.Acontece que o artigo é bem melhor do que o livro, que traz detalhes em excesso e muita questões que não somam na história.

⭐

⭐Fishman aborde les aspects politiques et techniques d’Apollo 11 avec justesse et dynamisme. Ce défi humain et technologique avec ses triomphes et ses doutes, ses succès et ses erreurs est certainement une page ou un signet dans le livre de l’aventure humaine. Je recommande vivement cette lecture .

⭐

⭐Great book! Very detailed account of a superbly well managed enterprise.Recently I read that Seatle spend several millions in an unfinished bike lane of less than a mile. Seattle city hall should read this book.

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