Rocket Men takes us back to the race to the moon during a turbulent time in our country's history. Robert Kuson has done an excellent job capturing the urgency that NASA and our government felt when smacked in the face with the successful space flights launched in Russia. This book takes you through the years and months prior to launch and the three men who would make history by circling the moon, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders-true American heroes. You travel with these three on the Apollo 8 mission from take off to splash down and experience the feeling of triumph when America regains its position in space. I truly enjoyed the book and learned a lot about the space program I didn't know. This would be a great addition to any library-personal, private, or public.

ROCKET MEN by Robert Kurson is another great adventure story and real life-thriller from the author of Shadow Divers, Pirate Hunters, and Crashing Through. In his latest text, Kurson relates the story of the first spaceship and crew to orbit the moon, the Apollo 8 mission. Based on interviews with the astronauts, their families, their colleagues at NASA, and other experts, he devotes separate chapters to Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders while also providing details of their exploits, the famous Earthrise photo, and the political context (e.g., Cold War's Space Race, Vietnam) in which the mission operated. Kurson writes for a general audience and stresses both the scientific and personal aspects of what he labels "one of the greatest explorations in humanity's history." ROCKET MEN contains several photographs, a diagram of Apollo 8, and a Note on Sources. Many of our students are excited about Space X and have been reading and writing about space exploration this year. For those who are interested, the local pbs station celebrated this book launch with a full program on Chicago Tonight's Web Extra titled 'Rocket Men' Book Launch with Apollo 8 Astronauts and posted a shorter 8 minute excerpt. The module and Borman's spacesuit are available to view at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. It is fascinating to think about the almost 50 years since these astronauts took off for space in December 1968. ROCKET MEN, having received a starred review from Library Journal, is on our shelves so you can relive the journey.
Links in live post:
http://treviansbookit.blogspot.com/2015/06/pirate-hunters-by-robert-kurson.html
http://www.pbs.org/video/web-extra-rocket-men-book-launch-apollo-8-astronauts-ugwert/ http://video.wttw.com/video/3011295047/

Wow! This is a wonderful book about a largely unremembered Apollo mission -- Apollo 8. It was the first manned spaceflight to the moon, a daring and risky mission on the part of NASA at what can only be described as a terrible year, 1968.

Kurson used primary sources, including extensive interviews with the astronauts, their wives, and NASA personnel to put together this true story that is as thrilling as any novel you might read.

I adored it so much I raced through it.

It’s remarkable to think that 50 years ago, we sent men to the moon with slide rules and punch-card computers. You’ve probably got something in your pocket right now exponentially more powerful than the combined computing power of NASA in the late 1960s.

But send them we did.

While history most clearly remembers Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon back in July of 1969, he and his crew were just the latest in a long line of astronauts who took many first steps of their own – steps that led to the planting of a flag somewhere not of the Earth.

Robert Kurson’s “Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man’s First Journey to the Moon” (Random House, $28) tells the story of one such step – the mission undertaken by Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders to become the first men ever to travel to the moon. From meticulous research and hours of interviews springs a lively narrative, one that brings the bravery and brainpower of all involved to vivid life.

The year 1968 was a difficult one for America, for many reasons. The war in Vietnam was raging, proceeding in an unexpected and unwelcome manner. Cultural and political icons Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy were each cut down by an assassin’s bullets. And the Soviet Union appeared to be pulling ahead in mankind’s race to reach the moon.

So NASA took a swing. A big one.

Apollo 8 – the first manned mission to the Moon from the United States – was to be planned and executed within just a few months. The decision was made in August … for a December launch. Right around Christmastime, actually. Borman, Lovell and Anders would be at the helm, shouldering the risk in hopes of the maximum reward.

To go to the moon. And to make it back again.

“Rocket Men” focuses largely on the three astronauts who undertook the journey – and does an admirable job capturing and accentuating the shared characteristics and ideals of the trio while also allowing a look at what made them individuals. Very similar men, but it’s the differences, small though they may be, that make them real.

We learn about Frank Borman, whose devotion to duty is what drove him to space. What he wanted more than anything was to defeat the Soviet enemy in every possible way. Apollo 8 would mark an opportunity to deal them as devastating a defeat as they could suffer away from the battlefield. Jim Lovell had dreamed of flying to the moon since he was a kid. Now, he had a chance to make those boyhood fantasies become reality. Bill Anders was a staunch Catholic and hotshot test pilot who felt equal yearnings for exploration and intellectual stimulation. All three men were brilliant specimens, both physically and mentally. Their courage in the face of mystery is undeniable.

Yet it’s the supporting players that keep returning to mind. The astronaut wives tamping down their fears with a blend of cheerfulness and stoicism that seems unique to their tiny group of peers, displaying a courage not unlike that of their moon-bound spouses. The ground crew and administrators at NASA, the people who had to simply have faith that their scientific acumen would be enough in the face of the unknown. Susan Borman. Marilyn Lovell. Valerie Anders. Chris Kraft. Deke Slayton. They too are heroes of the Space Race.

There’s a brightness to the narrative that you don’t often get from this kind of book. Kurson resists the temptation to get too wonky (though you can occasionally feel him want to nerd out just a bit more). Instead, we get some deep dives into character and some surprisingly tense storytelling – it’s hard to generate genuine tension when the reader already knows the ending, but Kurson pulls it off.

A compelling story is a compelling story, whether we’re talking about fiction or nonfiction or whatever. And the story of Apollo 8 is one hell of a compelling story. What Kurson has done with “Rocket Men” is let the tale unfold as it will; he’s good about staying out of the way. He steers it and shapes it, but also allows it to breathe. He gives context – about the people, about the times – deftly and only as needed.

Half a century ago, we sent men to the moon. They sat in tiny tin capsules atop massive missiles filled with millions of pounds of fuel and we lit the fuse. We blasted them 250,000 miles into space … and then were able to bring them back.

“Rocket Men” is a fascinating reminder of just what mankind can do when we set our collective minds to something. It’s worth remembering. We can’t forget that the voyage of Apollo 8 was an incredible feat in a tumultuous time, illustrating the many kinds of courage necessary to reach for the sky and change the world.

This book was extremely interesting! I learned more about these men from this book than I did throughout my school career. Very well-written!

The author really did a fantastic job of drawing me in! Prior to reading this book, I had thought of NASA as a conservative organization. The fact that during the race to the moon NASA took some big risks makes this book a thrilling read, and you gain new insight not only into the thinking at NASA, but also into that time period and the lives of the astronauts.

In August 1868, NASA, intent on getting ahead of Russia in the space race and hoping to overcome demoralizing rocket failures, made the dramatic decision to push to send men to orbit the moon in December--giving them way less preparation time than usual. Engineers, astronauts, and everyone at NASA worked together to get astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders prepared for whatever would come on their unprecedented mission.

This narrative nonfiction is superb. Robert Kurson does a great job taking readers into 1968--to see the unrest in the United States, with protests of the Vietnam War, the assassinations of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr., and more. It was really interesting to see how this mission brought people together and brought a good ending to an otherwise rough year. It was also really interesting to see the different personalities of the three astronauts as well as their wives and families. It's jammed with interesting information--mind-blowing numbers (like the weight of the rocket!), the realities of space life (like what happens when one crew member gets diarrhea!), and what Walter Cronkite announced on TV during their orbit. It really takes the reader back in time, and it's an engaging and informative read. Really fantastic piece of nonfiction.

I read a copy of the book via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

BookFilter Review: Best-selling author Robert Kurson spotlights the Apollo 8 moon mission just in time for the event's 50th anniversary this December. It competes with a best-seller released last year about the same feat of orbiting the moon (not to mention the Tom Hanks miniseries From The Earth To The Moon devoting a section to it). But the story is so gripping it bears repeating. Kurson sets the stakes nicely: 1968 was a miserable year for the US and the world but those focused on the space race saw the Soviets pulling ahead once and for all. They were poised to orbit the moon with humans on board and stake a claim to unparalleled supremacy in space. That's when NASA recklessly rolled the dice, threw aside its customary desire to take every venture step by careful step and send Apollo 8 to the moon. Newspaper editorials said taking unnecessary risks like this was simply uncalled for. Top officials at NASA hedged their bets. Everyone knew the slightest error might doom the mission or -- worse case scenario -- leave the astronauts lost in space or forever orbiting the moon, ruining Christmas not just for 1968 but forever. instead, it proved a peerless success, though every bump and hurdle is ably described for the layperson to get awfully worked up over. Kurson sketches in the three astronauts and their wives deftly: Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders. This is easily absorbed by those who know Apollo 11 and saw the movie "Apollo 13" and wonder if there are other stories to tell. Indeed there are. Kurson does a little too much scene-setting with the 1968 details and hammers home the one or two defining personality traits of the astronauts over and over. Plus, while every technical challenge and stage of the flight is fraught with danger, it does begin to feel as if he has raised the stakes as high as possible -- now THIS is the crucial moment -- once too often. Nonetheless, it's a solid rendition of an inherently absorbing adventure. And what a happy time, a time when countries competed ruthlessly by exploring our solar system and expanding human knowledge, rather than jockeying for power here on earth. Sure, the militarization of space always loomed, but ultimately the not-so-friendly rivalry between the US and the USSR remained an ideal way to compare ideologies and cultures. -- Michael Giltz

A thorough writing of the events leading up to and through the Apollo 8 program and flight. Technical information made it so much more itetesting. I do reember this mission, the Walter Crinkle coverage and especially the words spoken by the astronauts as they orbited the moon. As noted at the end of the book,the did indeed save 1968.

Excellent history of the Apollo 8 mission- the astronauts, the rocket, and mission control. Great detail on not just what happened, but what each astronaut was thinking about events. Descriptions of the later history of the astronauts, although with not as much detail as the mission.

I received a free Kindle copy of Rocket Men by Robert Kurson courtesy of Net Galley  and Random House, the publisher. It was with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes and Noble and my fiction book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus pages.

I requested this book as I have read a number of books on the space program. This is the second book devoted to Apollo 8 that I have read. It is the first book by Robert Kurson that I have read.

This book is well written and researched. The author's writing style is engaging making this a fairly fast read. As I mentioned above, this is the second book on Apollo 8 that I have read and I learned a number of new things in this book.  It more than adequately covers the gamble that was took in launching Apollo 8 on  short time schedule and did a much better job of discussing the impact of the launch/flight/landing on the spouses of Ed Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders.

I recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the U.S. space program and in particular the race to the moon.

This is a first class depiction of the Apollo 8 mission. It includes a step by step narrative of the timetable, while putting it in the context of the space race and NASA. It also inclides nice side descriptions of the major players. The one area where the author falls a bit short is his comparisons, such as when he tries to help us visualize the tiny window the returning craft has to enter the earth's atmosphere. He moves seamlessly between all the various players - the astronauts, their familes, and mission control. I recommend watching Apollo 13 after you finish this book, as the main characters overlap.

I've always been a nerd. One of my earliest childhood memories is my mother getting me up to watch the moon landing. So when NetGalley offered me the chance to snag an advance review copy of a nonfiction book about the Apollo 8 mission I didn't hesitate. The opening chapters really helped me relive my childhood excitement but I'm afraid the book can't sustain the mood. It could really benefit from an editor working more closely with the author. It's pretty jarring to switch from present tense to past, or from an impartial third party observer to an attempt at first person narrative.

There's some really good information in the book that makes it worthwhile slogging through the odd style. The space nerd wins over the grammar nerd by a hair to give this book a mildly positive rating.

"Rocket Men" gets five stars, simply because I can't give it 5 1/2. This is a fascinating story that every American should be introduced to. I was 18 years old when this happened, but honestly don't remember most of the details. Robert Kurson nails this one. There aren't enough superlatives to describe how compelling he makes this story. His character development of the astronauts and their spouses is perfect. Including the spouses gives the reader a touch of the tension and drama felt back home.
Simply a first rate book. I'll be purchasing "Shadow Divers" as soon as I end this review!

ROCKET MEN: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man's First Journey to the Moon by Robert Kurson (Random House; 2018) tells the story of the historic flight of Apollo 8, which was the first manned flight to the Moon that took place during Christmastime of 1968. As we near the 50th anniversary of this stupendous scientific and engineering feat, this flight has become relegated to a secondary position behind the mission of Apollo 11 which landed the first men on the Moon, but even also behind that of Apollo 13, the ill-fated yet heroic mission immortalized in Ron Howard's film Apollo 13, featuring Tom Hanks. However, author and historian Kurson does a very admirable job into describing in great detail all aspects of this mission and its crew --- demonstrating the extreme risks and bravado it took to launch this mission with most of its aspects never truly tested in real life --- but to succeed in a most spectacular fashion.

The book details the lives of backgrounds of the three astronauts --- Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders --- as well as the Cold War race for the Moon and the history of NASA, to lay out a landscape of all of the many facets that went into the planning and execution of what in retrospect may have been the single-most daring scientific experiment ever conducted. Taking place over the Christmas holidays at the end of what history has marked as one of the most fractious and divisive years in American history --- 1968 --- the Apollo 8 mission not only provided a huge leap in human scientific and technical achievement, but also helped to demonstrate that the United States was still the world-leader in technology and sheer enthusiasm in the can-do world of the 60's. Any reader interested in history and technology will find this book both engrossing and enlightening. Highly recommended!

Thrilling true adventure.
It happened 50 years ago when I was ten. I remember being excited about it then but not much else. I was too young to really understand it. Reading about it now is like being able to open some of the locked doors of my childhood. I knew they were there but now this book shows me what was behind them. Every day while reading Rocket Men I would find myself hurrying through my day’s work so I could get back into space with Borman, Lovell and Anders.

Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man's First Journey to the Moon by Robert Kurson will be the book that I will compare ALL other books about space travel! OMG.. If I could make any book required reading for this generation, this book would be at the top of the list! Robert Kurson brought to life every astronaut, astronaut wife, NASA employees, and so many others. I am beyond impressed!! I kept stopping reading.. just so I could read to my husband various pages. I felt like I was with Borman, Lovell and Anders for every single second of Apollo 8!

*************
I posted a second review on Authors on the Air:

Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man's First Journey to the Moon by Robert Kurson
• Print Length: 384 pages
• Publication Date: April 3, 2018

Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man's First Journey to the Moon by Robert Kurson will forever be the book that I will compare all other space books! It is about the Apollo 8 mission to fly to the moon, get into orbit and circle the moon for a few days.. and then, make the journey back to Earth. They left Earth just prior to Christmas in 1968. Knowing that the V-2 rocket may not even make it off the launch pad. Three men made up the crew that would make landing on the moon the next mission. Commander Borman, James Lovell and Anders. All names that should be well known to all Americans. For they were the first men to leave Earth’s gravitational pull. They truly left home to explore the vastness of space.

I highly recommend that Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man's First Journey to the Moon by Robert Kurson be read by every American. To truly learn what it meant to be an American.. and what it still does mean to be a proud American today! This book should be required reading for every child in junior or high school. This has to be one of the best scientific books I’ve ever read. I know that I will be purchasing several copies to give out next Christmas! The author not only researched.. he dug down into the trenches and found every morsel possible! He dished it out in the best writing I’ve seen in a very long time! My review will never convey just how wonderful this book is to me! I fell in love with every part of it. He found that excited little girl who dreamed that she would live on a Moon base.. or even a base on Mars! I cannot wait for others to read this book and capture the excitement I felt as a child.. of becoming an explorer of other worlds! To really travel to outer space. To leave Earth.. and embrace the explorer in all of us!

There are so many funny stories that the reader learns about on their epic journey to the Moon. You will also be immersed in the moments when so many were terrified that the rocket would not perform the way so many thousands of men and women who were a part of building and planning Apollo 8 envisioned. Thank goodness!! They had a very successful journey! But, there were some moments.. when it could have gone badly.. and they had to rush to make it right again. One also gets a great insider’s knowledge of the wives. Their concerns, their worries, their pride in their husbands and families. I was delighted to learn so much! They truly came to life and I felt as though I was sitting there right beside them as they listened to the squawk boxes.

GET THIS BOOK!!! I PROMISE!! YOU WILL LOVE Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man's First Journey to the Moon by Robert Kurson!!!!


There are so many things that I learned reading this fantastic, mind-blowing, journey! My words will never be as elegant as Kurson's.. but, oh readers.. please take my word.. this will be the one non-fiction book guaranteed to make the bestseller's list this Spring! So many are in for an amazing mental journey to the moon! You will learn a great deal about their wives, their children, and the men and women that they worked with to achieve this common goal! Taking man outside of the gravitational pull of Earth. To truly be beyond Earth's pull. All the while.. being an explorer. An adventurer!

1968 was one of the worst years on recorded history for the United States. Thank goodness for Apollo 8!! They truly turned around the American can do.. and we once again could believe in ourselves as a nation. In addition to that.. for one day.. Christmas Day, 1968.. the entire planet.. realized just how lucky we are.. as humans to exist, to think, to explore!

------------------------

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I've read quite a bit on space travel and astronauts in the past 9months or so. Some autobiography/memoir and some technical. This book was the perfect blend of both and it highlighted a NASA mission that often gets glossed over for other missions like Apollo 11 and 13.

Kurson does a great job building the backstory of the main characters, Borman, Lovell and Anders - the 3 astronauts who piloted Apollo 8. He overlays their stories with the social and political climate at the time and weaves in enough technical detail to teach you a few things and make you feel a little smarter when you're done. Overall, a really great book about an amazing achievement and the men who made it happen.

As good if not better than Shadow Divers. Great overview of the Apollo program!