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Summary: "Stars and Sripes Forever" will now have new meaning for me!
Review: I just finished it and I am very glad I bought the book. Gene Kranz had one of those amazing careers, being there when "the right stuff" was required of him, and delivering it with competence and humility. His narratives of the Mercury/Gemini/Apollo missions are wonderful, in my opinion, but even better, his fine character as a man comes through very clearly. Giving 110% at all times, trusting in his abilities to inspire and lead his flight controllers, and his bottom-line reliance on God, are traits that should be admired and cultivated in all people. The only part of the book I felt uncomfortable reading was the last chapter, where he laments the current absence of the pioneering spirit that kept him and his peers going, mission after mission. I hope his testimony helps inspire a revival!
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Summary: Behind every successful spaceflight is Mission Control
Review: From the days of John Glenn, to mankind's success with Apollo 11 and America's success with the return of Apollo 13 through the end of the Apollo program, Gene Kranz has not only viewed history from his console at Mission Control he has lived every moment. In frank, no nonsense terms Kranz take you into "the trenches" of the Manned Spaceflight Center. In prose as sharp as his crew cut he tells the tale form the viewpoint of those who vicariosly rode with the astronauts from the Mercury Seven, though the last steps on the moon with Apollo 17. We will always remember when Armstrong and Aldrin set foot at Tranquility Base, but mankind never remembers the support crew behind such achievement. Kranz does! and this reader is grateful.
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Summary: Ok, far from great
Review: This book, while interesting, is unfortunately a bit of a disappointment. Mr. Kranz is not a particularly engaging writer. His prose is rather dry, and the book can be hard to get into. He also passes my many of the interesting cases in his book fairly quickly. There are many cases where missions failed, and Mr. Kranz really doesn't do much more than tell you that they failed. He entirely skips any of the reasons for the failure, or the discovery processes that happened afterwards.Wait for the paperback.
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Summary: I must have been sent a different book!
Review: I'm "into" space and have enormous respect for the author. The book covers the most exciting events in recent history and should be a page turner. It's not. I found it mind-numbingly boring. With a few rare exceptions, the book reads like a poorly written diary. I was amazed at the brief coverage of Apollo 1, even though I know the author must agonize about it still. I wish he had put more of what he really felt into the effort.
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Summary: A unique perspective on the space program
Review: I wish I hadn't been so profligate with handing out five stars in the past, because by comparison I wish I could give this book six. There have been many books written about the moon landings. Most focus of course on the astronauts, with a few notable exceptions: Angle of Attack about North American Aviation and the building of the command module and Chariots for Apollo about Grumman's development of the lunar module, to name two of the best. But it took a ground controller to finally write about ground control. It's a grave injustice. It's clear from these pages that the ground controllers were critical to the success of the moon landings and were among the most dedicated and hardest-working of all those involved with the space program. And that is no small compliment. Gene Kranz is an almost legendary figure among these, in part due to Ed Harris's masterful portrayal of him in the movie Apollo 13. Here he gets the chance to tell his point of view. He covers his entire career-in fact, his entire life, at least in brief-and it's quite a read. He came on board the space program in the earliest days of Mercury and didn't retire until well after the moon landings. We get to read about those early, tentative days, when some of the most brilliant technical minds in America came together and tried to figure out how the heck to get men into space. Initially getting a ride to the control center with astronaut Gordon Cooper, Kranz starts out with the responsibility for writing procedures for things that have never been done before. He quickly moves up the chain of responsibility and becomes a flight director in time for the Gemini missions. He covers each mission he's involved with in detail from his unique point-of-view, and continues this approach through Apollo. One of the reasons I want to give this book six stars is that it's an absolute page-turner, and I can't remember the last time I read a nonfiction book that I couldn't put down. I sat up several nights into the wee hours, just wanting to read a little bit more to see his take on Gemini 8 (when David Scott and Neil Armstrong almost spun out of control due to a stuck thruster), Apollo 11, or Apollo 13. Even though I've read about all of these missions many, many times, it was utterly gripping to hear about them from his perspective. If I were to hold anything against this book, it would be that it's clearly written by Kranz himself and not a ghost-writer. The writing is often unpolished and occasionally confusing. Still, it doesn't seem to slow the book down (see about the page-turning above), and it gives it a straightforwardness and a sometimes brutal honesty that's lacking in many more polished efforts. In particular, Kranz's account of the Apollo 1 fire and its devastating effect on all those who felt themselves in some way responsible is the most powerful recounting I've experienced, and that includes the superb dramatization in the HBO/Tom Hanks miniseries, From the Earth to the Moon. He concludes the book with an impassioned plea to revitalize the American space program and recapture the spirit of the sixties, an era when, for all its troubles, anything seemed possible. As he puts it, "We have become a nation of spectators, unwilling to take risks or act on strong beliefs." It's hard to disagree with that. And I think it's worth noting that one of the seldom-stated successes of America's space program was that it gave Gene Kranz and those who worked with him a chance to demonstrate their greatness. If you have any interest in the space program at all, you MUST read this book.
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Summary: I've waited a long time for this book to be written!
Review: I NEVER write in my good books, but while reading this one, I was constantly underlining things that I wanted to remember or revisit. This fascinating book is more than just another view of our space program. It is filled with Mr. Kranz' thoughts on things such as inner courage and outward composure, staying ahead of the curve, never settling for anything but one's best in all things great and small, as well as the many noteworthy technical details of the controller's eye view of one of our nation's most courageous endeavors. I also got from this book a metaphoric way to look at life's detours, by observation of how the mission control people had to totally rewrite the plans as unexpected things occured along almost every mission: you don't have to let the mistakes or bumps along the road throw you off, just write a new mission plan and procede from there until your goal is reached! Mr. Kranz' book also spoke of humility, thankfulness for the miracles in life, giving credit to talented hardworking people when it is their due, respect for those that you learn from, and allowing conflict, if it arises, to be just another way to hash out the best answer. His experiences also illustrate how to learn from everything that you do and see, taking various pieces of wisdom from here and there, to make yourself into the person that you want to be, and achieve the goals that you want to achieve. You really can see his ultimate career in NASA unfolding as he gained experience from certain events that took place in his life. As for the writing style of this book, I loved it. As G.Gordon Liddy said, "He writes like he talks, all heart and no B.S.!". That says it all. I got very choked up reading Chapter 22 and the Epilogue and fully agree that our country has done some awesome things, but yet now is content to ponder the past and not concentrate on charging boldly into the future and making new dreams happen. Well, I can't say it better than anyone else who has enjoyed and reviewed this book so I'll just say, thank you Mr. Kranz for writing your book, the wait was definitely worth it! :-)
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Summary: Management Style in the 1960's.
Review: As a fan of both the technical and managerial histories of our space program, I found this book a valuable addition to my library. His story serves to bridge the gap between the highly technical histories and academic texts and the political/policy decisions at the highest level. I have no doubt that Mr. Kranz has accurately portrayed the working atmosphere of Mission Control and, more importantly, described the mission-oriented work ethic at the ground level. Having read this book, the reader will better understand why so much was done so well and why some things went very wrong. This book is also a good study of the way in which high-profile government and civilian projects were run in those heady post-Sputnik days. In many ways, this was our generation's Manhattan Project, and one can not read this story without recalling the mixed blessings of pride and hubris. Mr. Kranz has done a service by giving us, in a frank but eminently readable way, his view of one of America's finest hours.
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Summary: From the Director of the Trench
Review: Gene Krantz's book takes one on a tour of the brain trust behind the courage and charisma of the astronauts and into a world where split second decisions often made the difference between success and utter failure... even death. Krantz spells this story out and his book is very engaging; bringing the space buff into his very private world of hard work, genius, ultimate concentration and patriotism. There are points where the story is complex and exciting, and points where it is poignant and funny. Krantz is very descriptive in short, to the point sentences, but this does not take anything from the story. His description of the Saturn V and how it has been abandonded and how the White Team colors were retired will bring a lump to your throat. A very good read. Makes you want to meet the man, shake his hand and tell him, "Thanks, Gene. Outstanding job."
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Summary: The inside story
Review: Having worked at the Johnson Space Center for 12 years I really enjoyed this book and even learned a thing or two. This is one of those books were you keep saying just one more chapter (at 2:30 in the morning).
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Summary: How it kept me on my seat
Review: To me this book is a very good book it keeps me wanting to read his book. I have read many other spaceflight books but this one tops them all. It is great to see a flight director writing a book because i am and 19 year old and i have read and i have watched all the NASA movies i have a huge collection of all of the Apollo missions at home. To me Gene Kranz book just justifys what goes on in mission control and what happens behind the kurten. To me when i read the chapter about Apollo 13 it just told you that a mission controller will go to any lengths to save the crew even if he is the Flight director i am almost done with the book but to me if you go out and buy this book you will be on the edge of your seat the whole time. The first time i started to read i didnt want to put book down. To me it touched something in my heart that told me this man went from the low man on the totom pole to what he was and in my mind is still today and that is the flight director. That to me is my opinon on his book.
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