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Summary: The "voice" of Gene Kranz
Review: Much has been said about the quality of the writing of this book, and better words than mine have described the actual content and its unique perspective. It should be noted that the book reads very much in the voice of Gene Kranz. If you knew him or had seen him on the mission video feeds or press conferences you could close your eyes and hear his voice as you read the words in the book.This is definitely a fascinating read - especially for those of us who grew up in the shadow of the Johnson Space Center and who knew many of these players personally.
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Summary: A view you don't usually see
Review: If you're like me, the everything about the early days of space flight is captivating. I've read other accounts of this time period, including the incredibly in-depth michener novel "Space". What you don't often see is the view from the controller's booth. You don't see that often there was absolutely no data or voice communications between early spacecraft and the ground. You don't see the months of drills that Mission Control would stage, only to encounter problems that they could never have dreamed. Consequently, this account is a good read, and I enjoyed it. You may occasionally get bogged down by Franz's desire to name almost every person he can think of, as well as the endless acronyms. The jacket makes a big connection with Apollo 13. It is misleading because the book is far more comprehensive than that. Despite these shortcomings, I found it hard to put down and eye-opening.
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Summary: FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION
Review: Gene Kranz was there from the start, a true pioneer. Starting with a blank page, the Mercury program, and progressing through Gemini and Apollo; developing the plans, procedures and mission goals to accomplish mankinds' greatest acheivement -- landing a man on the moon and safely returning him to earth. Tough and competent, discipline and morale. Mr. Kranz defined the human spirit with these statements in a way you can in no way comprehend without reading this book. The title says it all, FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION. Read it.
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Summary: The successful recovery of Apollo 13 . . .
Review: arguably the world's greatest engineering achievement.
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Summary: Choppy writing style
Review: The primary problem with this book is Kranz's choppy writing style. In several paragraphs he can be telling an emotional story, or giving facinating details about a launch, then literally in the next paragraph talk about how he cuts his hair! Right out of left field... Read this book first, then read Lost Moon by Jim Lovell, and finally The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe. The first two will give you a good technical insight to the space program. The Right Stuff will give you the full drama.
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Summary: Fascinating and compulsively readable
Review: Just a kid when the Mercury astronauts were first lofted skyward, I was more fascinated by what was going on in Mission Control than I was by what the astronauts themselves were doing, which was mostly just sitting there pushing buttons. I had no idea why dozens of men in the control room were sitting in front of seemingly identical monitors -- did they actually have real jobs, or was it all just for show? None of the television commentators ever bothered to explain what was going on in there. Which is why Lost Moon, the book on which the movie "Apollo 13" was based, was such a revelation. Only then did we really learn that the extraordinarily complex spacecraft carrying the astronauts never functioned perfectly for more than five minutes at a time, and controlling a mission was about solving mind-numbing problems that were occurring thousands of miles away. That the men on the ground were the true heart of spaceflight was confirmed for me by the chapter in Failure Is Not an Option about the very first Apollo mission, which was flown from start to finish by Mission Control: there were no astronauts on board the vehicle. Kranz, the buzz-cutted ex-test pilot who was the very personification of Mission Control (Ed Harris played him in "Apollo 13"), gives us an insider's view of that critical function, complete with fascinating stories of some of the more harrowing incidents that the public was only dimly aware of. Of equal interest are his observations about what it was like to build from scratch an organization for which little precedent existed. At times repetitive and self-congratulatory, Failure Is Not an Option is nevertheless a compulsively readable, engineer's-eye perspective on what is arguably one of the two or three greatest technological triumphs in history. Like Lost Moon, it's only major fault is that it's entirely too short.
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Summary: Real life behind the glitter of space
Review: Mr. Krantz tells it like it is, the difficulties in running a space program on a very tight deadline to get a man to the moon. This book does an excellent job of showing some of the effort that took to get Neal Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin (plus others) to the Moon. A must read!
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Summary: Great read....
Review: In some many books about the US Space Program, the focus has been on the Astronauts. This book gives you a great idea of what happened on the ground. A very good read, written by a MCC a true Space Hero.
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Summary: Action packed -- Non-Fiction!
Review: Stuck in an airport, I searched the bookstore for a good book...little did I know I'd stumble onto this gem. As a sleepy 3-year-old when my parents woke me to see the moon landing, I grew up, knowing little about the America's newborn space program...I figured this book would tell me some interesting stories...and it did! It might be hard to imagine action behind a desk at Mission Control, but I couldn't wait to hear more stories after a description of the first launch. Although sometimes over-detailed in who did what between the launches, and sometimes it seemed like a Senior Class yearbook in it's roll-call lauding, I was really hooked on hearing about the program. I highly recommend this to anyone who is even remotely interested in flight, and to those who like a good book. It's like The Right Stuff meets Yeager meets Apollo 13.
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Summary: Failure is not an option is a great book!
Review: I think that This book depicts a real life account of what really happened in the space program from someone who was there. If you like reading books that tell the whole story about the space program then you must read this
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