Failure Is Not an Option

This New York Times bestselling memoir of a veteran NASA flight director tells riveting stories from the early days of the Mercury program through Apollo 11 (the moon landing) and Apollo 13, for both of which Kranz was flight director.

Gene Kranz was present at the creation of America’s manned space program and was a key player in it for three decades. As a flight director in NASA’s Mission Control, Kranz witnessed firsthand the making of history. He participated in the space program from the early days of the Mercury program to the last Apollo mission, and beyond. He endured the disastrous first years when rockets blew up and the United States seemed to fall further behind the Soviet Union in the space race. He helped to launch Alan Shepard and John Glenn, then assumed the flight director’s role in the Gemini program, which he guided to fruition. With his teammates, he accepted the challenge to carry out President John F. Kennedy’s commitment to land a man on the Moon before the end of the 1960s.

Kranz recounts these thrilling historic events and offers new information about the famous flights. What appeared as nearly flawless missions to the Moon were, in fact, a series of hair-raising near misses. When the space technology failed, as it sometimes did, the controllers’ only recourse was to rely on their skills and those of their teammates. He reveals behind-the-scenes details to demonstrate the leadership, discipline, trust, and teamwork that made the space program a success.

A fascinating firsthand account by a veteran mission controller of one of America’s greatest achievements, Failure Is Not an Option reflects on what has happened to the space program and offers his own bold suggestions about what we ought to be doing in space now.

CONTENTS

1 The Four-Inch Flight

2 "Liftoff; the Clock Is Running"

3 "God Speed, John Glenn"

4 The Brotherhood

5 The Making of a Rocket Man

6 Gemini -- The Twins

7 White Flight

8 The Spirit of 76

9 The Angry Alligator

10 A Fire on the Pad

11 Out of the Ashes

12 The X Mission

13 The Christmas Story

14 1969 -- The Year of Apollo

15 SimSup Wins the Final Round

16 "We Copy You Down, Eagle"

17 "What the Hell Was That?"

18 The Age of Aquarius

19 Coming Home

20 Shepard's Return

21 What Do You Do After the Moon?

22 The Last Liftoff

Epilogue

Where They Are

Acknowledgments

Appendix: Foundations of Mission Control

Glossary of Terms

Index