Nothing against this book, but if you're going to invest the time (and haven't already read it), go for Gene Krantz's Failure Is Not An Option for a close-up view of how things worked in Mission Control back in the day. ( )

Wonderful period of time to write about but the language used by authors is way too religious. Their approach is so reverent it's just hard to read with a straight face. I know the authors are genuine in their respect but the language verges on parody and their uncritical reporting of the stories leaves much to be desired as an attempt at historical record of anything.

I want to read about the facts and think "this is awesome". I don't want to read "this is awesome, praise the Lord" and wonder how rose-tinted your reporting is. ( )

I was very excited to read this book after touring the Johnson Space Center (including the original mission control room) in Houston. I felt some of the story was interesting, especially the Apollo 11 and Apollo 13 sections. It really gave you an appreciation for the amount of issues that had to be overcome even through the course of a “normal” launch. There were a ton of names in the book which is somewhat to be expected. But I didn’t get the book to find out the name of every employee that ever set foot in the mission control room over the course of the Apollo program. ( )

I was so excited to pick up this book on our vacation to Houston last year! We went there to visit the space center because space is one of my favorite things!! Unfortunately, it took me a whole year to get through this book. There were way too many facts, lots of names and it skipped around. I made myself finish the book, but it was painful. ( )

I received a free copy of this e-book from the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for a review.

If you liked the biographies of Chris Kraft and Gene Kranz, you will love this book. The book attempts to tell the stories of the people who were part of Mission Control, but were never featured in a book or movie. You will get to hear from some of the more recognized MC guys like Glenn Lunney, Sy Liebergot and John Aaron; but you will also get to know more of the others who were there as well. The authors do a good job at trying to include the stories of as many of these people as possible. You really get a feel for how the whole MC group was a team, how everyone worked together and how MC was run successfully.

The main narrative of the book follows the Gemini and Apollo missions controlled from Houston. Looking at some of these missions from the perspective of the MC really changes how you view some of these missions. The book naturally covers the Apollo 13 mission with a lot of detail. Reading this section was extremely interesting. I got chills a few times during this part, and then I had to immediately watch the Apollo 13 movie again. The book also gives you the story from inside MC during the final launch of Challenger. This part is very emotional, and you can just feel the emotions in that room as you read.

I might have given this a four star rating because several of the chapters were not organized very well. They were still readable, but the lack of organization was a bit annoying. I went with 5 stars because it was an amazing read and an important new work to add to the Spaceflight bookshelf.

Overall, I’m very glad this story was written. As is noted in the book, several of the people featured in this book have passed away. I think it is incredibly important to record who they were and what they did to contribute. While the book doesn’t cover everyone that worked in MC, it tells enough of the group’s story that you leave with tremendous respect for anyone who was a part of it. ( )