Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond Paperback – Illustrated, June 23, 2009

As an airline pilot I have always had more than a casual interest in the US space program. Gene Kranz tells an amazing story of what is probably mankind's greatest accomplishment. A true leader, visionary and team player, Kranz takes you inside mission control and provides a front row seat to the 1960's space race. The "crew concept" so widely trained in commercial aviation today has its roots in our early space program. These incredible people didn't have a book to go by, so instead they wrote the book on space flight. Kranz does a good job of highlighting the risk/reward relationship of every decision. Despite already knowing the outcome of every mission, the story of each flight is gripping. I was surprised at just how many very close calls there were. These were truly brave people (and not just the astronauts) who came to work every day pushing the limits of man and our technology.More than just a historical chronology of each mission, Kranz does a respectable job of bringing out the human element and the many personalities involved, each of whom played a critical role in making key decisions. You really get an appreciation of the high stakes involved. Risk management is the name of the game and the stress never abates. Every aspect of every mission was clearly a team effort and compromises were necessary at every level. It was a special time and these were special people.Sadly, the book highlights just how far we have fallen as a nation of pioneers. Kranz observes that the 1960's opened with JFK's bold and visionary assertion that America was going to the moon and only a decade later Richard Nixon effectively gives the Apollo program it's obituary with a "thanks" to the astronauts who would likely be the last to walk on the moon that century. By 1973 the public was already becoming disinterested with space so the money, and the will, dried up. Gene Kranz does a convincing job of explaining the intangible benefits of leading the world in exploration and pushing into the universe beyond. I believe if more people read Failure is Not an Option, there would be a renewed interest in returning to space.As a side note, there are a lot of acronyms in the book, which is normal everyday fare in aviation, but for the uninitiated it can be a bit daunting. There is a handy appendix provided that will help you keep it all straight. You may not realize that it is there until you've finished the book, especially if you have the Kindle version.

This was a captivating recent history of the Space Race era. For those interested in the Aerospace industry or starting out, it is inspirational. It is an excellent context for further study, reading on the space shuttle era up to the current US private, domestic space business.

Growing up as a kid watching the Gemini and Apollo missions is what first sparked my interest in science and engineering. The other kids wanted to be astronauts; I wanted to be one one the engineers in Mission Control, ideally the flight director. Astronauts went into space once, twice if they were lucky. The engineers in Mission Control got to go on each one (or so it seemed). I wanted to know what it was like to ride into space with a headset, an oscilloscope and a chart recorder. Having to make life and death decisions in seconds or fractions thereof.Gene Kranz's book has finally given me that ride. Kranz tells of space exploration from the controllers viewpoint. And what a view it is, from the 4" flight of Mercury-Redstone 1, to the first Moon landing with Apollo 11 and the death defying flight of Apollo 13 Kranz allows us to live the adventure that he and his fellow controllers lived. The computers of the day were too big to place in the spacecraft. The computers controlling the craft were in Houston and a successful mission meant relaying results and limited code from Houston to the craft and vice versa. Poor decisions could mean a failed mission or worse, dead astronauts. The pressure these men lived under was tremendous but they took it on willingly as they believed in the cause set for them by President Kennedy - To place a man on the moon before the end of the decade. They worked 12 & 16 hour shifts, lived at the Johnson Space Center during missions, skipped vacations for years leading up to that first moon landing. Kranz tells of how the pressure could take a toll on the controllers and their families but the mission always came first. Mission training for both controllers and astronauts began months before the actual mission. Simulations were run to anticipate common and not so common emergencies. And they were run again and again until the right solutions came almost automatically. Much of the pressure would be blown off at informal beer laden mission debriefs at a local biergarten in Webster or by various physical activities. In Kranz's case he took up judo with a couple of other controllers to help blow off steam.Kranz is quite humble about his own role as flight director for Gemini and Apollo. While a believer in strong leadership, his concept of that is someone who provides his team with clear goals and objectives, the tools needed and then gets out of their way. Kranz truly believes in teamwork freely acknowledging that any and all success he had with NASA was due to excellent collaboration of a complex team of astronauts, controllers, contractors and administrators and the support provided by his wife Marta and his Catholic Faith.So why only 4 stars? Let's face it, Kranz writes like he talks - in the short clipped speech of an engineer or better yet a flight director. To be honest, its more like hearing him telling stories while sharing a beer. Still let's face it, he lacks the eloquence of Tom Wolfe in The Right Stuff. There are times I was aching for him to broaden the tale and give us more of the back story. However, except in rare occasions, if Kranz didn't experience it, he doesn't write about it. I was almost shocked that he doesn't tell the story of Alan Shepard needing to urinate after being locked up in Mercury-Freedom 7 for over 4 hours prior to launch. I would have loved to known how the controllers reacted to that request. There had to be a lot of scrambling, and contradicting opinions floating about on that one (they finally told Shepard to go ahead and go in his suit). Still there are times when Kranz rises to the occasion. His description of Armstrong and Aldrin's descent to the lunar surface was riveting. I was right there in Mission Control, holding my breath with the other controllers only letting go when Neil had placed the LEM down with only 17s of fuel remaining.In the end, it's a great read by a great and humble man.