One Giant Leap: The Impossible Mission that Flew Us to the Moon

Astronauts take a back seat to politicians, project managers, engineers, and the marvelous machines they created in this engrossing history of the moon landings. Journalist Fishman (The Wal-Mart Effect) presents a loose-jointed, episodic account of the Apollo program, from President Kennedy’s 1961 promise to put men on the moon to the 1969 Apollo 11 landing. The project initially seemed impossible with existing technology (and pointless to naysayers who dubbed it a “moondoggle”) but succeeded through largely unsung breakthroughs that Fishman describes with inquisitive relish: the small, underpowered (at “0.000002 percent of the computing capacity of the phone in your pocket”), but brilliant Apollo Guidance Computer, literally hand-woven from wire and magnets; the painstaking, counterintuitive procedures for orbital rendezvous of spaceships, which require slowing down to catch up; the hidden metal frame that made an American flag seem to ripple in a phantom moon-breeze. The author also explores the organizational prowess and maniacal attention to detail required of Apollo’s 400,000-plus workers to ensure that the gadgetry worked near perfectly in space, where any glitch could spell disaster. Fishman’s knack for explaining science and engineering and his infectious enthusiasm for Apollo’s can-do wizardry make for a fascinating portrait of a technological heroic age. Agent: Raphael Sagalyn, ICM/Sagalyn. (June)