Author Robert Kurson: Rocket Men

From New York Times bestselling author Robert Kurson comes a story of true American heroes. Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon. The story of Apollo 8 and the astronauts who made man's first journey to the moon is a riveting account of the three brave astronauts who took one of the most dangerous space flights. In early 1968, the Apollo space program was on shaky footing. President Kennedy’s end-of-decade deadline to put a man on the Moon was in jeopardy, and the Soviets were threatening to pull ahead in the space race. By August 1968, with its back against the wall, NASA decided to scrap its usual methodical approach and shoot for the heavens. With just four months to prepare – a fraction of the normal time – the agency would send the first men in history to the Moon. In a year of historic violence and discord – the Tet Offensive, the assassinations of MLK and FRK, the Chicago DNC Riots – the Apollo 8 mission was the boldest test of what American could do. With a focus on astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders, and their wives and children, this vivid, gripping, you-are-there narrative chronicles the epic danger involved and the singular bravery it took for man to leave Earth for the first time – and to arrive at a new world.