Vendor
	Mohrbooks Literary Agency Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English

ROCKET MEN

Robert Kurson

The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man's First Journey to the Moon

The riveting story of NASA's boldest and riskiest decision: to send man to the moon in December 1968. While the stories of Apollo 11 and Apollo 13 are both well-known, the lesser known Apollo 8 is ripe for re-examination. Experts regard it as the riskiest mission of all: man had only traveled 850 miles from Earth until this mission, when he traveled 220,000 miles to the Moon. It was done with no back-up or rescue contingency, and it was the first time the Saturn rocket and the deep space network would be tested.

Kurson starts readers off in early 1968, when the Apollo program was on shaky footing. President John F. Kennedy's end-of-decade deadline to put a man on the moon was in danger, and the Soviets were pulling ahead in the space race. By August that year, with their back against the wall, NASA decided to scrap their usual methodical approach. With just a few months to prepare, they would send a crew to the Moon by December 1968. In a year of dramatic violence and discord—the Tet offensive, the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, and the Chicago DNC riots—the Apollo 8 mission was a stark test of what the country was capable of. With a focus on the three astronauts of the Apollo 8 crew, and their wives and children, Kurson has written a vivid, gripping, you-are-there narrative that shows anew how much danger was involved, and how much bravery it took, for man to travel away from Earth.

As he has done with such effect in his earlier works, Kurson carried out extensive research over the course of writing this book: he interviewed the three astronauts from the Apollo 8 crew at length, turning up new details in their conversations; he also interviewed their families, and myriad experts and personnel from NASA. He consulted hundreds of books, documents, and oral histories. The result is a fly-on-the-wall narrative—complete with colorful detail and verbatim dialogue—that reads like a high-stakes novel.

Robert Kurson earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy from the University of Wisconsin, then a law degree from Harvard Law School. His award-winning stories have appeared in Rolling Stone, The New York Times Magazine, and Esquire, where he is a contributing editor. He is the author of the 2005 American Booksellers Association's nonfiction Book Sense Book of the Year Shadow Divers (which spent 21 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list); Crashing Through, based on Kurson's 2006 National Magazine Award-winning profile in Esquire; and Pirate Hunters, also a New York Times bestseller in 2015.

ROCKET MEN brings Kurson’s signature knack for thrilling, real-life adventure writing to an iconic moment in American history, and we will publish with great excitement in April 2018, just ahead of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 8 mission.

Available products
Book Published 2018-04-03 by Random House
Book Published 2018-04-03 by Random House

Comments

Robert Kurson takes us on mankind's first trip to the moon in 1968, another time when it seemed America was tearing itself apart. But on Christmas Eve, we raised our eyes skyward and were inspired by the bravery and eloquence of the three Apollo 8 astronauts as they orbited the moon and reminded us of our common humanity.

In 1968 we sent men to the Moon. They didn’t leave bootprints, but it was the first time humans ever left Earth for another destination. That mission was Apollo 8. And Rocket Men,under Robert Kurson's compelling narrative, is that under-told story.

Kurson effectively recreates the era, recalling the tumult of a changing nation, as well as the tension felt by those involved both on Earth and in space, of a mission with little margin for error.

Rocket Men is a timely and thrilling reminder of a heroic American achievement—three dashing astronauts and the first rendezvous with the moon. It has it all—suspense, drama, risk and loving families. We could use those days again.

UK/BC: Scribe ; Hungarian: Akkord Kiado

This is the story of the most consequential and daring voyage since those in the era of Columbus, the Apollo 8 mission to the moon. The tale is told with the care and clarity, and the heart-banging drama, that Robert Kurson's legion of readers have come to expect from him. A flat-out terrific book.

As a Rocket Woman myself, I know very well the story of Apollo 8, and yet I couldn't put this book down. I was transported - along with NASA, the public, and the crew and their families - on this first-of-its-kind journey. Kurson presents not only the challenges, risks, ambition, and success of Apollo 8, but a story of human spirit. As we approach the 50th anniversary of Apollo 8, their incredible journey and the stunning memory of Earthrise can set us on the trajectory for an awe-inspired future.