First Lines Friday

“December 21, 1968—Four days before Christmas”

“Three astronauts are strapped into a small spacecraft thirty-six stories in the air, awaiting the final moments of countdown. They sit atop the most powerful machine ever built. The Saturn V rocket is a jewel of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, a vehicle that will generate the energy of a small atomic bomb.”

I liked this book for one, it took me back into my childhood and the wonder I felt about exploring space and two, reading the backgrounds of these three men and families was very interesting.

By August 1968, the American space program was in danger of failing in its two most important objectives: to land a man on the Moon by President Kennedy’s end-of-decade deadline, and to triumph over the Soviets in space. With its back against the wall, NASA made an almost unimaginable leap: It would scrap its usual methodical approach and risk everything on a sudden launch, sending the first men in history to the Moon—in just four months. And it would all happen at Christmas.

http://onebookmore.com/2022/12/02/first-lines-friday-december-2-2022/