Reddit Reddit reviews Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond

We found 35 Reddit comments about Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

Biographies
Books
Historical Biographies
United States Biographies
Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond
Simon Schuster
Check price on Amazon

35 Reddit comments about Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond:

u/AirborneRodent · 27 pointsr/todayilearned

It's this one. To be honest, it's not that great of a book. It's not very well-written, and its explanations of the actual space and engineering aspects go beyond ELI5 into like ELI3 territory. It's a great book for the jokes and anecdotes about the astronauts' lives, not so much for the actual history.

I'd instead recommend Failure is not an Option by flight director Gene Kranz. Amazing book, that.

u/[deleted] · 19 pointsr/space
u/ChrisK989 · 15 pointsr/space

You should read his autobiography.
It was quite interesting to see what the space race was like behind the scenes, so to speak.

http://www.amazon.com/Failure-Is-Not-Option-Mission/dp/1439148813

*Edit: Reading the passage about the death of the Apollo 1 Astronauts was very difficult to read.
Mission Control could here them calling for help and screaming wothout being able to do anything in time to rescue them.

u/Senno_Ecto_Gammat · 8 pointsr/space

This question gets asked all the time on this sub. I did a search for the term books and compiled this list from the dozens of previous answers:

How to Read the Solar System: A Guide to the Stars and Planets by Christ North and Paul Abel.


A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson.


A Universe from Nothing: Why There is Something Rather than Nothing by Lawrence Krauss.


Cosmos by Carl Sagan.

Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space by Carl Sagan.


Foundations of Astrophysics by Barbara Ryden and Bradley Peterson.


Final Countdown: NASA and the End of the Space Shuttle Program by Pat Duggins.


An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything by Chris Hadfield.


You Are Here: Around the World in 92 Minutes: Photographs from the International Space Station by Chris Hadfield.


Space Shuttle: The History of Developing the Space Transportation System by Dennis Jenkins.


Wings in Orbit: Scientific and Engineering Legacies of the Space Shuttle, 1971-2010 by Chapline, Hale, Lane, and Lula.


No Downlink: A Dramatic Narrative About the Challenger Accident and Our Time by Claus Jensen.


Voices from the Moon: Apollo Astronauts Describe Their Lunar Experiences by Andrew Chaikin.


A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts by Andrew Chaikin.


Breaking the Chains of Gravity: The Story of Spaceflight before NASA by Amy Teitel.


Moon Lander: How We Developed the Apollo Lunar Module by Thomas Kelly.


The Scientific Exploration of Venus by Fredric Taylor.


The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe.


Into the Black: The Extraordinary Untold Story of the First Flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia and the Astronauts Who Flew Her by Rowland White and Richard Truly.


An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics by Bradley Carroll and Dale Ostlie.


Rockets, Missiles, and Men in Space by Willy Ley.


Ignition!: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants by John Clark.


A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking.


Russia in Space by Anatoly Zak.


Rain Of Iron And Ice: The Very Real Threat Of Comet And Asteroid Bombardment by John Lewis.


Mining the Sky: Untold Riches From The Asteroids, Comets, And Planets by John Lewis.


Asteroid Mining: Wealth for the New Space Economy by John Lewis.


Coming of Age in the Milky Way by Timothy Ferris.


The Whole Shebang: A State of the Universe Report by Timothy Ferris.


Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandries by Neil deGrasse Tyson.


Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution by Neil deGrasse Tyson.


Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon by Craig Nelson.


The Martian by Andy Weir.


Packing for Mars:The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach.


The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution by Frank White.


Gravitation by Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler.


The Science of Interstellar by Kip Thorne.


Entering Space: An Astronaut’s Oddyssey by Joseph Allen.


International Reference Guide to Space Launch Systems by Hopkins, Hopkins, and Isakowitz.


The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality by Brian Greene.


How the Universe Got Its Spots: Diary of a Finite Time in a Finite Space by Janna Levin.


This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age by William Burrows.


The Last Man on the Moon by Eugene Cernan.


Failure is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond by Eugene Cernan.


Apollo 13 by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger.


The end

u/jardeon · 6 pointsr/KerbalSpaceProgram

> He’s right: altimeters measure height above sea level, but mountains and flatlands at high elevation can be hundreds or thousands of meters above that.

Gene Kranz addresses this in his truly awesome autobiography. He talks about how the parachutes on the capsule would open automatically at a certain altitude, but if your re-entry was off course and over a mountain, you could slam into the mountain before the parachutes had a chance to deploy.

u/__PROMETHEUS__ · 6 pointsr/AerospaceEngineering

Fantastic book, highly recommended.

I'd also recommend Failure is Not an Option, by Gene Krantz, a flight director during the Apollo missions.

Link: https://www.amazon.com/Failure-Not-Option-Mission-Control/dp/1439148813

u/omg_my_legs_hurt · 5 pointsr/financialindependence

just finished reading http://www.amazon.com/Failure-Is-Not-Option-Mission/dp/1439148813 very cool insight into the entire space program, really puts into perspective how much they were making up as they went along!

u/osm_catan_fan · 4 pointsr/todayilearned

2 books I've enjoyed that together give a pretty thorough view of things:

A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts - All the Apollo missions, and a source for the HBO series "From the Earth to the Moon"

Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond - A memoir that's a look at the technical stories and folks supporting the astronauts, starting at our space program's early days.

Both these books are in-depth and not over-dramatized.

u/dasvimal · 4 pointsr/orbitalpodcast

Here's two, although they're not mission-specific:

Moon Machines is a series of really good documentaries that highlight alot of the tech and engineering on the Apollo missions.

Failure Is Not An Option has been on my to-read list and is written by NASA's flight director during the Apollo missions.

u/slorojo · 4 pointsr/books

Yes this. This is by far his most interesting book (although I haven't read his most recent one yet). Did you know that tri-color vision is unique in the mammals to howler monkeys and apes? And that we know it evolved separately in the howlers and the apes due to geographic separation and fundamental differences in the color-sensing mechanism*? That blew my mind. You learn stuff like that almost every page in The Ancestor's Tale. And the way it traces human lineage back through time makes you appreciate the immense scale, scope, and power of evolution.

My other suggestions would be:

u/ReggieJ · 3 pointsr/books

Failure is Not an Option by Gene Kranz. Your question mirrors the scope of this book so closely that I actually wondered if you'd already read it and wanted some stuff to follow up with.

http://www.amazon.com/Failure-Is-Not-Option-Mission/dp/1439148813

Available for the Kindle!

u/manytrowels · 3 pointsr/Frisson

Read Kranz's book. This scene is frisson defined.

EDIT: Here's the link -- http://www.amazon.com/Failure-Is-Not-Option-Mission/dp/1439148813

u/DannoVonDanno · 3 pointsr/rocketry

Failure is Not an Option by Gene Kranz is an excellent memoir of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs.

u/yoweigh · 3 pointsr/NewOrleans

I very highly recommend Failure is Not an Option by Gene Kranz for an insider's view of early spaceflight, and I'm currently reading How Apollo Flew to the Moon by W. David Woods, which is an extremely in-depth technical overview of the entire Apollo program written for laymen.

u/hapaxLegomina · 3 pointsr/nasa

Okay, for sci-fi, you have to get The Culture series in. Put Player of Games face out.

I don't read a lot of space books, but Asteroid Hunter by Carrie Nugent is awesome. I mostly have recommendations for spaceflight and spaceflight history, and a lot of these come from listeners to my podcast, so all credit to them.

  • Corona, America's first Satellite Program Amazon
  • Digital Apollo MIT Books
  • An Astronaut's Guide to Earth by Chris Hadfield (Amazon)
  • Capture Dynamics and Chaotic Motions in Celestial Mechanics: With Applications to the Construction of Low Energy Transfers by Edward Belbruno (Amazon)
  • Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration by Buzz Aldrin (Amazon)
  • Red Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson (Part 1 on Amazon)
  • Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War by Michael Neufeld (Amazon)
  • Space Shuttle by Dennis R Jenkins (Amazon)
  • The History Of Manned Space Flight by David Baker (Amazon)
  • Saturn by Lawrie and Godwin (Amazon)
  • Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13 by Lovell (Amazon)
  • Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond by Gene Kranz (Amazon)
  • Space by James A Michener (Amazon)
  • Encounter With Tiber by Buzz Aldrin and John Barnes (Amazon)
  • Ascent to Orbit: A Scientific Autobiography by Arthur C Clark (Amazon)
  • Fundamentals of Astrodynamics by Bate and White (Amazon)
  • Space Cadet by Robert Heinlein (Amazon)
u/djellison · 3 pointsr/space

A Man on the Moon by Andy Chaiken is considered THE text on the Apollo program. If formed the basis of the mini series From the Earth to the Moon

Failure is not an Option by Gene Kranz is a wonderful first hand account of life in the trenches from Mercury thru Apollo.

And my personal favorite space book - Roving Mars which was turned into a great IMAX movie as well.

u/lachryma · 3 pointsr/KerbalSpaceProgram

His book is excellent and is full of them. I read it on a cross-country plane ride. It's riveting enough, particularly during Apollo 13, that you'll breeze through it fairly quickly.

http://www.amazon.com/Failure-Is-Not-Option-Mission/dp/1439148813

u/Goldin · 2 pointsr/space

Here's one I have just ordered:

100 Years of Spaceflight: A Chronicle of Aerospace History

Another I have in my library and hope to read soon:
Gene Kranz: Failure Is Not An Option

u/scrapplechic · 2 pointsr/space

If you haven't already read it, Failure Is Not An Option by Gene Kranz is at the top of my "space book" list.

u/uid_0 · 2 pointsr/HistoryPorn

Gene Kranz is the quintessential Steely-eyed Missile Man and a complete bad ass. If you get a chance, read his book "Failure is not an Option". He provides a lot of insight and back story that is rarely discussed anywhere.


Edit: If you want great info specifically about the Apollo 13 Mission, "Lost Moon" by Jim Lovell is a fantastic book.

u/crispychoc · 2 pointsr/NoStupidQuestions

I’ve read a lot of the early moments of space flight, and how they wrote all the procedures. I’m pretty sure it’s been around for ever, together with a million other scenarios.

I can highly recommend “failure is not an option” by Gene Krantz

u/Gorflub · 2 pointsr/todayilearned

OP, you reading this?

If not, you should. The 4 inch flight is one of the very first things in the book. The rest of it is awesome as well.

u/planepartsisparts · 2 pointsr/aviation

Get Ben Rich’s book about Lockheed’s Skunk Works Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed https://www.amazon.com/dp/0316743003/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_XzLDAb7GJBNX2 also Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond https://www.amazon.com/dp/1439148813/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_xALDAb3C5Q08N has excellent stories and Brian Shul has some excellent stories and photographs in his books but I don’t think they are in print any longer.

u/pq102 · 2 pointsr/AskHistorians

Since you mentioned modern technology, I would recommend this great documentary about the history of the United States Space Program, called When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions. It is a six-part documentary made by the Discovery channel that is extremely accurate while following the accounts of former NASA Flight Director Gene Kranz. Check out the links I posted, you won't be disappointed.

u/puppet_up · 1 pointr/pics

If you've not read this book yet, I highly recommend it: Failure is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 by Gene Kranz.

I couldn't put it down and it really puts you in the middle of everything and makes you feel like you're right there with them at NASA mission control.

u/newhouseforever · 1 pointr/pics

In any redditors want some fresh inspiration I definitely recommend reading "Failure Is Not an Option" by Gene Kranz to see probably the greatest engineering perspective of the start of the US space program.

u/scurvybill · 1 pointr/aerospace

Hmmm... a leader type?

Pick this one up too! Probably the best ever personal account from the space industry at large.

u/RoboRay · 1 pointr/KerbalSpaceProgram

There's a lot of great books on the subject. One in particular I would recommend is Gene Kranz's book "Failure is Not an Option." It's from the perspective of his seat in Mission Control, and touches on almost every aspect of early spaceflight. If you're not familiar with him, he's the white-vested Flight Control Director in the Tom Hanks Apollo 13 movie, and the inspiration for KSP's Gene Kerman in the Mission Contol building.

If you're looking for something to watch, I can't more highly recommend anything than the HBO miniseries "From the Earth to the Moon."

u/nx_2000 · 1 pointr/CasualConversation

Along these lines, Apollo by Charles Murray is a spectacular and compelling account of the Apollo space program. It's not about the astronauts, but rather the men who founded NASA and built the Saturn V rocket. Failure is Not an Option by Gene Kranz, is another great book on the subject, but I haven't read that one myself yet.

u/StructurallyUnstable · 1 pointr/spacex

Check out "Taming Liquid Hydrogen" for a great history of the Centaur upper stage and "Failure is not an Option" which is Gene Krantz memoir as Flight director for NASA.

u/anthonycolangelo · 1 pointr/space

Gene Kranz’s book is absolutely fantastic: Failure is Not an Option

If you want incredibly in-depth Shuttle details, T. A. Heppenheim’s books can’t be beat:

u/Cutedge · 1 pointr/todayilearned

I'd also recommend the book "Failure is not an option" which is by one of NASA's first flight controllers:

http://www.amazon.com/Failure-Not-Option-Mission-Control/dp/1439148813/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1323206490&sr=8-2

The amount of stuff that happened like this is pretty crazy. There's no way it'd ever go over now.