Failure is Not an Option

My choice of quarter 2 outside reading is a book title Failure is Not An Option, by Gene Kranz. Mr. Kranz was the original head of mission control and really the voice of the space movement during the 20th Century. In the first chapters of the book, we learn about how the space program started out- with only a handful of men in a primitive program nicknamed Mercury. Mr. Kranz was a former WWII Air Force Pilot that was interested in the space race with the Soviets during the early days of the Cold War. His task was to put together a launch manual- the first of its kind- for the days that the space ships would be taking off. He essentially wrote it on the job, as him or any other of his colleagues had any experience with space control. He goes on to talk about how the men had many failures and were viewed as an American failure in the public's eyes. He then details the account of the days before and the day of the first American was going into space. This book is an exciting nonfiction account of how the space program in the United States was started from scratch and turned into one of the most successful in the world.