Apollo 8: The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon by Jeffrey Kluger
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Apollo 8 is the story of the first manned mission to the moon. It’s a truly amazing story; I was in fifth grade at the time and I remember the flight of Apollo 8 very well. The book follows the mission command Frank Borman, but we also learn the stories of Jim Lovell and Bill Anders as they join the space program and are eventually assigned to Project Apollo.

The Apollo 1 fire resulting in the deaths of three astronauts is a real turning point in the story; the US space program had been very successful to this point, and it seemed that accomplishing President Kennedy’s goal of landing a man on the moon by 1970 would be easy. The fire, which forced a major redesign of the Apollo spacecraft, put that into jeopardy. Apollo 8 was only the second manned mission in the Apollo spacecraft and the first manned mission to use the Saturn V rocket. It was a very bold decision to send the Apollo 8 crew on a mission to orbit the moon.

This is a great story and it is well-told. Jeffrey Kluger was Jim Lovell’s co-author on the story of Apollo 13, and like that book, this one is a good read. I heartily recommend this book.