Apollo 8: The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon

When most people see the word “Apollo” followed by a number, they rightly deduce that it stands for one of the NASA led space missions during the 1960s and 1970s. Those same people, however, probably couldn’t tell you which Apollo mission accomplished what. This is especially true since time has eclipsed many memories, and it’s now been over 50 years since the majority of these missions took place. For someone like me who was only a toddler at the time, it’s hard for me to understand the importance and necessity of these missions, and how much they dominated world news and became so intertwined with the pop culture of the time.The Apollo 8 mission was the first mission to “go to” the moon. No, it wasn’t the first to LAND on the moon - that would be Apollo 11. It did, however, exceed everyone’s expectations and expedited the space program by managing, for the first time, to leave Earth’s orbit and circle the moon a few times before returning home. So, yes, the mission WAS a big deal, but history has regulated the mission to a footnote in many aspects since, a couple of Apollos later, they managed to actually land on the moon, and people across the U.S. stayed up all night to hear Neil Armstrong utter his famous words.This is truly a great book, and had the author decided to write a book about ANY of the space missions – including the earlier Mercury or Gemini missions – I’m convinced the read would have been stellar as well. Jeffrey Kluger simply tells a wonderful story. I was never bored, nor did I feel he was overly detailed or technical. He spends about 2/3 of this book describing events leading up to this mission, and the other 1/3 the actual flight itself.All these years later, it probably isn’t as obvious to many why the “space race” was so important. The United States was still in the midst of a cold war with Russia, and our adversaries seem to be winning the race on every front. Then, in 1961, President Kennedy boldly announced that the U.S. would send a man to the moon by the end of the decade. Academia everywhere raised their eyebrows. When the young president was brutally assassinated two years later, his bold prediction was now attached to a fierce determination and success was now non-negotiable. NASA was created, and the entire nation became enthralled with these brave young men who were called “Astronauts” and their seemingly improbable goal set by the late president.The author gives us just the right background where all of this is concerned. He also focuses heavily on one astronaut, Frank Borman, who would be the commander of Apollo 8. Again, had the author focused on any of the astronauts at the time, I’m convinced it would have been equally as enrapturing. Yes, Borman’s story is wonderful, but the same could be said for all of his fellow astronauts.Sadly, any story about the Apollo missions can’t be told adequately without revisiting the tragedy of Apollo 1. The first Apollo mission was badly rushed and improper care was taken. A fire in the cockpit killed the entire crew during a simulation while still on the ground. Again, this story – while tragic - is necessary. Not only does it illustrate the dangers of all of the space endeavors, but it also raised the question by many that asked “Is all of this space stuff really necessary?”Once the Apollo 8 mission begins, the journey of Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders is told in fascinating detail. This portion of the book reminded me of watching a suspenseful movie that you’ve already seen and know the ending; you KNOW the hero will prevail at the end, but the many moments of tension still cause your knuckles to turn white. This story really gives you a tremendous admiration for, not only the astronauts in space, but also for their wives and loved ones back home who knew the possibility was quite likely for an accident to happen causing their astronaut husbands to drift off and literally die by being “lost in space”.So, yes, this book manages to be a thriller even though some may initially perceive that it is nothing more than detailing one of the many space missions that took place over the last half-century. I was surprised how quickly the pages turned. I mean, the author even manages to make a member of Mission Control in Houston lighting a Zippo lighter sound exciting. I’m serious here.Post Note: Many people are familiar with the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission due to the excellent Ron Howard/Tom Hanks movie of the same name. THAT movie was based on a book (Apollo 13 – formerly titled “Lost Moon”) that was co-authored by this author along with the mission commander Jim Lovell. That was an excellent book as well, and I would also highly recommend it.

I really enjoyed this book from start to finish. It was fast-paced, engaging, informative, and touching. I loved the way the author weaved the full tapestry of events by including what was going on in the crew's homes and what their families were feeling as their husbands and fathers made history flying to the moon, orbiting it, and returning to earth. The wives and children of these brave men were no less brave just because they weren't the ones physically in the Apollo spacecraft.This book brings to life each key character in the development of the Apollo missions without going into too much detail, striking an effective balance of historical information and real human emotions at NASA, on the Apollo spacecraft, in the White House, among Navy brass requested to find and rescue the capsule in the sea, and many more. The book covers a lot of ground over a few decades but does so crisply, never bogging down in any one period, and reminding us all what a global story Apollo 8 really was in 1968. I also enjoyed greatly the juxtaposition of the US space program with the Soviet program as both sides worked to outdo each other in space.Because Apollo 8 was such a historic and trailblazing mission, being the first to leave the Earth's orbit and travel 230,000 miles to the moon and back, it is understandable that the author repeatedly wanted to impress upon readers just how trailblazing it was. At a couple of points he overdoes it with a bit too much repetition of the same points and statistics. The points and stats ARE impressive enough to state them once. Repeating them multiple times throughout waters them down a bit. It would have been enough to state once that never before in the history of the species had anyone looked upon the backside of the moon with human eyes. The author instead embellished this point far too grandly by walking through a step-by-step summary history of human evolution from Big Bang theory to the crew of Apollo 8. Yes this was earth-shaking history being made, but the reader didn't need a Darwinism summation to get that point. Still, this was really the only thing in the 300+ page book that annoyed me even in the slightest, and so it is a relatively minor quibble about an otherwise fun and highly readable history of this amazing step in man's journey toward landing on the moon.This book really made me sad at the end. This isn't a spoiler at all. We all know we have not returned to land on the moon again since 1969, and it saddened me to think of how far removed we are from the brave and highly-motivated astronauts of the 1950s and 1960s. They trained up and flew mission after mission, making incremental and dangerous progress toward a goal, and they would not be denied reaching that goal. What is our goal today? Do we even have one? What are we doing in space, and why aren't we doing more? So many great inventions and technological developments happened because of our space program up until we started losing shuttles. What would the brave astronauts of Apollo 1 who perished on the launchpad think about the USA mothballing NASA's manned space flight programs? Is that what they died for, to watch the USA quit and let other nations catch up and surpass us eventually? This book is an excellent reminder of what once made us great as a nation - the spirit of exploration, and hopefully this 50th anniversary of Apollo 8 will reawaken our curiosity about what is out there in space waiting for us to fly there and discover it. Yes, a space program is expensive, but reaching for the stars brought out the best in all of us, and it can do so again. That is of greater value than money.

I thought this book was very detailed and interesting. It appeals to anyone who is a history buff when it comes to the great achievement of man going to the moon.

An excellent book. I was a teenager at the time and this book brings back vivid memories of Apollo 8. So why the, but? Kluger mentions that in the UK pubs were crowded with people watching the TV transmission when they went around the moon at 9:50am and many treated themselves to an early pint. This is pure invention. Back in those days not only did pubs not have TVs (at least I never saw one and I went to many pubs), but pubs were not allowed to open until 11:00am or 11:30am, so no-one could have been watching in a pub. OK, it is only a small point and irrelevant to the Apollo 8 story, but it makes me wonder what else is invented? Still a good read.

Having read a few of the Apollo astronauts autobiographies during the summer this was a little dry. It lacks the first person experience of actually doing the job it describes. An enjoyable read nevertheless.

Expansive, detailed, flowing, with a grasp of the subject matter. Read it, it’s worth it. Oh and it’s beautifully written too…

Well written documentary in book form. Understated in parts which suits the style of the collective crew. Not much that I didn't already know but a very enjoyable read

Such an excellent book of the Apollo adventure a true record of events a must read for anyone no matter if you were a teenager when it was happening or a teenage now well done Mr Kluger