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One Giant Leap: The Impossible Mission That Flew Us to the Moon Audiobook
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From New York Times bestselling author of The Wal-Mart Effect, Charles Fishman reveals the untold true story of the men and women charged with taking the United States to the Moon.
President John F. Kennedy astonished the world on May 25, 1961, when he announced to Congress that the United States would land a man on the Moon by 1970. No group was more surprised than the engineers at NASA. On the day of the historic speech, America had a total of fifteen minutes of spaceflight experience—with just five of those minutes outside the atmosphere. In fact, Soviet canines had more spaceflight experience than US astronauts.
To fulfill President Kennedy’s mandate, NASA engineers had to invent space travel. When Kennedy announced his goal, no one knew how to navigate to the Moon. No one knew how to build a rocket big enough to fly to the Moon. No one knew how to build a computer small enough to put on that rocket. No one knew how to feed astronauts in space, and no one knew how astronauts would even use the bathroom in space. And NASA had just nine years to make it happen.
In One Giant Leap, Charles Fishman introduces readers to the men and women tasked with putting a man on the moon. From the halls of MIT, where the eccentric and legendary digital pioneer Charles Draper created the two computers aboard Apollo 11, to the factories where hundreds of women weaved computer programs with copper wire, Fishman captures the sweeping achievement of these ordinary Americans. This is the captivating story of men and women charged with changing the world as we know it—their leaders, their triumphs, their near disasters, all of which led to arguably the greatest success story of the twentieth century.
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"I have to read 8th grade level books for school and take an accelerated reading quiz afterwards to test my comprehension of the book. This book was an easy read but it is full of facts. I did enjoy the read but I did not do well on the quiz because I did not remember all the facts that were on the test. If you like space it is an interesting book."
— Giorilla (5 out of 5 stars)
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“Expansive and engaging.”
— Financial Times -
“This is the most comprehensive and detailed account of the Apollo 11 mission. Fishman investigates the myriad scientists and engineers behind the project, details the challenges of the untried computer systems and especially documents the dramatic race in time to meet President Kennedy’s mandate.”
— Columbus Dispatch -
“Fishman’s knack for explaining science and engineering and his infectious enthusiasm for Apollo’s can-do wizardry make for a fascinating portrait of a technological heroic age.”
— Publishers Weekly -
“Fishman offers lively profiles of many tireless, imaginative, and innovative scientists, engineers, and technicians who contributed to the Apollo mission…For eight years, 410,000 people put in 2.8 billion work hours to make the flight possible. As the author sees it, those efforts—long before the innovations emanating from Silicon Valley—ushered in the digital age, making technology ‘a tool of everyday life’…A fresh, enthusiastic history of the moon mission.”
— Kirkus Reviews -
“The best Apollo anniversary treatment I’ve seen so far…It is refreshing to see him go beyond the usual platitudes to careful analysis and reasoned judgments. This is a book worth careful reading.”
— John M. Logsdon, author of John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon -
“A work that will reward readers with new angles on a familiar story.”
— Booklist
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New York Times bestseller
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About Charles Fishman
Charles Fishman is a former metro and national reporter for the Washington Post and was a reporter and editor at the Orlando Sentinel and the News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina. Fishman has won numerous awards, including three Gerald Loeb Awards, the most prestigious award in business journalism. He grew up in Miami, Florida, and went to Harvard. Fishman lives outside Philadelphia with his wife, also a journalist, their two children, their two Labradors, and their two parakeets.
About Fred Sanders
Fred Sanders, an actor and Earphones Award–winning narrator, has received critics’ praise for his audio narrations that range from nonfiction, memoir, and fiction to mystery and suspense. He been seen on Broadway in The Buddy Holly Story, in national tours for Driving Miss Daisy and Big River, and on such television shows as Seinfeld, The West Wing, Will and Grace, Numb3rs,Titus, and Malcolm in the Middle. His films include Sea of Love, The Shadow, and the Oscar-nominated short Culture. He is a native New Yorker and Yale graduate.