Go, Flight!: The Unsung Heroes of Mission Control, 1965–1992 (Outward Odyssey: A People's History of Spaceflight) Hardcover – Illustrated, December 1, 2015

If you are a space program nerd like me, this book is simply wonderful. Very few people appreciate the complexity of the Space Shuttle program, and what an amazing achievement of engineering it was. This book helps convey that beautifully. My one caution is that if you are NOT a space program nerd, the level of detail here might be a negative. But of course, it's exactly those details that makes the book so readable for those of us with some background. To those folks: buy it!

The Apollo moon landing program has been written about from many perspectives – the engineering of the machines, the science returned from the moon, the management of complex programs, the dedication of workers across the country and the political reasons for it’s ultimate success. While the astronauts were on board the spacecraft they and their craft were watched over by a team of dedicated mission controllers and computers in NASA’s Mission Operations Control Room (MOCR). These are the people who calculated the rocket firings, orbital maneuvers, braking requirements, rendezvous coordinates and more – in many ways they flew the actual mission. This is the story of those people.This is a wonderful book that tells what went on behind the scenes at mission control. The training and simulations for missions are covered as well as the actual missions themselves. The book is full of first hand interviews with the people involved and they have generated nuances and details never uncovered before. For instance, many enthusiasts will be familiar with John Aaron’s “SCE to Aux” call as Apollo XII was launched into a thunderstorm, but the book has pages of details around this single call, from how the knowledge was originally discovered to the other critical calls made during this off-nominal launch.While the Gemini and Apollo spacecraft carried computers, these were ultimately back ups to NASA’s MOCR and Real Time Computing Complex. Authors Rick Houston and Milt Heflin have done an outstanding job of taking us back to those rooms, where men in their 20’s made life or death decisions during the flights. The book starts by explaining the location and function of each console then moves on to operations. Years ago there were big gaps in NASA’s worldwide tracking abilities and the consequences of these are explained as well. The Gemini missions are covered in full, then we move on. Tensions between different controllers or different ideas to solutions are decided by the Flight Director, who ultimately had complete authority over the mission. An incident tells how senior NASA management learned to not change decisions made by the Flight Director. The background and training of these people and movement of staff from the “Trench” to the back support rooms is covered. The book also does an outstanding job of bringing us inside the camaraderie of the Flight Controllers, their feelings during hectic but historic parts of their job and the respect they had for their co-workers, management and leadership.The heady days of Apollo can never be repeated, for engineering and computing advancements as much as many other reasons. Fifty years ago NASA was literally blazing new paths with each launch, and every astronaut's biography talks about the teamwork and dedication of the people on the ground behind their successes. This book opens the door to Mission Control and sits us beside its staff during some of the most wonderful and most harrowing moments in space history. The MOCR is now a Historic Landmark and the authors speak of the privilege to visit it and talk to the people who used it. The book does such a good job of putting us back in those times it also felt like a privilege to read about. I highly recommend this book to all NASA and Apollo enthusiasts.

An entertaining and informative read.

Simply put, for anyone interested in the history of the American space program, this is a must read, must have, book.By now, one could think that the story of the Gemini and Apollo programs had been completely covered and done. There are now many books in print that contribute significantly to telling the stories and giving us the background on these major achievements. Some books are now considered as the ‘’canon’’ on the topic. One can think of Murray & Cox’ Apollo, Chaikin’s Man on the Moon, Collins’ Carrying the Fire, Brooks’ Chariots for Apollo, Hansen’s First Man (and a few others) as the absolute must read books. I believe that Houston and Helfin’s book can justifiably be added to the canonical books on the US space program.Rick Houston and Milt Helfin obviously had access to many, if not most, of the survivors of the Mission Control team that sent man to the Moon. This results in a book that give insights into the minds and personalities of the mission controllers. The book does cover some well-known chapters of the space program but its unique and original contribution is to allow us to live these events from the point of view of the men of Mission Control. The book succeeds in balancing the technical aspects of Mission Control’s work with the historical importance of the events it covers. In other words, the book is not too technical and should be easily understood by anyone who knows the basics of early space exploration. The writing flows very well and the stories are engrossing; I had trouble putting the book down.With this book, the mission controllers who worked anonymously (largely) in MOCR have finally been able to tell their own story in their own words. It is well past time they get the recognition they deserve.Two big thumbs up.

A detailed look into the inter workings of the role Mission Control played during the formative years of America's Space Program. Enjoyable book, hard to put down.

This is a fascinating book about the men on the floor of the Mission Operations Control Room (MOCR) during America's most daring and romantic time in space exploration. Provides a wealth of interesting background on not just the missions and the men that oversaw their success, but also pulls the curtain back a bit on the individual personalities of those and how they didn't always get along.But there is one glaring (by the standards of the rest of the book) omission. The flight of Apollo 7, the first manned flight of the Apollo Command and Service Modules in Earth orbit. This was a hugely important mission, being the first manned space flight since the Apollo 1 fire and the first flight of the redesigned Command Module. Yet there was no mention of this flight in the book. I suspect the reason may have to do with the fact that many of those manning the consoles during this flight threatened to walk out (well, maybe not...but many swore they would never work with the Apollo 7 crew again). The Apollo 7 crew, commanded by Wally Schirra, came very close to mutiny, constantly questioning (or outright ignoring) the directives and recommendations of the MOCR team. In fact, none of this crew (Schirra, Donn Eisele and Walt Cunningham) ever flew another mission.In a book that details the good (and sometimes not so good) character of the men in the MOCR, it's surprising that none apparently wanted to be quoted or even associated with Apollo 7.

This book features many of the people that made the US space exploration from the 1960s to the early 1990s possible, and doesn't assume knowledge of the different Mission Control functions or of NASA history. Reading it, I got a feeling for the different people, their strengths and weaknesses, also of the number of times an expedition was rescued by the skill, knowledge and dedication of the people involved. The book gave me a better appreciation of the impressive achievements of the space program in the early years. Includes some good anecdotes and some inspiring moments. Lots of detail but I found it very readable.

After interviewing many of the controllers in mission control. Their stories add more depth to what went on there.

Ein tolles Buch über den Teil der Geschichte der bemannten Raumfahrt der USA,über den es noch kaum etwas zu lesen gab und gibt. Es sind die Erlebnisse der Männer von Mission Control in Houston, die mit ihrem Einsatz entscheidend mit dazu beigetragen haben,dass Menschen den Mond betreten haben.Beeindruckende Geschichten,viel Hintergründiges,ein tolles Buch für alle,denen die bemannte Raumfahrt am Herzen liegt.

Top notch book that actually tells a real living story and is very well written - some of the books on space I find can understandably tend to become a bit 'dry' and diary focused (I have probably bought most of them) - but this one really brings the experience to life as, for me, did the books from Michael Collins, Chris Hadfield, Gene Kranz (didn't dare miss him out sir), and Guenter Wendt.I have them all together on my book shelf - exulted company for sure in which it stands unashamed. I have the associated DVD and it is also well worth getting. Read this and wonder at the team work, confidence and style of the team involved in the programme. A class act for sure and a classy book to give them the respect due to them.

A pretty decent book on the Mission Control personalities who presided over the Gemini and Apollo missions. The book reads reasonably well, though the author clearly wants all of the names mentioned, simply because he's trying to acknowledge the "unsung" heroes. The only difficulty with this is the sheer number of paragraphs which introduce a new person, who is then barely, if ever, mentioned again. The same could be said for the shuttle and Apollo disasters, with only brief mention given to the accidents themselves, and all the time spent on mission control. I guess the book had such a vast scope, it was better being focused the way it was. If you want to read about the entire space programme, including the astronauts stories, I'd look elsewhere. If you want to learn about the people who built NASA and controlled every mission, this is definitely the book for you.