Books like Apollo: The Race To The Moon

This book is, by far, my favorite book about the early days of America's space program and about the Apollo missions. Unlike most books which are largely narrative of the missions and that focus on the launches, landings, and activities of the astronauts, this book focuses on the development of the launch vehicles, spacecraft, and mission management systems that took the astronauts to the moon. It immerses the reader in three cultures: one formed around the captured German rocket engineers who designed the immense Saturn V launch vehicle; one formed around the perfectionist aircraft designers from the N.A.C.A.'s Langley Aeronautical Center who designed the spacecraft; and one that branched off from the second group that became Mission Control. If you ask Apollo insiders which book to read about what they did, this is the book they recommend. It is funny and tragic, action-packed and intellectually engaging, about the technology and about the people. I have read this book at least fifteen times and still come back to it at least once a year. Even now, as I write my third military science fiction novel, it is beside my desk. If you have the slightest interest in space exploration, or if you have read a dozen other books on the subject, you should read this book. I cannot praise it highly enough.