Chasing the Moon: The People, the Politics, and the Promise That Launched America Into the Space Age, Hardcover/Robert L. Stone

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Description A charismatic young president issued the historic moon landing challenge. This book, which greatly expands the companion PBS series, tell the stories of the visionaries--based on eyewitness accounts and newly discovered archival material--who helped America win the space race with the first lunar landing fifty years ago. In 1960, Senator John F. Kennedy ridiculed the idea of space travel as a colossal waste of money with no scientific importance. A year later the new president proposed the nation spend twenty billion dollars to land a man on the moon before the end of the decade. More than a story of engineers and astronauts, America's moon landing--now celebrating its 50th anniversary--grew out of the dreams of a handful of people whose work led to the lunar landing. Going in depth to explore their stories beyond the PBS series, writer/producer Robert Stone--called "one of our most important documentary film makers" by Entertainment Weekly--brings these important figures to brilliant life. They include: Science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, whose writing inspired some of the key players in the moon race. A scientific paper he wrote in his 20's led to the U. S. beating Russia in one area of space: communications satellites. Wernher von Braun, the former Nazi military genius who oversaw Hitler's rocket weapons program. Recruited to work for NASA, he managed the creation of the Saturn V moon rocket. Astronaut Frank Borman, whose powerful testimony before Congress in 1967 decisively saved the U. S. lunar program from being cancelled. Poppy Northcutt, a young mathematician who was the first woman to work in Mission Control. Her media exposure as a unique persence in this all-male world allowed her the freedom to stand up for equal rights for women and minorities. Ed Dwight, an African-American astronaut candidate, wanted by the Kennedy White House to boost the image of America in the "Third World." Famous for a brief time, he was then dropped from the progra