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  • Failure Is Not an Option

  • Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond
  • By: Gene Kranz
  • Narrated by: Danny Campbell
  • Length: 18 hrs and 14 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (709 ratings)
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Failure Is Not an Option cover art

Failure Is Not an Option

By: Gene Kranz
Narrated by: Danny Campbell
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Summary

Gene Kranz was present at the creation of America's manned space program and was a key player in it for three decades. As a flight director in NASA's Mission Control, Kranz witnessed firsthand the making of history. He participated in the space program from the early days of the Mercury program to the last Apollo mission, and beyond. He endured the disastrous first years when rockets blew up and the United States seemed to fall further behind the Soviet Union in the space race. He helped to launch Alan Shepard and John Glenn, then assumed the flight director's role in the Gemini program, which he guided to fruition. With his teammates, he accepted the challenge to carry out President John F. Kennedy's commitment to land a man on the moon before the end of the 1960s.

Kranz was flight director for both Apollo 11, the mission in which Neil Armstrong fulfilled President Kennedy's pledge, and Apollo 13. He headed the Tiger Team that had to figure out how to bring the three Apollo 13 astronauts safely back to Earth. (In the film Apollo 13, Kranz was played by the actor Ed Harris, who earned an Academy Award nomination for his performance.)

In Failure Is Not an Option, Gene Kranz recounts these thrilling historic events and offers new information about the famous flights. What appeared as nearly flawless missions to the moon were, in fact, a series of hair-raising near misses. When the space technology failed, as it sometimes did, the controllers' only recourse was to rely on their skills and those of their teammates. Kranz takes us inside Mission Control and introduces us to some of the whiz kids - still in their twenties, only a few years out of college - who had to figure it all out as they went along, creating a great and daring enterprise. He reveals behind-the-scenes details to demonstrate the leadership, discipline, trust, and teamwork that made the space program a success.

©2009 Gene Kranz (P)2011 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Plenty of books (and several films) have already tried to depict the space program's excitement; few of their creators had the first-person experience or the attention to detail Krantz has, whose role as flight control "White" his readers will admire or even wish to emulate." ( Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about Failure Is Not an Option

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Interesting for the enthusiast

To like this book I think you need to have a very genuine interest in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. It's not for the beginner, or someone with a passing interest. You have to want to know about the details, and it helps to already have a wider appreciation of the space race. It's not that that the book expects a lot of background knowledge, but I'm not sure how much you'd get out of it if you didn't have that already. It can be a little dry in places, and can be hard to keep track of all the names.
Kranz is an interesting guy, and this book gives an insight into the gigantic pressure and expectation placed on "Flight", and the rare breed of person capable of doing the job well.
The book is strictly about the NASA program, mentions the Russians only in passing, and offers no insight at all into Kranz's place in popular culture. For example, the Apollo 13 film, in which Kranz features heavily, is mentioned only fleetingly.
I really enjoyed it, but if you're just learning about the space race, this probably isn't the best starting point.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Brings back so many memories!

I was young when the Apollo and moon landings were the news! I watched the first steps on the moon and was transfixed at the technology and enormity of the achievements. I was luck to travel a bit and saw the Lunar Module in the Science museum in Boston. I was a bit more savvy about technology and amazed at the bravery and the fact that the computer technology was less capable than the power of a modern day smart phone! I saw one of the last lift offs of the shuttle in 2002 and I felt transported back to the days of the moon landing when I was 12.



This book by one of the main men involved throughout the programme relives and retells the reality of it all and I am so glad to be able to hear his story and view of the programme etc.



Thanks Gene for doing this and recording a wonderful, scary and uplifting part of history of the 20th Century.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Not just for space geeks

Whilst I am a space geek, this a good biography from a man that had a front row seat for the greatest show of the twentieth century! If you have any interest in the space race, then this will give more insight to the events and background to those events than many of the general books on the subject and the astronaut biographies. For those of us who have read extensively on the subject, this book gives a new insight into mission control and the personnel, the long hours and the challenges that were overcome by these dedicated and talented young men and women; something sorely neglected in most books! Overall, I would recommend this book, especially for those who have an Internet in the subject and not ventured from the general texts and the astronaut biographies. For those who have never read anything about the space race, this isn't as glamorous as the more general books, but is still good.

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5 people found this helpful

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A Nice Suprise!

I didn't know what to expect from this book. Would it be facts and figures and little else? Would it be a flag waving exercise to make Nasa look good?

As it turned out it was both of these things, but intertwined with the authors life, and a little humour. It really did work and turned out to be a great listen that has pulled me back to relisten multiple times.
Kranz managed to tell the already well told story of Mercury, Gemini & Apollo but from the tech guys point of view, stuck on the Earth looking at screens of data. In a lot of ways this was more compelling than the Astronauts PoV.
Apollo XI & XIII usually take up the majority of any book like this, but Kranz gave them no more time than any of the other long duration flights.


Ignore this review if you want, but understand this...

It's a great book that is well read and worth the money/credit.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

An enjoyable and epic account of life at NASA

I thoroughly enjoyed this audio book. It gives a detailed and interesting personal account of life in NASA mission control from the beginnings of NASA through to the end of the Apollo lunar missions. The book manages to portray some of what it must have felt like to be there during this exciting time. Occasionally the writing style is a but clumsy and feels like it could have done with another edit or tidy up, but in a way this just adds to the fast paced nature of the story. Likewise, sometimes the patriotism and pro-US attitudes of the author become a bit repetitive, but rather than being annoying they add to the character of the author.

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4 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

It's better not to meet your heroes

The saying was never more relevant for me than while reading this book. While there is a lot of interesting information in the book, the author comes off as your typical cliché of American nationalism, which for a European is quite nauseating: he praises people for being "patriotic, God-fearing Americans", more than for actual skills and traits. But what really annoyed me is this: while most people describe Wernher Von Braun as the designer of the German V2 and the Saturn rockets that got people to the moon, Kranz mentions him as "VonBraun and his Germans were experimenting with captured German V2s" and later as "the author of the magazines describing man's future in space". That's it, no other mention of the true merits of Von Braun "and his Germans", as he dismissively calls them. This, combined with the overbearing nationalism throughout the book, just makes me think the author is extremely xenophobic and it just makes the whole book feel distasteful. There are many other things he says that I completely disagree with, but I try to put them aside as normal differences of opinion, but overall it's still a big disappointment.

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Gritty, honest bio.

A very enjoyable listen. I will have to track down the printed version. A no-nonsense account of life as a NASA flight controller and the trials of the manned space programs early days.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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I lived through what is now Space history

Loved the book. The narration made the events more interesting and realistic. I'll listen again !

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Too much detail?

An interesting perspective on America's early space programme, but presented with too much detail for those with a casual interest. Perhaps one for those with a more specific interest in Mission Control!

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Very interesting and informative

Where does Failure Is Not an Option rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I had no idea of the involvement, dedication, and the hard work it takes to get a rocket to the moon. Not only do you learn what it takes you understand about the personal sacrifices these men have to forsake. They hardly ever see their wives and children. If you have watched the film Apollo 13 then you must listen to this book.

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