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Failure is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond (Thorndike Paperback Bestsellers) by: Gene Kranz

Publisher: Berkley Publishing Corporation,U.S.
Release date: 30th April, 2001
Media: Paperback

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Editorial Review

In 1957, the Russians launched Sputnik and the ensuing space race. Three years later, Gene Kranz left his aircraft testing job to join NASA and champion the American cause. What he found was an embryonic department run by whizz kids (such as himself), sharp engineers and technicians who had to create the Mercury mission rules and procedures from the ground up. As he says, "Since there were no books written on the actual methodology of space flight, we had to write them as we went along".

Kranz was part of the mission control team that, in January 1961, launched a chimpanzee into space and successfully retrieved him and made Alan Shepard the first American in space in May 1961. Just two months later they launched Gus Grissom for a space orbit, John Glenn orbited Earth three times in February 1962, and in May 1963 Gordon Cooper completed the final Project Mercury launch with 22 Earth orbits. And through them all, and the many Apollo missions that followed, Gene Kranz was one of the integral inside men--one of those who bore the responsibility for the Apollo 1 tragedy and the leader of the "tiger team" that saved the Apollo 13 astronauts.

Moviegoers know Gene Kranz through Ed Harris's Oscar-nominated portrayal of him in Apollo 13, but Kranz provides a more detailed insider's perspective in his book Failure Is Not an Option. You see NASA through his eyes, from its primitive days when he first joined up, through the 1993 shuttle mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope, his last mission control project. His memoir, however, is not high literature. Kranz has many accomplishments and honours to his credit, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, but this is his first book, and he's not a polished author. There are, perhaps, more behind-the-scenes details and more paragraphs devoted to what Cape Canaveral looked like than the general public demands. If, however, you have a long-standing fascination with aeronautics, if you watched Apollo 13 and wanted more, Failure Is Not an Option will fit the bill. --Stephanie Gold

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Average rating - (more reviews)

Rating: - Apollo told from the controllers console

Gene Kranz' book reads like a crime story. It is among the best and most exciting book I have read until now on the US Space program. Kranz was not only a superb flight controller, he is also a master story teller. His style is crisp, clear and to the point but more often than not also spiced with little anecdotes that makes you smile. Much of what is here was not known before. One example: I did not know that an EVA to free the shroud of the ADTA "angry alligator" on Gemini 9 was suggested by high management in the MSC and then very seriously contemplated. All my sources say that such an EVA was just suggested and quickly dismissed. The EVA might very likely have led to huge problems or could even have killed astronaut Gene Cernan. This, and many other examples means that Kranz' book is essential historical documentation on the US Space Program, one that takes us directly into the rooms where critical decisions weree taken. Unreservedly recommended. You will not regret!

Rating: - Superb

As a young boy I watched the unfolding drama of the NASA missions and in later years have read and watched as much as possible on the subject. Gene Kranz's book is written with a passion that only comes from someone who believes in what he does. The book is not overly technical and is very easy to read at no time getting bogged down in unnessary details. I felt rather sad reading the last couple of chapters as the Apollo missions came to a premature end. You really do feel the grief felt by the people that made the whole thing possible and the utter feeling of being let down by a nation who lost the vision of space exploration.

If I have learnt one thing from this book it is that the world would be a much better place if we had a few more leaders and citizens from the same mold as Mr Gene Kranz, truly a man for whom Failure Was Not An Option.

Rating: - The Best Management Book You Will Ever Read

Forget all the theorists and manuals - what this is, without intending to be, is an inspirational account of how one man and a cast of thousands delivered the seemingly impossible. There are some fantastic quotes which are just breath-taking in their simplicity yet enormity "Knowing what we didn't know was how we stopped people being killed" is my favourite. This was not about Maslow, maximising productivity or leadership styles, it was about turning a dream into reality. Even if you see no benefits from space exploration, you cannot ignore it as the most amazing example of human ingenuity.

Rating: - An amazing life.....

...told in an utterly absorbing fashion.One gets the impression that Kranz is aware of how fortunate a working life he has had and tells us the story of it in compelling and gripping fashion.

He has been not only present but intrinsically important to some of the most seminal moments in not only scientific but human evolution and his story is one of intrigue and a burning desire to learn and grow.

He captures the blend of adrenalin, adventure and discipline that drove the extraodinary accomplishments of the era and turns a book that I had high expectations of into a must read addition to the genre.

Fantastic

Rating: - Be Tough and Competent!

Gene Kranz does an amazing of showing what people can do if they have the right leadership, teamwork, commitment and passion.

The book allows us to see Kranz's perspective as flight controller, (and later flight director) during his tenure on the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo space programs and beyond.

From the tremendous successes, to the gut wrenching failures, to the heroism, to the practical jokes, this book has it all. Gene Kranz was a key player in helping to create a culture of Tough and Competent flight controllers who had discipline and morale. They knew the true meaning of teamwork.

One of the stories that impressed me most was after the devastating tragedy of the Apollo 1. A fire on the pad killed Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffe while they were training in the capsule. Afterwards Kranz got in front of his flight controllers and said:

"Spaceflight will never tolerate carelessness, incapacity, and neglect. Somewhere, somehow, we screwed up. It could have been the design, build, or test. Whatever it was we should have caught it."

Kranz and his people (as well as everyone else on the space program) took responsibility for their actions and went on to amazing successes. We crawled out the cradle of this home we call earth and explored another world. Twelve men in all walked on the moon. Also, three astronauts were brought back home safely from the brink of disaster in Apollo 13. We had truly gone where no man had gone before.

These were human beings, and they are the best of the best. Not an Astronaut was lost during any of the following Apollo missions. The tragedy on the pad drove the commitment of everyone on the space program to an entirely new level. As a matter of fact, not a man was lost once they left earth on the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs.

Gene Kranz sums up how he gained his skills to be a top flight director when he said:

"The flight director's ultimate training comes at the console, working real problems, facing the risks, making irrevocable decisions."


This book belongs on any bookshelf, but not to be looked at, but to be read and understood. We all have the makings of greatness, we just have to take responsibility for our actions and do the very best we know how. What other amazing things can we accomplish as a species if we have the right leadership, teamwork, commitment, and passion?

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