Genre: Nonfiction--History
Completed: 7 March 2020
Summary & Review:
At the end of the 1950s, the United States was falling woefully behind the Soviet Union and their mighty Integral rocket. Desperate to catch up, the country selects seven brave men, men with the right stuff, to propel the fledgling space program into orbit. In this comprehensive account of the Mercury space program, Tom Wolfe examines the men behind it all. He looks at their pedigree as military combat pilots and test pilots, reveals the grueling selection process, and presents the early days of NASA from Alan Shepard's suborbital flight as the first American in space through Gordon Cooper's 34-hour, 22-orbit mission.
I loved this book. Like I said in my review of Apollo 8, the subject matter written about here is so inherently interesting that any competent author could write a great book about it. Tom Wolfe, however, is not just a competent author, he is an outstanding author. In his hands, this era came alive.
I started reading this book on 20 July 2019, the 50th anniversary of the moon landing by Apollo 11.
Rating: 10.0
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