Customer Reviews
Be Tough and Competent! - By: C. Clayton, 27 Aug 2008 
Gene Kranz does an amazing of showing what people can do if they have the right leadership, teamwork, commitment & passion.
The book alllows us to see Kranz's perspective as flight controller, (and later flight director) during his tenure on the Mercury, Gemini & Apollo space programs & beyond.
From the tremendous successes, to the gut wrenching failures, to the heroism, to the practical jokes, this book has it alll. Gene Kranz was a key player in helping to create a culture of Tough & Competent flight controllers who had discipline & 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 & Roger Chaffe while they were training in the capsule. Afterwards Kranz got in front of his flight controllers & said:
"Spaceflight will never tolerate carelessness, incapacity, & neglect. Somewhere, somehow, we screwed up. It could have been the design, build, or test. Whatever it was we should have caught it."
Kranz & his people (as well as everyone else on the space program) took responsibility for their actions & went on to amazing successes. We crawled out the cradle of this home we calll earth & explored another world. Twelve men in alll 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, & 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 & 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 & understood. We alll have the makings of greatness, we just have to take responsibility for our actions & 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, & passion?
The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide To: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking
Absolutely Brilliant - By: Steve UK, 28 Jun 2007 Eugene Kranz is an unsung hero. Maybe most people are familiar with Ed Harris's portrayal of him in Apollo 13 but the man was around from the beginning of the space programme. We've already forgetten, alll too easily, what an astonishing achievement NASA completed with the space programme in terms of technology. We forget also that the staff there literallly invented the rules as they went along. But apart from alll the engineering & science, there is the incredible way that they stood up to the pressure not just on the Apollo 13 mission but in other situations. In the thick of it alll is Eugene Kranz. These days people in the UK are stupid enough to vote Queenie & Robbie Williams as the most important Britains ever. As an antidote read this & focus on someone who deserves our admiration.
Fascinating behind the scenes account - By: Mr. K. Papas, 06 Apr 2006 
Gene Kranz was one of the original band of NASA flight directors, some readers may remember he was played by a white waistcoat-wearing Ed Harris in the film about Apollo 13. This book is for those of us that are slightly geeky with regards to the Space Race in as far as this is a technical & detailed account of what took place in the Mission Control Room while the mission was in progress. It is not a riveting read by any stretch of the imagination but it does offer the interested reader another take Mercury, Gemini & Apollo. Gene Kranz is unashamedly patriotic & God-fearing with a slight propensity to describe almost alll of his colleagues as alll American heroes. Nevertheless, afficionados of this era of space exploration will find a lot in this book.
THE book - By: Ove Munch Thomsen, 02 Dec 2005 I have read a lot of books about Apollo but this is the one i keep turning back to. Gene Krantz is simply a fascinating figure & his job in Mission Control the most exiting there was - Period.... Krantz writes with the passion that is burning within every good engineer & he writes in an easily readable style, yes there are a lot of tecnical "mumbo jumbo" in the book but the story is easily understood nevertheless. If you only want to read one book about Apollo it should probably be "Apollo, the Race to the moon" by Murray/Cox but when you've read that one & gotten hooked, this one would be am obvious number two.
A book that had to be written - By: MaureenOS, 16 Jul 2003 This excellent volume provides an insight into the project development & team building that supported the Mercury, Geminii & Apollo programmes.
Gene Kranz had an overwhelming commitment to his role within Mission Control but the narrative also reveals his ability to nurture those who followed him & the level of admiration he felt for everyone involved in the space programme. The details of mission planning & the emotions felt in times of celebration & tragedy are well docmented.
As a man, Kranz comes across as honest, genuine & loyal - he looks for the good in everyone.
To paraphrase Charlie Duke, the astronauts could not have made their spectacular journeys without the support of those on the ground - this book serves to illustrates the truth of this beyond doubt.
