EDITORIAL INFORMATION

A generation of men and women who had defined their lives to a large extent in terms of this nation's epochal departure from Earth's surface was taking its leave of the program they had built. Would they, or their work, be remembered? Would anyone care? As the historian for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, I had the responsibility of attempting -attempting, because the task could never be fully done- to capture the essence of their lives and careers.

(Extracted from the Preface, by the author)

GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

-Contents.

-Preface.

-Acknowledgments.

-Introduction.

-1- Beginnings, 1918-1932.

-2- Beginnings, 1932-1948.

-3- What Goes Up.

-4- Journeys.

-5- Scientists, Engineers, and Managers.

-6- Changes.

-Epilog.

-Appendix A: NASA Managers Solicited for Names of "Representative" NASA Engineers.

-Appendix B: Demographic Tables.

-Appendix C: Education and Military Service of NASA Apollo Era Engineers Interviewed.

-Index.

-NASA History Publications.

-Sylvia Doughty Fries.

OUR REVIEW

Being involved in the most important space enterprise of all times, the Apollo moon program, must have been something very special for the engineers who worked for NASA to make this dream come true. No doubt Apollo would be the work of their lifetimes, the milestone that would mark their careers forever. Obviously, the perspectives provided by the moon project spurred a whole generation of young students, thus shaping their working future.

The author examines in depth what probably was the most competent human group in History, the one who had to face the unexpected challenge of Apollo, with its triumphs and its failures, its spectacular advances in the fields of science and engineering, and the one that, once their mission was accomplished, either had to refocus their careers or watch the slow but inexorable declining of the expectations in their agency.

On the other hand, the book attends specially the individual figures that appeared in the way, the personalities in the technical and managerial areas who no doubt will for a long time be remembered as the true driving forces of the space program. In many difficult moments their perseverance succeeded in overcoming all the problems. This book then, is a tribute to all these people as well as those who were under their command. While reading it we will learn about some memorable stories, we will see how they reacted before the growing bureaucratization of the NASA and the change in objectives, and we will realise about the path that some of them followed till they reached the status where their careers finished.