Failure is Not an Option -

Gene Kranz

Simon & Schuster

2000

415 páginas

13h 50m

ISBN-10: 0743200799

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.

Resenhas (1)

4 (Muito bom)

Por dentro da sala de controle

A surpresa no livro é a calma e os detalhes do gerenciamento de riscos e do plano de exploração e vôos da NASA.
Kranz chega a ser detalhista demais em circunstâncias cotidianas, mas em vários capítulos peca em não transpor ao papel a complexidade, a tensão e o jogo político.
Os capítulos da Apolo 1, com a morte da tripulação em solo; Apolo 11, com a chega do homem à lua e a Apolo 13 valem o livro. Certamente são os pontos altos da descritiva, mas ainda falta um pouco da tensão e crise que muitos outros textos trazem à essas histórias.
Claramente se percebe o cotidiano da sala de controle e os procedimentos e sistemas que são colocados à prova a cada teste, simulação e lançamento.
Um excelente livro, só me ressinto da falta de tensão em alguns momentos. Mas um excelente livro.