Coming soon · Book Profile
Failure Is Not an Option - Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond (2000)
Gene Kranz, NASA's legendary flight director, recounts the human ingenuity, discipline, and teamwork behind Mission Control that carried America from its first faltering rocket launches through the Moon landings and the rescue of Apollo 13.
A profile of this book is on the way.
What it’s about
Told from inside the smoke-filled consoles of Mission Control, Failure Is Not an Option is a firsthand chronicle of how a small band of very young engineers, test pilots, and controllers invented the art of real-time spaceflight operations from scratch. Gene Kranz takes readers from the humiliating 'Four-Inch Flight' of early Mercury, through the rendezvous and EVA breakthroughs of Gemini, the searing tragedy of the Apollo 1 fire, the first lunar landing, and the near-fatal Apollo 13 crisis. More than a history, it is a leadership manual disguised as memoir: it shows how trust, discipline, learning-by-doing, and a refusal to accept failure turned fragile technology and inexperienced people into a team that could improvise solutions 200,000 miles from home. Anyone interested in leadership under pressure, team building, risk management, or the golden age of spaceflight will find it riveting and instructive.
The through-line
- Who it’s for
- An ambitious, mission-driven person who wants to lead a high-performing team through unprecedented, high-stakes challenges and achieve something historic.
- The problem
- Facing complex, time-critical challenges with immature technology, incomplete information, and no proven playbook. Feeling unqualified, overwhelmed, and afraid of failing the people who depend on you.
- The plan
- Learn your systems in exhaustive detail by doing the work yourself, so knowledge is at your fingertips.
- Build a disciplined, trusting team and hire people smarter than you.
- Write down decisions in advance as Go/NoGo rules so debate is behind you before the crisis.
- Train relentlessly through realistic simulations that expose and fix your weaknesses.
- In a crisis, stay calm, buy time, preserve options, and never act without solid cues.
- The payoff
- You lead a team that can improvise solutions no manual anticipated and bring people through crises alive. · You earn the trust of those you serve and those who serve alongside you. · You accomplish historic goals and inspire the next generation to reach farther.
See our guide
Additional reading
- Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut's Journeys · Michael Collins
Written by the Apollo 11 Command Module Pilot, it provides an eloquent and deeply personal firsthand account of the astronaut experience, from training to the historic first lunar landing mission.
- Apollo: The Race to the Moon · Charles Murray and Catherine Bly Cox
This book provides a comprehensive perspective from the engineers and flight controllers in Mission Control, complementing the astronaut-focused narrative of 'A Man on the Moon.'
- The Right Stuff · Tom Wolfe
It chronicles the lives and culture of the original Mercury astronauts, providing essential background on the test pilot ethos that shaped the entire astronaut corps and defined its early character.
- To a Rocky Moon: A Geologist’s History of Lunar Exploration · Don E. Wilhelms
This book offers a detailed chronicle of Apollo's scientific evolution, focusing on the geological exploration of the moon and the training of the astronauts to be scientific observers.
- This New Ocean (Project Mercury) · NASA History Series
Cited in the acknowledgments as an invaluable reference for developing the chronology and technical details of the Mercury program described in the book.
- On the Shoulders of Titans (Project Gemini) · NASA History Series
Cited in the acknowledgments as an invaluable reference for understanding the Gemini program, which served as the critical bridge between Mercury and Apollo.
- Chariots for Apollo (Project Apollo) · NASA History Series
Cited in the acknowledgments as a key source for the history of the Apollo program, providing context for the events Kranz recounts from an operational perspective.
- Stages to Saturn (Saturn rocket development) · NASA History Series
Cited in the acknowledgments as an important reference for the development of the powerful Saturn rockets that were central to the Apollo missions.
- The World Set Free · H. G. Wells
This 1914 novel prophetically described 'atomic bombs,' a world war fought with them, and the establishment of a world state. It greatly impressed Leo Szilard and influenced his thinking about the societal consequences of nuclear energy.
- The Open Conspiracy · H. G. Wells
A non-fiction work advocating for a 'public collusion' of influential individuals to guide the world toward a scientific republic. Szilard read this in the 1920s and adopted its terminology and ideas for his own efforts to organize scientists to 'save the world.'