THE IMPOSSIBLE MISSION THAT FLEW US TO THE MOON Fishman, Charles 1961- creator author. text bibliography enk 2019 2019 First Simon & Schuster paperback export edition. monographic eng 464 pages : 23 cm black and white photographs; President John F. Kennedy astonished the world on May 25, 1961, when he announced to Congress that the United States would land a man on the Moon by 1970. No group was more surprised than the engineers at NASA. On the day of the historic speech, America had a total of fifteen minutes of spaceflight experience -- with just five of those minutes outside the atmosphere. In fact, Soviet canines had more spaceflight experience than US astronauts. To fulfill President Kennedy's mandate, NASA engineers had to invent space travel. When Kennedy announced his goal, no one knew how to navigate to the Moon. No one knew how to build a rocket big enough to fly to the Moon. No one knew how to build a computer small enough to put on that rocket. No one knew how to feed astronauts in space, and no one knew how astronauts would even use the bathroom in space. And NASA had just nine years to make it happen. Here, Charles Fishman introduces readers to the men and women tasked with putting a man on the moon. From the labs of MIT, where the eccentric and legendary digital pioneer Charles Draper created the two computers aboard Apollo 11, to the factories where hundreds of women sewed spacesuits, and even computer programs by hand, Fishman captures the sweeping achievement of these ordinary Americans. This is the captivating story of men and women charged with changing the world as we know it -- their leaders, their triumphs, their near disasters, all of which led to arguably the greatest success story of the twentieth century. general CHARLES FISHMAN. Includes bibliographical references and index. United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration History Project Apollo (U.S.) History Space flight to the moon History Space flight to the moon History United States Astronautics History United States 629.454 9781982130152 PPAK 200609 20200618145605.0 eng