American moonshot : John F. Kennedy and the great space race / Douglas Brinkley.

Includes bibliographic references (pages 465-526) and index.

Dr. Robert Goddard meets Buck Rogers -- Kennedy, Von Braun, and the Crucible of World War II -- Surviving a savage war -- Who's afraid of the V-2? -- Spooked into the space race -- Sputnik revolution -- Missile gaps and the creation of NASA -- Mercury Seven to the rescue -- Kennedy for President -- Skyward with James WEB -- Yuri Gagarin and Alan Shepard -- "Going to the moon" : Washington, DC May 25, 1961 -- Searching for moonlight in Tulsa and Vienna -- Moon momentum with television and Gus Grissom -- Godspeed, John Glenn -- Scott Carpenter, Telstar, and Presidential space touring -- "We choose to go to the moon" : Rice Universtiy, September 12, 1962 -- Gemini Nine and Wally Schirra -- State of space exploration -- "The space effort must go on" -- Cape Kennedy -- Epilogue : The triumph of Apollo 11.

As the fiftieth anniversary of the first lunar landing approaches, the award winning historian and perennial New York Times bestselling author takes a fresh look at the space program, President John F. Kennedy's inspiring challenge, and America's race to the moon. On May 25, 1961, JFK made an astonishing announcement: his goal of putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade. In this engrossing, fast-paced epic, Douglas Brinkley returns to the 1960s to recreate one of the most exciting and ambitious achievements in the history of humankind. American Moonshot brings together the extraordinary political, cultural, and scientific factors that fueled the birth and development of NASA and the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo projects, which shot the United States to victory in the space race against the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War. Drawing on new primary source material and major interviews with many of the surviving figures who were key to America's success, Brinkley brings this fascinating history to life as never before. American Moonshot is a portrait of the brilliant men and women who made this giant leap possible, the technology that enabled us to propel men beyond earth's orbit to the moon and return them safely, and the geopolitical tensions that spurred Kennedy to commit himself fully to this audacious dream. Brinkley's ensemble cast of New Frontier characters include rocketeer Wernher von Braun, astronaut John Glenn and space booster Lyndon Johnson. A vivid and enthralling chronicle of one of the most thrilling, hopeful, and turbulent eras in the nation's history, American Moonshot is an homage to scientific ingenuity, human curiosity, and the boundless American spirit.