Angle of Attack: Harrison Storms and the Race to the Moon

by Mike Gray

Book Overview

Apollo was the most ambitious engineering project ever undertaken by man: to take a rocket 50 storeys high, load it with the explosive power of a nuclear device, put men on top of it, and shoot it at the moon.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 039301892X
• ISBN13: 9780393018929
• Release Date: January 1992
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.3" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

I Was There

I don't intend to write a long analytical review like some already posted. I just want to say that I was there at NAA as a young engineer during the period covered by this book. I absolutely loved the book. I couldn't put it down and wanted it to never end. To those critics who ask "Is it really true?", I can only say that those parts that covered events that I witnessed personally are uncannily in sync with my recollections. What an adventure it was! I don't think we could do it again, in today's environment, even with twice as much budget and time.

A magnificent engineering obsession

A very worthwhile book for engineers, project managers and people who want to understand the challenges those people face. It is very readable and intensely interesting. Engineers and others with project experience will recognize this book has the "ring of truth". The Apollo project had a number of extremes that the book explains well, such as: balancing design goals such as light weight and strength building on a bigger scale than had been done before going someplace that had only been a dream before working incredible numbers of hours Some people complained this book was not a footnoted history. Good thing it isn't that boring. Others complained that it ignored someone else's experience. They should write another book and hope it is half as good.

Should be required Apollo reading...

In any detailed account of the Apollo program, it's always been assumed that North American Aviation was in over it's head and used major marketing "tricks" to get the Command Module and S-II stage contracts. This account gives the "other side" perspective and what a story it is! You get NAA's perspective on their early days, the drive to get the Apollo contracts, the roadblocks encountered in trying to "spec" these never before used components all culminating in the Apollo 1 fire that, un-fortunately, sacrificed the career of Harrison Storms and others.This more than any other book (with the exception of "Apollo...the race to the Moon by Murray/Cox) gives the true meaning of the term "Space Race" and the anxiety felt by all participants. MUST be included in all essential Apollo reading...

The Right Stuff with Engineers

One of the most fascinating and enjoyable space program books yet written, and one that starts to suggest the unvarnished version of events, including the concept that, gosh, NASA might not be beyond reproach when it came to Apollo stumbles and friction. "Angle of Attack" is particularly fascinating for exploring the business and management aspects of bidding, designing, and actually building the Apollo spacecraft, something I have not found elsewhere in print. Other very good books, Apollo: Race to the Moon (Murray and Cox), and Man on the Moon (Chaikin) tell the NASA as hero, flight controller as hero, and astronaut as hero stories, but little is said about what it took to get from concept to built craft. Further, much of the NASA derived stories have a "contractors are just tinbenders" attitude that not only is conspicuously self-serving to NASA, but shelters a whole lot of incredible effort from view. Having worked on large complex fast-track projects, having seen the bassackwards nature of demanding clients and the politics and the skirmishes, the messy environment of the mid-60's space program sure rings truer in this book than anything else I have read on the subject. This story exactly fits how large organizations and their people behave. And if you can find a more credible description of the political/media aspects of the Apollo 1 accident investigations, I'd like to see it. Some accuse Mike Gray of bias for telling North American's oral history rather than NASA's. I say it is for precisely that reason this is a valuable book. Read it, read the others, decide where the truth lies and how good of a guy Joe Shea is and all that on your own, but if you love the Apollo story, read this book.

This is a great "case study" for project management.

I am a project manager on large software development projects. I found this book to be a wonderful case study into the management of technical people. There has never been a more complex and pressure-packed project than Apollo. This book provides lessons for project managers today. Most importantly, have clear objectives and don't let up