The Unbroken Chain: Apogee Books Space Series 20 [With CDROM]

by Russell Still and Guenter Wendt

Book Overview

Guenter Wendt's autobiography is a ground shaking document of the glory days of manned spaceflight, told from the perspective of the launch pad. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 189652284X
• ISBN13: 9781896522845
• Release Date: October 2001
• Publisher: Collector's Guide Publishing
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.9" x 10.2"

Customer Reviews

Wonderfully human!

While I agree that a chapter about Guenter's pre-NASA life really would have been a Good Thing, this book is fabulous.I have read about 10 memoirs/books on apollo/gemini/mercury. This stands out in the following ways:- very good at getting the feel of the human beings and personalities, and a feel for Guenter himself.- wonderful humor and jokes scattered across.- details on pre-flight launch pad testing and procedures that are hard to find elsewhere.

Loved it, wonderful job!

I received my book yesterday and have already read it. I just could not put it down once I opened it up.I have read most all of the books out by former and current Astronauts and this is one is the best so far. The story is told by a man that saw and lived through all of the early programs. Guenter Wendt was the last person to speak to and shake hands with each astronaut before closing the hatch on each mission and has some killer stores to tell about the going ons at the pad as well as in the various lives of all involved in the "chain".I learned many things that I had not heard before about the inner workings of the space program as well as some great "inside" stories about the astronauts and their families.Russell Still has done a wonderful job of relating Guenters story. The book uses nice fonts and is formatted so as to make it an easy read. The cover photography is awesome as well as the many pages of photography inside of the book. Just the CD (included with the book) is worth the cover price alone.I would highly recommend. Well done!

Guenter and Russ hit a home run!

Anyone who has ever read a book about the space program or watched any of the launches of the 1950's through the 1980's knows that Guenter Wendt was the last person to tuck the astronauts into their couches and shake their hands before shutting the hatch. The man was there and saw and heard it all.Guenter takes us on a journey from 1955 until his retirement in 1989. He spins tales about the astronauts and their ungoing "gotcha's", troubles with various contractor managers, monkey business with Ham and Enos, and the world's perception of the US Space Program during its hayday.Not since Gene Kranz wrote "Failure Is Not An Option" have we been treated to so many behind the scenes stories and anecdotes. We get to hear the stories of someone wanting to shoot the MR-1 launch vehicle with a 30.06 when it refused to take off, Alan Shepard's pad antics involving a German army helmet, feces throwing chimpanzees, and the ongoing battle to keep the entire pad area safe from all the toxic gas and explosives that surrounded that area.Guenter and Russ explain that one little break in "the chain" could have disasterous effects. This proved true during the Apollo 13 explosion in space as well as the Challenger launch disaster. Guenter is a man of great passion about his job, the space program in general, and the country he adopted back in 1955 when he became a US Citizen.This book is well worth reading. You won't be able to put it down until you've finished. The addition of a CD-ROM with many of Guenter's stories is a real asset to the book. You'll enjoy every minute of it.

Guenter Wendt is a legend - and this book is a winner

In his new book, 'The Unbroken Chain', Guenter Wendt, with co-author Russell Still, recounts his years working on the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and early Space Shuttle programs, capturing an aspect that other books have missed - the invaluable contributions of the army of workers "in the trenches," as he is fond to say.Guenter's wonderful (and often hilarious) anecdotes and personal encounters only add to the interwoven theme of The Unbroken Chain - that it takes a 'chain' of tens of thousands of individuals to accomplish just one successful space mission.'The Unbroken Chain' features an added bonus - alone worth the cover price - a CD-ROM disk that takes the reader on a virtual computer tour of the Cape Canaveral launch facilities, narrated by Guenter Wendt and filled with his colorful tales of the early days of space exploration. The disk also includes a 360-degree panoramic sweep of several historic launch pads as they appear today and an impressive collection of personal references from a veritable "Who's Who' of the Moon race.'The Unbroken Chain' is a winner and a perfect addition to any library. It will bring a smile to the face of any reader even marginally interested in the Race to the Moon.

For the inside scoop on NASA in the '60s and '70s Read This!

What can I say, except WOW!? This beauty is chock FULL of interesting stories and insider information that only someone like the author can provide. Guenter Wendt tells the story of the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle eras of NASA like no one else has, or could. Only he was there from the very beginning through to the Shuttle era, and he tells it like it was, with no sugar coating and plenty of new and fresh stories. His unique perspectives on the astronauts really brings their personalities out like nothing I've read before. There's so much new and interesting to read in this book that I will have to reread it several times to absorb it all. I met the author at a book signing in Los Angeles and he is a wonderful man. Later on, when I read the book, I couldn't help but feel like I was still at the book signing, listening to terrific tales of Mercury Gemini and Apollo. If you get a chance to meet him in person, you really must. If you can't meet him in person, you couldn't do any better than to buy this book, because he's in there, accent and all. Like other books by Apogee Press, this one comes with a CD-ROM which has awesome quicktime videos of Guenter giving a personal tour of the launch pads and other areas at the Cape! You can hear his stories in his own words! It's got lots of other goodies, like personal letters to Guenter from dozens of astronauts, including Neil Armstrong, Gus Grissom, Alan Shepard, John Glenn, John Young, Jim Irwin, and many more. What an incredible journal, documenting the fantastic voyages and voyagers of NASA. I rank it right up there with "Carrying The Fire" as a valuable and treasured insiders history of NASA. You won't be disappointed with this one, check it out at www.padleader.com too, for future events and signings.