posted 09-19-2016 09:30 AM               

In August 1968, NASA made a bold decision: in just sixteen weeks, the United States would launch humankind's first flight to the moon. Only the year before, three astronauts had burned to death in their spacecraft, and since then the Apollo program had suffered one setback after another. Meanwhile, the Russians were winning the space race, the Cold War was getting hotter by the month, and President Kennedy's promise to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade seemed sure to be broken. But when Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders were summoned to a secret meeting and told of the dangerous mission, they instantly signed on.

Written with all the color and verve of the best narrative non-fiction, Apollo 8 takes us from Mission Control to the astronaut's homes, from the test labs to the launch pad. The race to prepare an untested rocket for an unprecedented journey paves the way for the hair-raising trip to the moon. Then, on Christmas Day, a nation that has suffered a horrendous year of assassinations and war is heartened by an inspiring message from the trio of astronauts in lunar orbit. And when the mission is over ― after the first view of the far side of the moon, the first earth-rise, and the first re-entry through the earth's atmosphere following a flight to deep space ― the impossible dream of walking on the moon suddenly seems within reach.

The full story of Apollo 8 has never been told, and only Jeffrey Kluger ― Jim Lovell's co-author on their bestselling book about Apollo 13 ― can do it justice. Here is the tale of a mission that was both a calculated risk and a wild crapshoot, a stirring account of how three American heroes forever changed our view of the home planet.

• Hardcover: 336 pages
  
• Henry Holt and Co. (May 16, 2017)
  
• ISBN-10: 1627798323
  
• ISBN-13: 978-1627798327

posted 10-11-2016 10:02 AM               

Coming this spring!

posted 04-27-2017 03:54 PM               

Join us for a talk by Jeffrey Kluger, author of "Apollo 8: The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon."

Kluger's new book tells the gripping true story of Apollo 8, a harrowing mission that launched astronauts into lunar orbit, provided our first glimpse at the far side of the moon, and marked the first reentry into Earth's atmosphere after a flight into deep space. Kluger, in conversation with former NASA astronaut and New York Times best-selling author Mike Massimino, will reflect on the mission that brought the dream of walking on the moon within reach.

Jeffrey Kluger is the science editor for TIME and the author of "Apollo 13." Books will be available for purchase and signing following the talk.

posted 05-16-2017 05:30 PM               

• National Air and Space Museum, Washington, DC
  May 18, 2017; 1:30 p.m.

• The Museum of Flight, Seattle, Washington
  May 20, 2017; 5:30 p.m.

• Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, Florida
  June 8, 2017; 2:00 p.m.

posted 05-22-2017 01:56 PM               

I am now 36% through this book and disappointed. I've read a mini-biography of Frank Borman's life including romancing his wife, a mini-history of the Gemini program with the focus on the 7/6 mission, an overview of the Apollo 1 fire and am now moving into details about Lyndon Johnson, Vietnam and the King assassination. I understand the desire for the author to write an "all encompassing" book and give us the background to the historic flight but it's a bit much.

And when I read with no attribution that Wally Schirra told people working at NAA "you've roasted three men in that thing already" or someone else says that "the moon project depended on a spacecraft that had proven a literal deathtrap" my enthusiasm falls further. If people really did utter such statements at those times I'd like to see the research that uncovered them.

posted 05-24-2017 08:05 AM               

Jeffrey Kluger would presumably have access to the crew members and others involved in Apollo 8, so I don't want to miss any previously-unseen info.

Also, while those who are familiar with the story will prefer a no-background-needed-we-know-it-already story, in order for the general reader to really understand Apollo 8 and its impact on society a thorough background of what was going on in the world in 1968 would be necessary. As one of the telegrams to NASA said, "You saved 1968."

posted 05-24-2017 10:22 AM            

I don't agree with Kluger's intimation that Charles Lindbergh was a Nazi sympathizer. His non-interventionist stance was actually held by a vast majority of Americans until Pear Harbor. And once America entered the war, Lindbergh volunteered.

Kluger states that Guenter Wendt was part of the von Braun group which is incorrect.

posted 06-14-2017 01:25 PM               

'Apollo 8' author Jeffrey Kluger looks back at first moon mission 50 years later

Jeffrey Kluger was just a kid growing up in suburban Baltimore when he watched it live on the color television in his mom's room. Even at 14 years old though, he knew that something had changed.

"The feeling just welled up in me, and I just thought, 'this is something new, something different,'" he said. "Something had just shifted. We had become a species of not just one world, but of two."

"I couldn't have been farther from the moon, but I was part of it — part of that story," he said.

posted 07-25-2017 06:18 PM               

Thrilled to share this exciting news. There's a lot that has to go right before a deal actually becomes a series, but we do have liftoff.

In a competitive situation, Fox21 Television Studios has acquired TV rights to "Apollo 8," the bestselling book from Time magazine editor Jeffrey Kluger, co-author of "Apollo 13," which was the basis for the 1995 Best Picture nominee directed by Ron Howard.

The project was brought to the studio by producer David T. Friendly ("Queen Of The South," "Little Miss Sunshine") under his overall deal, along with Michael Bostick, who produced the Emmy-winning 1998 miniseries "From The Earth To The Moon" that chronicled the Apollo missions. Friendly and Bostick, who both serve as executive producers, are meeting with writers to pen the adaptation.

posted 03-04-2018 05:01 PM               

To the Moon! The True Story of the American Heroes on the Apollo 8 Spaceship
by Jeffrey Kluger and Ruby Shamir

What's more exciting than spaceships and astronauts? How about a spaceship carrying the first astronauts ever to see the moon firsthand — on Christmas!

The year was 1968, and the American people were still reeling from the spacecraft fire that killed the Apollo 1 crew a year earlier. On top of that, there were rumors that the Russian cosmonauts were getting ready to fly around the moon. NASA realized that they needed to take a bold step--and that they needed to take it now. They wanted to win the space race against Russia and hold true to President Kennedy's promise to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. So in a risky move, a few days before Christmas of that year, they sent Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders to the moon!

This book about the exciting and inspiring true story of Apollo 8, the first crewed spaceship to break free of Earth's orbit and reach the moon, tells the story of these three brave men, the frantic rush to get their rocket ready, and the journey that gave the American people — and the world — a new look at the planet we live on and the corner of space we inhabit.

Filled with the science and training required to put a person into space, and every detail of what it's like to live in a spaceship for days on end (including what happens when astronauts need to use the bathroom), this book is sure to leave kids clamoring for a spot on the next mission to outer space.

• Age Range: 10-13 years
  
• Hardcover: 288 pages
  
• Philomel Books (March 20, 2018)
  
• ISBN-10: 1524741019
  
• ISBN-13: 978-1524741013