Author: Robert Kurson
Publisher: Random House
ISBN: 0812988728
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 402

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Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The riveting inside story of three heroic astronauts who took on the challenge of mankind’s historic first mission to the Moon, from the bestselling author of Shadow Divers. “Robert Kurson tells the tale of Apollo 8 with novelistic detail and immediacy.”—Andy Weir, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Martian and Artemis By August 1968, the American space program was in danger of failing in its two most important objectives: to land a man on the Moon by President Kennedy’s end-of-decade deadline, and to triumph over the Soviets in space. With its back against the wall, NASA made an almost unimaginable leap: It would scrap its usual methodical approach and risk everything on a sudden launch, sending the first men in history to the Moon—in just four months. And it would all happen at Christmas. In a year of historic violence and discord—the Tet Offensive, the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy, the riots at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago—the Apollo 8 mission would be the boldest, riskiest test of America’s greatness under pressure. In this gripping insider account, Robert Kurson puts the focus on the three astronauts and their families: the commander, Frank Borman, a conflicted man on his final mission; idealistic Jim Lovell, who’d dreamed since boyhood of riding a rocket to the Moon; and Bill Anders, a young nuclear engineer and hotshot fighter pilot making his first space flight. Drawn from hundreds of hours of one-on-one interviews with the astronauts, their loved ones, NASA personnel, and myriad experts, and filled with vivid and unforgettable detail, Rocket Men is the definitive account of one of America’s finest hours. In this real-life thriller, Kurson reveals the epic dangers involved, and the singular bravery it took, for mankind to leave Earth for the first time—and arrive at a new world. “Rocket Men is a riveting introduction to the [Apollo 8] flight. . . . Kurson details the mission in crisp, suspenseful scenes. . . . [A] gripping book.”—The New York Times Book Review

Author: Mark Bego
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1643133780
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
The colorful and kaleidoscopic life of one of the world’s most original and talented musical artists. Here’s the book every pop music lover has been waiting for—full of the scandals, addictions, affairs and tantrums that underscored the life of arguably the world’s greatest pop musician. Flamboyant, iconic Elton John is as much part of the American musical landscape as he is in his native England. In the 1970s, when popular music on both sides of the Atlantic fragmented into disco, soul, hard rock, pop and folk, Elton John embraced them all with his signature creative panache. Emerging in the late 1960s as a singer/songwriter, Elton was widely acknowledged as the most prolific pop and rock star of the decade by the mid-1970s. His peerless musical style and ability to jump from sensitive ballads to bawdy rock anthems to campy pop have made him a musical superstar for the ages. From his heartfelt ballads like “Tiny Dancer” and “Your Song,” to his rock & roll hits including “Benny and The Jets” and “Crocodile Rock,” Elton has lived one of the most outrageous and colorful lives in show business. Having met the “Rocket Man” the first time in the 1980s, Bego has drawn upon his personal observations, vast research, and has been able interview dozens of Elton’s collaborators and lifelong friends to produce the the ultimate story on the amazing and larger-than-life Elton John.

Author: Jessica Easto
Publisher: Agate Publishing
ISBN: 1572847905
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 104

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Book Description
A compilation of inspiring and motivational quotes from Elon Musk, “the world’s most remarkable living entrepreneur” (Chris Anderson, curator of TED). Elon Musk, the South African-born entrepreneur who made his first fortune with Internet companies such as PayPal, has risen to global prominence as the visionary CEO of both Tesla Motors and SpaceX, two companies with self-proclaimed missions to improve life as we know it and better secure the future of humanity. For the first time, the most insightful, thought-provoking, and revealing quotes from this entrepreneurial engineer have been compiled into a single book. Rocket Man: Elon Musk in His Own Words is a comprehensive guide to the inner workings of the man dubbed “the real Tony Stark.” Hundreds of his best quotes, comprising thoughts on business, clean energy, innovation, engineering, technology, space, electric vehicles, entrepreneurship, life lessons, and more, provide an intimate and direct look into Silicon Valley’s most ambitious industrialist. How could a young man who at one time seemed like “just” another Internet entrepreneur have gone on to build two highly disruptive companies and innovate technologies related to everything from electric batteries to rocket manufacturing? There’s no better way to learn than through his own words. This book curates Musk quotes from interviews, public appearances, online postings, company blogs, press releases, and more. What emerges is a “word portrait” of the man whose companies’ swift rise to the top will undoubtedly keep their status-quo competitors scrambling to keep up.

Author: Ruth Ashby
Publisher: Holiday House
ISBN: 1561457450
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 119

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Book Description
On February 20, 1962, as millions of Americans waited anxiously, astronaut John Glenn blasted off in his rocket ship, Friendship 7, and became the first American to orbit the Earth. Although the risks of such a mission for Friendship 7 were well known, no one including Glenn knew the peril he was about to encounter in space. John Glenn was one of the Mercury 7 astronauts, the early pioneers of manned space flight. His historic flight followed years of intensive physical training and a devotion to a career in the exciting but risk-filled world of aviation. Ruth Ashby's dramatic story of John Glenn's near-disastrous mission in Friendship 7 also takes young readers through his small-town Ohio childhood, his extraordinary experiences as a fighter pilot in two wars, and his life as an astronaut in the prestigious and dangerous Mercury 7 program. The book concludes with Glenn's successful career as a US senator and his triumphant return to space in 1998 at the age of 77.

Author: Chris Roberts
Publisher: Union Square & Company
ISBN: 9781454934523
Category : Biography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"A celebratory retrospective of one of popular music's most enduring and beloved stars, as he tours the world one last time." -- amazon.com.

Author: Roger Clemens
Publisher: Penguin Group
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
In Rocket Man, Clemens tells the dramatic story of his return from surgery and provides a pitch-by-pitch description of his 1986 Cy Young MVP season. Features a new section on the 1987 Red Sox season and shows how Roger Clemens became part of baseball history.

Author: David A. Clary
Publisher: Hachette Books
ISBN: 1401398332
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
More famous in his day than Einstein or Edison, the troubled, solitary genius Robert H. Goddard (1882-1945) was the American father of rocketry and space flight, launching the world's first liquid-fuel rockets and the first powered vehicles to break the sound barrier. Supported by Charles Lindbergh and Harry Guggenheim, through fiery, often explosive, experiments at Roswell, New Mexico, he invented the methods that carried men to the moon. Today, no rocket or jet plane can fly without using his inventions. Yet he is the "forgotten man" of the space age. His own government ignored his rocketry until the Germans demonstrated its principles in the V-2 missiles of World War II. The American government usurped his 214 patents, while suppressing his contributions in the name of national security, until it was forced to pay one million dollars for patent infringement. Goddard became famous again, monuments and medals raining upon his memory. But his renewed fame soon faded, and Goddard's pivotal role in launching the Space Age has been largely forgotten.

Author: Thomas Streissguth
Publisher: Twenty-First Century Books
ISBN: 9780876148631
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 96

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Book Description
An exploration of the life and discoveries of a pioneer of space travel shows how his research and ideas shaped modern aeronautics, and discusses his experimental failures, as well as his many successes.

Author: Nancy Conrad
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 9780451218377
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 301

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Book Description
A portrait of the life and career of NASA bad boy Pete Conrad describes his poverty-stricken youth, educational success, efforts to overcome dyslexia, work as an elite test pilot, remarkable accomplishments with the space program, and untimely death in a motorcycle accident. Reprint. 25,000 first printing.

Author: Donald Gibson
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1617137022
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 348

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Book Description
This month, as Sir Elton John celebrates his seventieth birthday, Backbeat Books is thrilled to announce the release of Donald Gibson's Elton John FAQ: All That's Left to Know About the Rocket Man. An exploration of Sir Elton's accolades alone could span several volumes: in a career spanning nearly five decades, he has sold over 250 million records worldwide, appeared in nearly 4 000 live performances, been inducted into both the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and received multiple awards and nominations from the Academy, GRAMMYs, Oscars, and Tonys. How can one possibly hope to examine the life and times of this peerless singer-songwriter, the most successful solo artist Great Britain has ever produced and the third-most successful artist overall in American music history? Why, with Backbeat's acclaimed FAQ format, of course! Like every other volume in the FAQ series, Elton John FAQ is overflowing with enlightening data, compact histories, rare photographs and period ephemera, all organized into chapters equally suitable for a straight-through read or random perusal. Gibson touches on every major episode from Sir Elton's life, from his humble, and at times disheartening, childhood in the North London suburb of Pinner to his serendipitous meeting with lyricist Bernie Taupin, with whom he'd form a songwriting partnership that would ultimately rank alongside Lennon and McCartney in its success, and beyond. Scrutinizing the highs and lows of a life crammed with musical phases and sartorial changes, the book underscores not only the renowned musician's talents, but the truth behind tales that are familiar only to diehard fans.