Agent Palmer

Moon Shot: The Inside Story of America’s Race to the Moon is a lovingly written history of America’s journey from the ground to the Moon. It’s written by two of the original Mercury astronauts Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton and two of the most respected aerospace journalists of the Apollo era Jay Barbree and Howard Benedict.

As an all-encompassing book of the golden-era of NASA – Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo, plus what was happening in Russia, and at times in the halls of the U.S. Congress – this is as complete a telling of the race for the Moon as you will get in one single volume.

“On the evening of July 25, 1965, Bob Dylan took the stage at Newport Folk Festival, backed by an electric band, and roared into his new rock hit, Like a Rolling Stone. The audience of committed folk purists and political activists who had hailed him as their acoustic prophet reacted with a mix of shock, booing, and scattered cheers.

It was the shot heard round the world—Dylan’s declaration of musical independence, the end of the folk revival, and the birth of rock as the voice of a generation—and one of the defining moments in twentieth-century music.”

Pete Conrad’s biography is not a cookie-cutter story. Then again, there was nothing cookie-cutter about him. He was, as his headstone implies, “An Original.” Co-written by his second wife Nancy Conrad and Howard A. Klausner, the writer of Space Cowboys, this biography is presented cinematically, but it would have been a thrilling ride anyway.

Honestly, if ever you needed proof that you can have fun and enjoy a serious job with a smile on your face, then Pete Conrad is exhibit A for astronauts.