Countdown to Launch!: Rockets, Computers, and Coming of Age in the Cold War

In the desperate early years of the Cold War, a young boy and his middle school friends launch a homemade rocket on a farm near Boeing Wichita, a target of Soviet bombers. If the rocket doesn't fly, the boy's science project will fail.

Building and launching rockets through early college, the rocketeer analyzes their performance using primitive digital computers while his classwork suffers. He perseveres, calculating that his latest rocket will reach into the stratosphere. But suddenly, all such thoughts are forced aside by a significant life change.

Later, while starting work on his PhD in physics, happiness turns to sadness, forcing him to leave school. Now, at the pinnacle of the Cold War, at North American Aviation, he is designing crucial computer software for the new Minuteman III ICBM, the country's response to a rapid buildup of Soviet hardened ICBM sites - threatening a first-strike capability. If his team doesn't succeed in this enormous effort, the U.S. may be in grave danger.

Aviation and space enthusiasts who embrace the telling of true stories filled with unvarnished facts will relate to this compelling memoir.