The Man Who Ran the Moon: James E. Webb, NASA, and the Secret History of Project Apollo

Bizony, Piers

ISBN 10: 1560257512 / ISBN 13: 9781560257516

Published by Basic Books, 2006

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Man Who Ran the Moon: James E. Webb, NASA, and the Secret History of Project Apollo
• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication Date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1560257512
• ISBN 13: 9781560257516
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

One man, more than any other, created the giant space agency we know today as NASA: James E. Webb. The Man Who Ran the Moon explores a time when Webb and an elite group of charismatic business associates took control of America's Apollo moon project, sometimes with disturbing results. In 1967, NASA was rocked by disaster and Apollo was grounded. Webb was savaged in a Congressional investigation. Not just a matter of broken hardware, there were accusations of corruption at the heart of America's space effort. Some of Webb's political allies had been caught up in the biggest scandal ever to hit Washington prior to Watergate. The backwash unfairly tainted NASA's chief. By the time of the first triumphant lunar landing, Webb had resigned and his name had all but been forgotten. But he's the man who got us to the moon, and the power base he forged in the 1960s has kept NASA on a solid footing to this day. Washington insiders now acknowledge Webb as one of the greatest leaders in modern American history. No space boss since his time has wielded so much power and such a powerful story.

About the Author

Over the last decade, Piers Bizony has written about space exploration and cosmology for a wide variety of magazines in the U.S. and U.K., including Focus, Omni, Wired, and The Independent.

Bizony's award-winning book on the making of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey has become a standard reference work for the movie's many fans around the world. In 1997, The Rivers of Mars, his critically acclaimed analysis of the life on Mars debate, was nominated for NASA's Eugene M. Emme Award for Astronautical Writing, while Island in the Sky investigated the politics of the International Space Station. Starman, produced as a book and a BBC film in partnership with TV producer Jamie Doran, told the real story of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's life for the first time.

Bizony is also a creative consultant for science-related public projects, having helped design a planetarium in Poitiers, France, and a science complex in Bristol, England, where he lives.