Outstanding nonfiction about the Apollo 13 mission. Lovell & Kluger manage to hold the technobabble to a bare minimum, though the verbatim calldowns through the different mission control consoles gets a bit wearing.

While the bulk of the book details the mission itself, its multitude of disastrous systems failures, and the incredible Earthside and spaceborne efforts to get the crew home safely, there is also background about Lovell's career, as well as a chilling review of the post-mission investigation into the root cause of the command module explosion that doomed the lunar landing.

There's also a fair amount of attention paid to Marilyn Lovell, both during the hair-raising mission itself and to the general substructure of astronaut wives and the support system they created among themselves.

Much of this material will be familiar to readers who have followed the beginnings of America's manned space program, whether readers lived through that period with the first glimmerings of the Mercury program in 1958 through the last, sad Apollo mission in 1972, or whether their only exposure to it has come second-hand through memoirs and documentaries. Yet nothing seems quite so fraught, quite so heartbreaking, or quite so edge-of-the-seat suspenseful, as those six days in 1970 when America, and the world, were brutally reminded that man-in-space was not routine, and that the technology that got us out there could also fail us with disastrous results. ( )

This is a great book, and an excellent audiobook. ( )

"'Freddy,' Lovell said, turning to Haise. 'I'm afraid this is going to be the last moon mission for a long time.'"

This is the compelling story of the Apollo 13 disaster: the blow-out that disabled the command module and life support systems for astronauts James Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert, and the ensuing rescue efforts to bring them safely back to Earth. The story is told from the points of view of the astronauts, from all the engineers and staff at NASA Mission Control working frantically, and from the families who watched helplessly. There's a lot of detail here, as one crisis follows another, but it's not too technical and not boring.

If you've seen the Ron Howard movie, you will know the outline of the story (and the importance of duct tape), but it was still interesting to me to get all the details filled in. I was constantly amazed at the skill and ingenuity of the the astronauts and the people on the ground, as especially their dedication. The families, too, were amazing in their bravery and stoicism. It was a thrilling adventure to read, but also a very feel-good book.

Recommended.

4 stars ( )

Wow! This is the relatively easy-to-read, with technical-made-understandable, account of the Apollo 13 adventure. I call it an adventure because the story reveals that the things learned out of possibly devastating challenges can really put engineer minds to work creating solutions on-the-fly! The fact that the crew survived is amazing. Loved this book and appreciate that Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger wrote it. ( )

This story of what happened to Apollo 13, including how its commander Jim Lovell came to be in NASA, was written in a very engaging way that pulled me for the run although it wasn't telling me anything I didn't already know about Apollo 13. ( )