--- product_id: 1512505 title: "Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond" price: "€ 40.79" currency: EUR in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.fr/products/1512505-failure-is-not-an-option-mission-control-from-mercury-to store_origin: FR region: France --- # 4.7/5 star rating from 3,000+ readers 416 pages of insider space program history 3 decades NASA mission control experience Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond **Price:** € 40.79 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Summary > 🌕 Failure Is Not an Option: Command Your Next Big Leap! ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond - **How much does it cost?** € 40.79 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.fr](https://www.desertcart.fr/products/1512505-failure-is-not-an-option-mission-control-from-mercury-to) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Key Features - • **Bestselling Space Memoir:** Join thousands of readers inspired by this #15 Aeronautics & Astronautics bestseller. - • **Leadership & Teamwork Unveiled:** Discover the discipline and trust behind NASA’s most daring missions. - • **Exclusive Behind-the-Scenes Access:** Reveals the real challenges and near misses behind the moon landing. - • **Timeless Inspiration for Innovators:** Perfect for professionals craving leadership lessons from the ultimate high-stakes environment. - • **Legendary NASA Flight Director Insights:** Firsthand stories from Mercury to Apollo 13 that shaped space exploration history. ## Overview This 416-page paperback memoir by Gene Kranz, a veteran NASA flight director, offers an unparalleled insider’s view of America’s manned space program from Mercury through Apollo 13. With a 4.7-star rating and bestseller status in Aeronautics & Astronautics, it combines riveting historical accounts with leadership lessons that resonate beyond space exploration. ## Description This New York Times bestselling memoir of a veteran NASA flight director tells riveting stories from the early days of the Mercury program through Apollo 11 (the moon landing) and Apollo 13, for both of which Kranz was flight director. Gene Kranz was present at the creation of America’s manned space program and was a key player in it for three decades. As a flight director in NASA’s Mission Control, Kranz witnessed firsthand the making of history. He participated in the space program from the early days of the Mercury program to the last Apollo mission, and beyond. He endured the disastrous first years when rockets blew up and the United States seemed to fall further behind the Soviet Union in the space race. He helped to launch Alan Shepard and John Glenn, then assumed the flight director’s role in the Gemini program, which he guided to fruition. With his teammates, he accepted the challenge to carry out President John F. Kennedy’s commitment to land a man on the Moon before the end of the 1960s. Kranz recounts these thrilling historic events and offers new information about the famous flights. What appeared as nearly flawless missions to the Moon were, in fact, a series of hair-raising near misses. When the space technology failed, as it sometimes did, the controllers’ only recourse was to rely on their skills and those of their teammates. He reveals behind-the-scenes details to demonstrate the leadership, discipline, trust, and teamwork that made the space program a success. A fascinating firsthand account by a veteran mission controller of one of America’s greatest achievements, Failure Is Not an Option reflects on what has happened to the space program and offers his own bold suggestions about what we ought to be doing in space now. Review: Excellent Account of America's Early Manned Space Program - This is an excellent book but not exactly what I had hoped for. This book is a tribute to the dedication of the famous Gene Krantz. His dedication and service over the years from Mercury thru Apollo is not in doubt. But the book spends a lot of time talking about those he worked with in mission control and that is not why I bought the book. I thought that it might be more about the space flight mission details and stories of his encounters with the astronauts. But it appears that he had very limited contact with them. Review: Revitalized my interest in NASA and Space Exploration - Very enjoyable read! I saw this recommended and I'm always a sucker for a book, so I bought it on a whim, listened to it, and got sucked into NASA history. I loved all of the history and details and leadership lessons it contained. Now I'm looking for more on the subject. ## Features - Author: Kranz, Gene. - Publisher: Simon & Schuster - Pages: 416 - Publication Date: 2009 - Binding: Paperback - MSRP: 14.02 - ISBN13: 9781439148815 - ISBN: 1439148813 - Other ISBN: 9780743214476 - Other ISBN Binding: print - Language: en - Quality Rating: 1 ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #31,930 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #15 in Aeronautics & Astronautics (Books) #16 in Astronautics & Space Flight #18 in History of Engineering & Technology | | Customer Reviews | 4.7 out of 5 stars 3,017 Reviews | ## Images ![Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/814UXJDnbZL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Excellent Account of America's Early Manned Space Program *by D***D on June 8, 2026* This is an excellent book but not exactly what I had hoped for. This book is a tribute to the dedication of the famous Gene Krantz. His dedication and service over the years from Mercury thru Apollo is not in doubt. But the book spends a lot of time talking about those he worked with in mission control and that is not why I bought the book. I thought that it might be more about the space flight mission details and stories of his encounters with the astronauts. But it appears that he had very limited contact with them. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Revitalized my interest in NASA and Space Exploration *by B***L on November 12, 2025* Very enjoyable read! I saw this recommended and I'm always a sucker for a book, so I bought it on a whim, listened to it, and got sucked into NASA history. I loved all of the history and details and leadership lessons it contained. Now I'm looking for more on the subject. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Simple Man for A Complex Mission *by L***R on November 3, 2013* Growing up as a kid watching the Gemini and Apollo missions is what first sparked my interest in science and engineering. The other kids wanted to be astronauts; I wanted to be one one the engineers in Mission Control, ideally the flight director. Astronauts went into space once, twice if they were lucky. The engineers in Mission Control got to go on each one (or so it seemed). I wanted to know what it was like to ride into space with a headset, an oscilloscope and a chart recorder. Having to make life and death decisions in seconds or fractions thereof. Gene Kranz's book has finally given me that ride. Kranz tells of space exploration from the controllers viewpoint. And what a view it is, from the 4" flight of Mercury-Redstone 1, to the first Moon landing with Apollo 11 and the death defying flight of Apollo 13 Kranz allows us to live the adventure that he and his fellow controllers lived. The computers of the day were too big to place in the spacecraft. The computers controlling the craft were in Houston and a successful mission meant relaying results and limited code from Houston to the craft and vice versa. Poor decisions could mean a failed mission or worse, dead astronauts. The pressure these men lived under was tremendous but they took it on willingly as they believed in the cause set for them by President Kennedy - To place a man on the moon before the end of the decade. They worked 12 & 16 hour shifts, lived at the Johnson Space Center during missions, skipped vacations for years leading up to that first moon landing. Kranz tells of how the pressure could take a toll on the controllers and their families but the mission always came first. Mission training for both controllers and astronauts began months before the actual mission. Simulations were run to anticipate common and not so common emergencies. And they were run again and again until the right solutions came almost automatically. Much of the pressure would be blown off at informal beer laden mission debriefs at a local biergarten in Webster or by various physical activities. In Kranz's case he took up judo with a couple of other controllers to help blow off steam. Kranz is quite humble about his own role as flight director for Gemini and Apollo. While a believer in strong leadership, his concept of that is someone who provides his team with clear goals and objectives, the tools needed and then gets out of their way. Kranz truly believes in teamwork freely acknowledging that any and all success he had with NASA was due to excellent collaboration of a complex team of astronauts, controllers, contractors and administrators and the support provided by his wife Marta and his Catholic Faith. So why only 4 stars? Let's face it, Kranz writes like he talks - in the short clipped speech of an engineer or better yet a flight director. To be honest, its more like hearing him telling stories while sharing a beer. Still let's face it, he lacks the eloquence of Tom Wolfe in The Right Stuff. There are times I was aching for him to broaden the tale and give us more of the back story. However, except in rare occasions, if Kranz didn't experience it, he doesn't write about it. I was almost shocked that he doesn't tell the story of Alan Shepard needing to urinate after being locked up in Mercury-Freedom 7 for over 4 hours prior to launch. I would have loved to known how the controllers reacted to that request. There had to be a lot of scrambling, and contradicting opinions floating about on that one (they finally told Shepard to go ahead and go in his suit). Still there are times when Kranz rises to the occasion. His description of Armstrong and Aldrin's descent to the lunar surface was riveting. I was right there in Mission Control, holding my breath with the other controllers only letting go when Neil had placed the LEM down with only 17s of fuel remaining. In the end, it's a great read by a great and humble man. ## Frequently Bought Together - Failure Is Not an Option: Mission Control From Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond - Apollo 13 - Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.fr/products/1512505-failure-is-not-an-option-mission-control-from-mercury-to](https://www.desertcart.fr/products/1512505-failure-is-not-an-option-mission-control-from-mercury-to) --- *Product available on Desertcart France* *Store origin: FR* *Last updated: 2026-09-20*