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The Man Who Knew the Way to the Moon

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The Man Who Knew the Way to the Moon

By: Todd Zwillich
Narrated by: Todd Zwillich, Angelo Di Loreto
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About this listen

The story of John C. Houbolt, an unsung hero of Apollo 11 and the man who showed NASA how to put America on the moon.

Without John C. Houbolt, a mid-level engineer at NASA, Apollo 11 would never have made it to the moon.

Top NASA engineers on the project, including Werner Von Braun, strongly advocated for a single, huge spacecraft to travel to the moon, land, and return to Earth. It's the scenario used in 1950s cartoons and horror movies about traveling to outer space.

Houbolt had another idea: Lunar Orbit Rendezvous. LOR would link two spacecraft in orbit while the crafts were travelling at 3,600 miles an hour around the moon. His plan was ridiculed and considered unthinkable. But this junior engineer was irrepressible. He stood by his concept, fired off memos to executives, and argued that LOR was the only way to success.

For the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 11, hear the untold story of the man who helped fulfill Kennedy’s challenge to reach the moon and begin exploring the final frontier.

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Enjoyed this story of an unknown (by me!) hero behind the successful Apollo moon landings AND rescue of Apollo 13!

Untold story of Apollo moon landings

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no doubt plenty out there to be told, but this one an interesting look at how LOR was fundamental to short term success of Apollo, but perhaps a hindrance to long term space travel. good to hear audio from interviewees as well.

interesting Apollo story

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I think it’s more a man’s book and being female was mostly the problem. I think my husband liked it more.

Not my type of book

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