One Giant Leap: Neil Armstrong's Stellar American Journey

"On July 20, 1969, the whole world stopped. It was a day on which a man who grew up on a farm without electricity would announce, "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." The world never knew how dangerous the quest was." "Armstrong and his crew's extraordinary mission was a long, complex chain, at least 50 percent likely to snap at one delicate point or another and end in failure or worse - much worse. They had listened attentively as some of the world's great scientists pleaded with them to scrap the moon walk, claiming they would quickly become mesmerized, caught in thrall as Odysseus had been by the Sirens, and wander the tortured moonscape until their oxygen ran out. Other experts predicted that the astronauts would simply be swallowed by celestial quicksand. The true danger turned out to be only slightly more prosaic: a computer error that necessitated a race along a razor-sharp escarpment hundreds of feet tall in a tiny, frail landing craft with only a few seconds' worth of fuel left, forcing the crew to make a desperate search for a safe place to land." "As the mission unfolded, those in the know about the daunting task the astronauts faced held their breath. The president of the United States, Richard Nixon, ordered their eulogy prepared for him to read on national television. "In this, the first-ever biography of Neil Armstrong, Leon Wagener explores the man whose walk on the moon is still compared to humankind's progenitor's crawl out of the primordial ooze - and whose retreat to a farm in his native Ohio soon after the last ticker-tape confetti fell has caused him to be looked upon as a reclusive hermit ever since." "This is the true story of a national hero whose lifelong quest to walk on the moon truly mirrors our best selves. He's an American who daily braved incredible danger over a long career and finally broke free of Earth's bonds, achieving what seemed impossible and proving forever that man can reach for the stars and succeed." "Relying on hundreds of interviews with family and friends of the astronaut, plus generous access to NASA files, Leon Wagener explores the life of one of America's true heroes in a book filled with extraordinary adventure and even more extraordinary courage."--BOOK JACKET.