This book is a real classic. You will see how rocket wizzard and space visionary Wernher von Braun and his colleagues imagined a manned mission to Mars with the technology available in the mid 20th century. With today's knowledge and financial horizon, von Braun's vision looks pretty oversized, and the surface of Mars certainly is very different from what they believed 50 years ago. The very value of this book is that it simply showed how such an extensive mission could be made feasible -- that it is possible to send people to Mars without fancy technology of science fiction writers. The authors use some calculus and diagrams to explain the complicated flight dynamics for sending a spacecraft to another planet and landing on its surface.
Today we know that a mission to Mars will not look like von Braun's "Mars Project" but it is good to know that most of the basics haven't changed. Buy this book together with Robert Zubrin's "Case for Mars" and you'll see the progress within half a century.

Do you wonder how they did it? How they actually figured out how to get to the moon? Well, this is Von Braun's plan for getting to mars using the technologies available in the early 1950's and it shows the detailed thinking necessary to figure out how to make it all work. Lots of math and diagrams. My vote for the best book of the century. To give you some idea, I already own this book, a 1962 edition. It is getting too precious to thumb through.

This is a very good book that covers the life of Dr. Wernher von Braun without getting too deep in details. The book is a quick read at about 130 pages but you still get a good overall view of von Braun's life. The best part of the book is where the authors cover the years before von Braun became involved with NASA. They do not shy away from his involvement with the German SS and the problems he faced from his past after he moved to the United States, yet they do not paint him as a war criminal as some have attempted to do. This book sites sources and contains a glossary and is well indexed. There are a few technical and editing mistakes (the Apollo-Soyuz mission did not take place in 1957 as stated on page 117, nor were Saturn rockets used for any Gemini missions as stated on page 104), but these problems do not override the main thrust of the book. If you have heard of Dr. von Braun and have wanted to know more, this is a great introduction to the man and his interesting life.

This was an interesting book. I probably would not have read this book if my great-grandfather wasn't a member of von Braun's rocket team that came over from Germany. I learned a lot about World WarII from this book. I even learned a little about rocket propulsion(how a rocket goes).

This book by Dr. Ernst Stuhlinger & Fredrick Ordway provides the reader with a good insight into Dr. Wehner Von Braun and the space program. My father had the pleasure of working closely with Dr. Von Braun in promoting Madison County Alabama where much of the actual development and testing of the rocket engines occurred. He always said the Dr. Von Braun was a man who got things done and was one of the best salesmen for Madison County and N.A.S.A. that has ever lived. A excellent book on Dr. Von Braun and his team of german rocket scientists.

This wonderful book, that takes in account the says of a lot of people that really lived and worked with Dr. von Braun shows what a great person he was. His contribution to the space effort is clearly shown here. The companion book (the illustrated Memoir) shows a lot of pictures of his life. If somebody want to know how the space was won, MUST read this book.

the author had a hidden agenda when he wrote this book of linking Von Braun to Nazi atrocities. That agenda clouded his ability to write a clear perspective of Von Braun's career. He brings in other historians with a similar bent and refers to their opinions when making his points. Combine with the author's poor writing style and you find a throughly unreadable biography. The only saving grace is a few bits of information that if surfaced on the US space program not found in other books.

The book is an extremely biased account ov Wernher Von Braun's life. It makes a strong effort to find "skeletons" in Von Braun's closet, but finally fails miserably in its intent. The fact that the german scientist was, during WW2, a member of the Nazi party and was commissioned by the SS shouldn't surprise anyone who knows how, in order to succeed in the military-industrial complex of Nazi Germany, these were absolutely unavoidable prerequisites. The book is a witch-hunt agains the man who, more than anyone else, created modern rocketry and opened the way to space exploration. His record as an american citizen is exemplary and he was a pillar of the community where he lived. The world of science owes Wernher Von Braun a debt of gratitude. Mr Piskiewicz's bitter biography is best avoided. There are other, better biographies of Von Braun available, namely the one by Ernst Stuhlinger and Frederick Ordway, who knew and worked with the german rocketry pioneer.

Previously published biographys of Wernher von Braun have been largely hagiographic based on the high success levels and extensive promotion of the U.S. Space Program for which von Braun received a great deal of earned and some unearned credit. He was, without doubt, a brilliant and goal oriented man. But, as were many in Germany during the Nazi years, he was an opportunist, willing to achieve his desired goals without regard to the consequences for other people or concern for the organizations that he supported and which, in turn, supported his cause.

The author's extensive research is thoroughly documented in the notes and bibliography. It includes much data that was classified by the United States Government and withheld from the public during von Braun's lifetime. That von Braun was a working and supportive member of the Nazi Party has now been publicized, well documented and backed up with many previously classified records made available to the public through the Freedom of Information Act.

This book shows a more complete picture of who and what Wernher von Braun was prior to his move to the United States as well as his involvement in the U.S. Space Program. It does not change but presents a much more complete, correct and balanced view of history. It presents "The Rest of the Story".

The author's easy to read style presents accurate history in a well documented, chronological order. This book is easy reading and compellingly interesting to anyone looking for a more complete and accurate history of World War II, Rocket Development, and the Space Race that achieved such accomplishments as placing a man on the moon and returning him safely to earth along with samples of moon rocks and pictures of the earth from the moon.

Specifically, this book shows the underlying character of von Braun and his unrelenting drive to achieve these goals at any price.

Misses the imprisonment for high treason on march 15th 1943, og Rieder VB and Dr Grottning. This was for saying in public that germany was losing the war and that they were more interested in building spaceships than weapons of war. Also the A4 was not a cost effective weapon. If the efforts had been put into fighter planes WWII would have dragged on alot longer. One ton of HE for the industrial cost of 6 jet fighters was probably the biggest sabotage of the nazi effort ever made. All it did was benifit spaceflight and science. Unbalanced. No historical perspective sensationalist trash.

Piszkiewicz does a good job with getting the historical documentation down but fails miserably when he outs his obvious anti-Von braun spin to them. He constantly speculates without facts about Von Braun's thoughts, beliefs and motives, always casting them in a negative manner. He goes into detail about Himmler's attempts to eliminate Von Braun and the danger that posed and still castigates Von Braun for not acting to help the Dora workers. He dedicates the book to the V2 and Dora victims which seems to be why he wrote this revisionist tale. It is his way to find someone to blame and Von Braun seems to be as good as target as any for the author to attack. He admits the V2 was not an effective weapon yet he ignores the huge drain on resources that it had on the German war machine. This drain was praised by Winston Churchill for keeping more planes and guns off the field of battle, saving lives. He also twists quotes and facts out of context, a sin for a historian. This book is not about history so much as it is an attempt to discredit Von Braun. No documentation or factual evidence is ever presented to show Von Braun could have done anything to help the Dora workers. Von Braun was not a saint but neither was he a war criminal.

(A numerical rating, as above, is required by the new Amazon format. It is offensive to this reviewer and explicitly disavowed.)

Author Piszkiewicz recounts the whole history of German rocketry, from its beginnings through the rocketeers' pact with the Devil, and on to their historical rehabilitation at the hands of the Americans who wanted their expertise.

Piszkiewicz sets the record straight, reminding us that Wernher von Braun, for instance, was a Sturmbannfuhrer (Major) in the SS who went to Buchenwald personally to select slave laborers to staff his V-2 missile plants.

Very interesting reading for students of the origins of the Space Age, military history buffs, and others who would understand the practical applications of realpolitik.