Gemini : stepping stone to the moon, the untold story / Jeffrey Kluger.

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF FALL 2025

From the bestselling co-author of Apollo 13 comes the thrilling untold story of the pioneering Gemini program that was instrumental in getting Americans on the moon.

Without Gemini, there would be no Apollo.

After we first launched Americans into space but before we touched down on the moon's surface, there was the Gemini program. It was no easy jump from manned missions in low-Earth orbit to a successful moon landing, and the ten-flight, twenty-month celestial story of the Gemini program is an extraordinary one. There was unavoidable darkness in the program -- the deaths and near-deaths that defined it, and the blood feud with the Soviet Union that animated it.

But there were undeniable and previously inconceivable successes. With a war raging in Vietnam and lawmakers calling for cuts to NASA's budget, the success of the Gemini program--or the space program in general--was never guaranteed. Yet against all odds, the remarkable scientists and astronauts behind the project persevered, and their efforts paid off. Later, with the knowledge gained from the Gemini flights, NASA would launch the legendary Apollo program.

Told with Jeffrey Kluger's signature cinematic storytelling and in-depth research and interviews, Gemini is an edge-of-your-seat narrative chronicling the history of the least appreciated--and most groundbreaking--space program in American history. Finally, Gemini's story will be told, and finally, we'll learn the truth of how we landed on the moon.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction (ix)
• Prologue: Space Walk at the Brink: June 5, 1966 (1)
• 1 The Cap over the Wall (13)
• 2 The New Boss: February 1961 (43)
• 3 The Genius out of Phoebus: 1927, 1962 (74)
• 4 Hard Times: 1962-1963 (103)
• 5 Making the Cut: 1959, 1962 (119)
• 6 The Grand Spaceport: January 1962 (127)
• 7 First in Show: April 1964 (139)
• 8 Gemini Takes Wing: March 23, 1965 (148)
• 9 Cosmic Promenade: June 1965 (164)
• 10 Space Conestoga: August 1965 (181)
• 11 Orbital Waltz: December 1965 (192)
• 12 Spinout in Space: March 16, 1966 (211)
• 13 Muffled Drums: February-June 1966 (225)
• 14 Valedictory: July-November 1966 (238)
• Epilogue (249)
• Acknowledgments (269)
• Index (273)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Sandwiched between the exciting missions of Mercury, with its first Americans in space, and Apollo, with its first man to walk on the Moon, NASA's Project Gemini (pronounced jem-in-ee in this context) is not as well-known as the more famous lunar expeditions. Kluger (whose book Lost Moon was the basis for the 1995 movie Apollo 13) provides an overview of the 10 manned Gemini missions of 1965--66. He describes the important objectives that NASA needed to achieve to meet President Kennedy's goal of landing a human on the Moon before the end of the decade. Living, working, and walking in space for extended periods, as well as rendezvousing and docking with another spacecraft, were critical benchmarks on the path to the Moon. While Gemini achieved these milestones, the program was not without its problems and perils, including mechanical malfunctions, improper quality control, and even loss of life, when Elliot See and Charlie Bassett, who were slated to crew Gemini 9, died in a fiery plane crash on their way to inspect their spacecraft. VERDICT Kluger's book is part history of space-travel technology and part study in human ingenuity and perseverance.--Donna Marie Smith

Booklist Review

In the race to put a man on the moon, the U.S. needed its best and brightest, along with the optimal technology. While the Mercury program, begun in 1958, received attention for being the commencement of the moon program, and the Apollo missions represented the program's successful culmination with the first moon landing in 1969, the intervening Gemini program (1961--66) was often overlooked. The Gemini project involved double the number of astronauts of other missions, joining men such as Jim Lovell, Pete Conrad, and Neil Armstrong with veteran Mercury astronauts Gordon Cooper and Virgil Grissom in furthering the progress of space flight, including the first space walk and the docking of two shuttles. The road from Gemini to Apollo would involve both euphoric highs and frustrating lows but would ultimately prove successful. Prolific journalist and author Kluger (Apollo 8, 2019) pens an exciting and inspiring narrative chronicling the herculean efforts of NASA and its astronauts to reach the goal set by President Kennedy in 1961. An unvarnished and engaging read about the science, money, and manpower that helped push the penultimate U.S. moon mission forward.

Kirkus Book Review

The Cold War countdown to Apollo. Wedged between NASA's Mercury program, which rocketed the first Americans into space, and Apollo, which left their footprints on the moon, was Gemini--a 12-mission program that ran from 1961 to 1966. Kluger, aTime magazine editor at large, believes this "middle sibling of the manned space program" has been overshadowed for too long--in part by Kluger's own work; his 1994Lost Moon (written with astronaut Jim Lovell) formed the basis of the filmApollo 13. Now Kluger has rendered Gemini equally cinematic. His page-turning prose is written with new journalistic bravado that perfectly captures "a nation that wanted to think of its astronauts as a robust breed of men who ate well, trained hard, flew straight, and came home." The book has its share of colorful figures--there's John Glenn, camera ready; Neil Armstrong, haunted by his daughter's death; Chris Kraft barking orders from mission control--but lacks a main character to hold things together as the narrative launches from one mission to the next. The real throughline is the Cold War. Political panic triggered by Sputnik was the fuel in Gemini's rockets. Kluger makes palpable President Kennedy's distress when, in 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin beat Alan Shepard into space. The U.S. was still trying to get an edge over the Soviets during Gemini 8 when, for heart-pounding pages, Armstrong and Dave Scott's spacecraft spun out of control--a short circuit in the thruster system--and the astronauts fought to steady the ship as they slipped out of consciousness, a tense scene that ends in an early splashdown. But Gemini was a grand success. "Sixteen men had gone into space across ten crewed missions--and sixteen had come home." They'd demonstrated all the skills that would take NASA to the moon, contributing, Kluger writes, "to a cascading series of economic, engineering, and political victories that helped bring the original Cold War to a peaceful end." Impressively researched and stylishly written, the history of the space race achieves liftoff. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.