Editor Reviews:

Book Description:

Some fifty years ago as a cub reporter, Barbree caught space fever the night that Sputnik passed over Albany, Georgia. On a double date where the couples actually did some star gazing, Barbree recognized that exploring space would become one of the most important stories of the century. Convinced that one day astronauts would walk on the moon, Barbree moved to the then sleepy oceanside community of Cocoa Beach, right outside Cape Canaveral, and began reporting on rockets that soared, exploded, and fizzled.

In the decades to come he witnessed a parade of history as space pioneers, hucksters, groupies and politicians participated in the greatest show of technology the world had ever seen. Besides many untold and amusing anecdotes -- quite a few involving astronaut pranks, fast cars, swimming pools, and strong drinks -- Barbree reveals the horror visited on the Cape when Apollo 1 burned, when the Challenger exploded and when Columbia broke into pieces.

A warts and all account, this book nevertheless carries a compassionate and positive message. The men and women who conquered space were colorful and sometimes larger than life. They partied, got angry, made mistakes and committed their share of sins. But they were also genuine heroes with great commitment and love of country. With humor, insight and unmatched experience, Barbree brings them and the ever-changing world of the space program to vivid life.

Rating : - Extremely Disappointing Book
This is an extremely disappointing book, that should have delivered so much more, especially from such a well-credentialled author. I have read practically every biography and book published on this period of the US space program, and I rate this book (very) near the bottom of this very long list.

You would expect the author to have offered a new slant on a (by now) very well reported space program. Not so; the book offers litle that is new and captivating. It was disappointing to see the book full of material that is better covered elsewhere; for instance, in-flight transcripts between the Mercury astronauts and Mission Control.

I was expected (not unreasonably) a behind-the-scenes account of the early days of the space program, the author's interaction with the astronauts, the friendships formed, the trials and tribulations of reporting in those "early days".

Yet it either doesn't cover threse topics (which creates doubt - possibly unfairly - as to how close the author actually was to the action and to the main players - despite claiming many as life long friends), or it rushes through them. For instance, the author's role in covering three moon landings is covered in 1 page!

The book ends up being a very hurried dash through the history of the space program, without enough reference to Barbree's role in it.

The book also has a number of unecessarily sycophantic references to other members of the NBC team of reporters, without giving any meaningful, or new, information about Barbree's role in covering any of these missions.

There are interesting parts of the book. It begins being captivating when Barbree discusses the abandoned Journalist-in-Space program in the mid-1980s, but that story soon drifts off course as well.

All up, a very, very disppointing book; one that is quite misleading given its title. I wish I had not wasted the money, or frankly, my time in reading something so underdone. You'd get more out of reading Collins' "Carrying the Fire" for a 20th time, or Mullane's "Riding Rockets" for a 5th time.