Nelson Elhage
Software engineer who writes the blog Made of Bugs about performance, debugging and understanding systems; previously at Anthropic, Stripe and Ksplice.
A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts by Andrew Chaikin
It's a solid, well-sourced ("based on hundreds of hours of in-depth interviews with each of the twenty-four moon voyagers, as well as those who contributed their brain power, training and teamwork on Earth"), general overview of the heart of the Apollo program. Also an excellent entry point.
on blog.nelhage.com · 8 Apr 2019
Apollo 8: The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon by Jeffrey Kluger
This book tells the story of that decision, and of the work and the people who made that mission happen.
on blog.nelhage.com · 8 Apr 2019
Digital Apollo by David A. Mindell
I honestly don't recall that much from this book. I read it fairly early on in my Apollo exploration. I'd recommend Eyles' Sunburst and Luminary, above, as a better starting point if you're interested in the computers that flew Apollo.
on blog.nelhage.com · 8 Apr 2019
Failure Is Not An Option by Gene Kranz
This was the first book I read about the early space program, and I'd recommend it as a good entry point.
on blog.nelhage.com · 8 Apr 2019
Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
The book and movie only tangentially touch on Apollo itself (although it does appear!), but they make the list because they are well worth the read / watch, and they tell an important story of yet another facet of the immense collaboration that was the space program, and the incredible diversity of people and backgrounds and stories and kinds of work that went into making it all work.
on blog.nelhage.com · 8 Apr 2019
How Apollo flew to the Moon by W. David Woods
This is far and away the best general-audience technical documentation of the Apollo missions I've read.
on blog.nelhage.com · 8 Apr 2019
Sunburst and Luminary by Don Eyles
The only reason it isn't higher on this list is that the content is a bit specialized and narrowly focused on the landing and the software and adjacent topics; it's definitely one of my favorite books here.
on blog.nelhage.com · 8 Apr 2019
Thirteen: The Apollo Flight That Failed by Henry S. F. Cooper
This book covers the mission and the details of the recovery efforts and the incredible work by Mission Control and by the astronauts to get the crew home safely after a catastrophic failure no one had even begun to plan for.
on blog.nelhage.com · 8 Apr 2019
Everything Nelson Elhage recommends — not just books — on rcmnd →