On May 25, 1961, JFK made an astonishing announcement: his goal of putting a man on the moon by the end of the decade. In this engrossing, fast-paced epic, Douglas Brinkley returns to the 1960s to recreate one of the most exciting and ambitious achievements in the history of humankind. It brings together the extraordinary political, cultural, and scientific factors that fueled the birth and development of NASA and the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo projects, which shot the United States to victory in the space race against the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War. Draws on new primary source material and firsthand interviews in a reassessment of the space program that examines the political, cultural, and scientific factors that launched NASA and the space race.