The Unbroken Chain: Apogee Books Space Series 20 [Hardcover]

Guenter Wendt (Author), Russell Still (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 189652284X | ISBN-13: 978-1896522845 | Publication Date: October 1, 2001

Guenter Wendt's autobiography is a ground shaking document of the glory days of manned spaceflight, told from the perspective of the launch pad.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

American astronauts may have lived the dream of seeing space, but they never would have made it without Guenter Wendt. In The Unbroken Chain, this unsung hero tells his story, and he's got the right stuff. Wendt, who immigrated to the United States from Germany in 1949, got a job as a mechanical engineer for McDonnell Aircraft that launched his space career. He eventually became the man who supervised preparations for every mission from the Mercury program through the early shuttle flights. He was the last person the astronauts would see before they closed the hatch, and he became something of a legend at NASA. The Unbroken Chain features Wendt's accounts of his career highlights, good and bad, as well as behind-the scenes revelations about missions and personalities. Three sections of great photos accompany the text, and best of all, the accompanying CD-ROM features a tour of Cape Canaveral hosted by Wendt himself. A must-have for space buffs, and a great accompaniment to the NASA Mission Reports series, also from Apogee Books. --Therese Littleton

Review

"A good read from an unusual perspective..." -- Spaceflight, January 2001.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Collector's Guide Publishing, Inc. (October 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 189652284X
• ISBN-13: 978-1896522845
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #240,119 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Guenter Wendt is a legend - and this book is a winner, November 14, 2001

By 

Space Program Veteran (Cape Canaveral, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Unbroken Chain: Apogee Books Space Series 20 (Hardcover)

In his new book, 'The Unbroken Chain', Guenter Wendt, with co-author Russell Still, recounts his years working on the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and early Space Shuttle programs, capturing an aspect that other books have missed - the invaluable contributions of the army of workers "in the trenches," as he is fond to say.

Guenter's wonderful (and often hilarious) anecdotes and personal encounters only add to the interwoven theme of The Unbroken Chain - that it takes a 'chain' of tens of thousands of individuals to accomplish just one successful space mission.

'The Unbroken Chain' features an added bonus - alone worth the cover price - a CD-ROM disk that takes the reader on a virtual computer tour of the Cape Canaveral launch facilities, narrated by Guenter Wendt and filled with his colorful tales of the early days of space exploration. The disk also includes a 360-degree panoramic sweep of several historic launch pads as they appear today and an impressive collection of personal references from a veritable "Who's Who' of the Moon race.

'The Unbroken Chain' is a winner and a perfect addition to any library. It will bring a smile to the face of any reader even marginally interested in the Race to the Moon.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The High View, March 18, 2002

By 

Peter Mackay "surgeonsmate" (Campbell, ACT Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Unbroken Chain: Apogee Books Space Series 20 (Hardcover)

The man at the top of the launch tower, the supervisor, the captain of the pad - Guenter Wendt was the boss man around the actual launch vehicle. His unique perspective is well reflected in this collection of stories about the first days of the space age.

In an astonishing odyssey, Guenter was there from the very first days of Mercury when they were still sending chimps up (and yes, he's got a few yarns about Ham and Enos) to the post-Challenger shuttle flights. His was the last face the crew saw before leaving earth and it must have given every astronaut the feeling that they were in safe hands.

Guenter was a hard man in a difficult job and he made a few enemies along the way, but he did it all in the name of safety. He enforced the rules and it didn't matter who was breaking them, they got short shrift from the pad leader. As it should be.

But he wasn't the unsmiling fuehrer some liked to portray him as. In this book his humour shines through on every page. He always had an eye for a practical joke and he could see the funny side of every situation.

This is a memoir of the space program that is more concerned with the men than the machines and systems. It's not that he doesn't describe the hardware and the missions, it's that he has a different take on it, a perspective focused up close and personal, rather than the view from Mission Control or one of the prime contractors in Long Island or California. He was there talking to the astronauts as their final straps were tightened and they reached out to clasp his hand before the hatch was sealed.

You know, I never get tired of hearing the grand story of Apollo, and Guenter's book fills in one of the empty corners very nicely. Not a book for those who love jargon and hardware and the voices of the heroes as they guide their craft through the void. Nor a book about goals and objectives and milestones and missions. No, this is a book about people, written by someone who cared.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Life on the Launch Pad, August 6, 2003

By 

Roger D. Launius "Historian" (Washington, D.C., United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Unbroken Chain: Apogee Books Space Series 20 (Hardcover)

Memoirs are in vogue for the pioneers of the space age. In the last few years memoirs have appeared by astronauts Gene Cernan, John Glenn, Gordon Cooper, Wally Schirra, Alan Bean, Deke Slayton, Alan Shepard, Gene Cernan, Jim Lovell, Apollo flight directors Gene Kranz and Chris Kraft, Marshall Space Flight Center engineer Homer Hickam, Jr., and Lunar Module designer Tom Kelly. This is another memoir from the heroic era of human space flight, but one from a unique vantagepoint. Guenter Wendt was the legendary "pad leader" for all of the human space launches from the first Mercury mission in 1961 through the last Apollo flights.

German born, with a rich accent that remains to the present, as a McDonnell and later North American Rockwell employee Guenter Wendt held responsibility for capsule test, checkout, and launch operations at America's spaceport at Cape Canaveral, Florida. In that capacity he crossed paths with every astronaut and many of NASA's senior officials in a career that ended with his retirement in 1989. This memoir, co-written with Russell Still, is filled with dozens of such stories about those interactions-some classic, many never revealed before, a few embarrassing, even more humorous-about the astronauts, technicians, engineers and other officials Wendt interacted with for three decades.

Wendt describes in this book a relentless pursuit of excellence, safety, and security both for his team and the mission under his care. Astronauts respectfully called him "Pad Fuhrer," a term not always used with affection. Wendt's emphasis on successfully completing the mission, ensuring the safety of the astronauts, and creatively sidestepping bureaucracy earned the admiration of many. His determined approach to the work, and the way in which he took personal responsibility for what happened on his launch pad became legendary along Florida' Space Coast. Many astronauts recall how Wendt strapped them into their capsules, shook their hands, offered words of support, and closed the hatch, the last person seen before their trip into space. In those moments, they were thankful for his abrasive attention to detail and his forceful leadership on the launch pad.

Wendt's memoir is replete with good-natured stories, and some that are not so good-natured, many of which are the stuff of legend. It should come as no surprise to anyone that many astronauts had a wild, devil-may-care side to their personalities. From Gus Grissom's sexual peccadilloes to Alan Shepard's practical jokes to John Glenn's stuffed shirt persona that wasn't, Wendt adds several wild new chapters to the antics of the astronauts.