FREE Returns

FREE delivery Thursday, February 2

Or fastest delivery Tuesday, January 31. Order within 8 hrs 52 mins

In Stock.

[{"displayPrice":"$32.00","priceAmount":32.00,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"32","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"00","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"4RTOmKAdPATFHMS1Xt6Kdf7es8SRHgTuNlENZotXsJR9QFYafS58k7SgKMS8jzkgGAMfP8thKodQrs%2F8QCbRl3%2F29AkFUgmyjY3RF4IiDBK8uVa4NgPlqHmEGyTM7%2F3DvX6LimOUFyk%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW"},{"displayPrice":"$25.99","priceAmount":25.99,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"25","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"99","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"wL43YZ632y5q%2Fnzbs95m%2BNTYaPcUKGocJYkCbCajWoYwRxRzX59b1bp83XfX%2FBxCDWL8kaDNbGwhVekXl9sDt%2FFYVPikD67j%2F2bnfIukrYASJukhjoE1kVHPiVQSgeZBVP5pez9gOWahoHUwbv1Q92va0h5LXgj05kZKIedaoBWMnrZ35b6bW0a9VxSmtyER","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED"}]

$$32.00 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Secure transaction

Ships from

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Details

Ships from

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Return policy: Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

Add a gift receipt for easy returns

$3.99 delivery February 3 - 8. Details

Or fastest delivery Wednesday, February 1. Order within 11 hrs 52 mins. Details

Select delivery location

Used: Very Good | Details

Sold by Auburn Archives

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Have one to sell?

Sell on Amazon

Other Sellers on Amazon

Added

Not added

$29.27
& FREE Shipping

Sold by: Book Depository US

Added

Not added

$35.76
& FREE Shipping

Sold by: TheProductsHub

Added

Not added

$37.48
& FREE Shipping

Sold by: InfiniteBooks_USA

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See all 3 images

Follow the Author

Stephen B. Johnson

The Secret of Apollo: Systems Management in American and European Space Programs (New Series in NASA History)

by Stephen B. Johnson (Author)

27 ratings

Part of: New Series in NASA History (13 books)

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$11.99

—

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$147.82

—

$147.82

Paperback

"Please retry"

$32.00

$25.27

$25.98

Digital, Import

"Please retry"

—

Kindle
$11.99 Read with Our Free App
Hardcover
$147.82

4 Used from $147.82 2 Collectible from $200.00
Paperback
$25.99 - $32.00

3 Used from $25.98 10 New from $25.27
Digital
—

Enhance your purchase

Winner of the Emme Award for Astronautical Literature from the American Astronautical Society

How does one go about organizing something as complicated as a strategic-missile or space-exploration program? Stephen B. Johnson here explores the answer―systems management―in a groundbreaking study that involves Air Force planners, scientists, technical specialists, and, eventually, bureaucrats. Taking a comparative approach, Johnson focuses on the theory, or intellectual history, of "systems engineering" as such, its origins in the Air Force's Cold War ICBM efforts, and its migration to not only NASA but the European Space Agency.

Exploring the history and politics of aerospace development and weapons procurement, Johnson examines how scientists and engineers created the systems management process to coordinate large-scale technology development, and how managers and military officers gained control of that process. "Those funding the race demanded results," Johnson explains. "In response, development organizations created what few expected and what even fewer wanted―a bureaucracy for innovation. To begin to understand this apparent contradiction in terms, we must first understand the exacting nature of space technologies and the concerns of those who create them."

ISBN-10

0801885426
ISBN-13

978-0801885426
Publication date

October 31, 2006
Language

English
Dimensions

6 x 0.65 x 9 inches
Print length

312 pages
See all details

Jane Jacobs
1,234
Paperback
in Urban & Land Use Planning
93 offers from $7.81
John Wyatt
139
Hardcover
9 offers from $9.49

Editorial Reviews

Review

Soundly based on the secondary literature and on archival research in the United States and Europe and provides an excellent overview of the topic within Johnson's chosen boundaries . . . I can highly recommend Johnson's book to historians of both the Cold War military and civilian space programs.
―Journal of Military History

Johnson has been inspired by engineering to write good history.
―Jon Agar, British Journal for the History of Science

A book for general readers interested in business and management issues in the space program.
―Choice

Johnson's in-depth, nuts-and-bolts manual sheds much light on a seldom studied secret of our recent space history.
―Space Review

Well written and engaging in style.
―Satellite Evolution Group

This is a wonderful story and a great book. The issue is of maximum importance today, since NASA and other high-tech operations are replacing systems management with 'faster, better, cheaper' approaches to space flight, with decidedly mixed results. Skillfully interweaving technical details and fascinating personalities, Johnson tells the history of systems management in the U.S. and Europe. It is a very important work.
―Howard McCurdy, author of Inside NASA

Review

This is a wonderful story and a great book. The issue is of maximum importance today, since NASA and other high-tech operations are replacing systems management with 'faster, better, cheaper' approaches to space flight, with decidedly mixed results. Skillfully interweaving technical details and fascinating personalities, Johnson tells the history of systems management in the U.S. and Europe. It is a very important work.

-- Howard McCurdy

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Johns Hopkins University Press (October 31, 2006)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 312 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0801885426
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0801885426
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 15.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.65 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #560,520 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #248 in Landscape Architecture (Books)
- #816 in Astrophysics & Space Science (Books)
- #2,458 in History & Philosophy of Science (Books)

Customer Reviews:
27 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Stephen B. Johnson

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5

27 global ratings

5 star		56%
4 star		22%
3 star		11%
2 star 0% (0%)		0%
1 star		11%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Jack Kennedy Jr.

Johnson Contributes to Understanding of Systems Mgmt.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 8, 2007

Verified Purchase

Dr. Johnson's book The Secret of Apollo provides the reader with the critcial overview of how systems management was development by the American military and how it became to be applied in the civilian space program. The book provides a unique persepective on how success was achieved through the utlization of concurrency and systems management. There are many success and failure stories spread throughout he book as examples that tell the story. The book is easy to read and to undesrtand without having advanced degrees in either engineering or project management. Therefore, I commend this book as worthwhile reading from a histoc standpoint. Systems management, clearly, has been the American space program strength that was been transferred to our European allies.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

crawler

Good information, poorly presented

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 23, 2007

Without a doubt, Johnson has meticulously researched and documented the systems engineering and management processes as they arose in the Air Force, NASA, and other government research organizations. However, the book reads like a dry and dense textbook. While it may be that presenting this material any other way is difficult, I suspect that more attention to organization (of the text) and better editing would greatly improve the reading experience.

That said, the content remains fascinating and Johnson must be applauded for packaging so much in such a small book. Definitely required reading for those in the area, but not worth the time of casual science or engineering enthusiasts accustomed to the (exceptional) writing of Simon Singh and the like.

6 people found this helpful

Helpful

D

The secret of apollo is systems engineering. An excellent book.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 13, 2016

Verified Purchase

Johnson is one of the best historians of technology. This book explains the importance of systems engineering, a paradigm that permitted the United States to manage the complexity of the Apollo program, the most complex engineering achievement in history.

Helpful

Roger D. Launius

Outstanding History of Apollo Systems Management

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 26, 2005

This important book by Stephen B. Johnson of the University of North Dakota's Space Studies Department, skillfully interweaves technical details and fascinating personalities to describe the rise of systems management in the U.S. and Europe. It is a very important work that uses Apollo as its key example. Only through the application of sophisticated management concepts were such a complex activity as the Apollo Moon landings accomplished.

Reviewers received Johnson's work warmly and it has been accepted as an exceptionally important study of how Apollo technology succeeded. As Erik Rau of Drexel University commented: "[Systems management (SM)] forced new temporal and financial discipline on contractors and engineers, imposed practices that undermined functional organization and loyalties, and subjected to scrutiny all institutions and firms involved in the project. Schedule and cost slippages on large government-sponsored projects may have continued, but Johnson asserts that SM minimized their rate. In fact, Johnson persuasively argues that without the bureaucracy of SM, success on several large aerospace projects would have been unlikely" ("Enterprise & Society" 3 (2003): 372-74).

While Johnson argued that systems management allowed the accomplishment of large-scale technological endeavors such as Apollo, it did not do so on the cheap. Costs rise as the engineering team manage for schedule and reliability, since they are interrelated and must be managed as a group. This held true for the Apollo program. The schedule, dictated by the president, was firm. Since humans were involved in the flights, and since the president had directed that the lunar landing be conducted safely, the program managers placed a heavy emphasis on reliability.

Accordingly, Apollo used redundant systems extensively so that failures would be both predictable and minor in result. The significance of both of these factors forced the third factor, cost, much higher than might have been the case with a more leisurely lunar program such as had been conceptualized in the latter 1950s. As it was, Johnson concludes, this was the price paid for success under Kennedy's lunar landing mandate. Of course, understanding the management of complex structures for the successful completion of multifarious complex tasks was an important outgrowth of the Apollo effort.

This is a critically important book in the historiography of Project Apollo and human spaceflight. It is must reading for anyone interested in the evolution of spacefaring in the last fifty years. I recommend it highly as a worthy study of the history of the systems management that allowed the success the Apollo program.

21 people found this helpful

Helpful

Kevin White

He provides a great review of all the lessons and leadership requirements necessary ...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 11, 2016

Dr. Johnson provides an outstanding and fascinating look at the history of Apollo. He provides a great review of all the lessons and leadership requirements necessary to accomplished such an amazing feat. Sadly though, this feat has never been repeated.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Kindle Customer

must have for aerospace managers

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 9, 2004

This book is more a history of how systems engineering evolved than a look at the apollo program. It starts with a long look at the problems with the early military ICBM program and the hard lessons learned from its development as well as going into a look at the major players in the early military space program. It then goes on to problems with the early spacecrafts at the jet propulsion lab and how these were fixed through applying principles of systems engineering. And of course it goes in depth into a look at the managing of the Apollo program. This ends with a good look at the early failings of ELDO (initial european rocket program) and the successes of ESRO (precursor to the European Space Agency).

Reading this book, you begin to get a clear understanding of the complexity involved in trying to develop massive systems such as rockets and spacecraft. This is a must read for anyone looking to go into management in the aerospace sector or is interested in learning how the sector is managed or anyone interested in the history of the players in military space program.

13 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Sinnott / RCG.

ESA ..

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 29, 2022

Verified Purchase

Valuable and insightful / I was part of the European Space fraternity in the 1960's.....

Robert Flunder

Very satisfied

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 6, 2020

Verified Purchase

For those amateurs like me who find the overall program management of Apollo awesome, this is a fascinating read.

Paul2002

A bit dry in parts - but definitely worth reading

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 18, 2014

Verified Purchase

A bit dry in parts - but definitely worth reading the introductory chapters and then going from there more selectively

One person found this helpful

See all reviews