Beyond the moon

"Providing an insider's view of what has been called a golden era in space pioneering, Robert S. Kraemer describes the financial, political, and technical hurdles facing each mission. As NASA's director of planetary programs during those years, he witnessed rivalries between scientists, worked to ensure that projects remained in NASA and federal budgets, and reshaped missions to meet changing priorities, schedules, and vehicle configurations. The book also chronicles the technical problems that sometimes jeopardized missions and describes such successes as the first landings on Mars in 1976." "Addressing many of these central themes that have affected space science during the past fifty years, Beyond the Moon documents the efforts of those who contributed to a burst of planetary exploration that laid the foundation for even more extraordinary voyages of discovery."--BOOK JACKET.