NPR Fresh Air Podcast: 'One Giant Leap' Explores The Herculean Effort Behind The 1969 Moon Landing

Astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Jr. walks near the lunar module during the Apollo 11 moon landing on July 20, 1969.

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Listen to the NPR Fresh Air Podcast about the book One Giant Leap. Learn how ordinary people who mobilized behind the Apollo program to pull off the most extraordinary human achievement: the July 20, 1969, moon landing.

In 1961, when President John F. Kennedy announced a goal of "landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth" before the end of the decade, the mission seemed all but impossible. Learn what had to be accomplished to make it happen.

Listen to Fresh Air podcast, (June 12, 2019):