"Gemini: Stepping Stone to the Moon, the Untold Story" was a fascinating and informative book. I enjoyed reading about the astronauts who flew the Gemini missions (as well as some of the Mercury missions that preceded Gemini and the Apollo missions that came after), including how they ended up as astronauts, their prior careers (predominantly in the military), and their personalities. The author explains how the personalities and experience of particular astronauts helped or hindered their missions, especially when things did not go as planned (which happen all too frequently), and how certain astronauts guaranteed themselves only one space flight because of their attitudes and behaviors. The author also provides details about the primary flight directors, Chris Kraft and Gene Kranz. I appreciated that they received recognition for the important contributions they made to the success of the Gemini program. I liked the discussion of the transition from Mercury to Gemini, and then to Apollo, and the various obstacles NASA and its contractors faced in getting the rockets and spacecrafts to operate as required, and how they overcame those obstacles (or sometimes failed to overcome them). The author discusses tension between mission control, engineers, astronauts, Congress, and the Executive Office over when to launch certain missions, which technological innovations to continue pursuing and which to abandon (like parasails), costs, public relations, etc. The book is full of interesting tidbits -- Wally Schirra "punking" NASA, Gemini 7 and the public with a sighting of "Santa Claus"; a rocket launch thwarted by a nickel-sized dust cover accidently left on a valve; SNORT and SOPE; conversations between astronauts and ground control; etc.

There were numerous times while reading the book where I stopped to tell my wife some interesting or surprising fact or anecdote I just read. If you are interested in the history of spaceflight, this book is well worth reading.

4 out of 5 stars

The Mercury Program jump started the United States space program and the Apollo Program took man to the moon, but the Gemini (pronounced Geminee) Program tied the two together and made it possible to make it to the moon.

Jeffrey Kluger goes into great detail in his narrative discussion of NASA’s Gemini Program in Gemini: Stepping Stone to the Moon, the Untold Story. He discusses all of the major players in the program, including the President of the United States, the top officials at NASA and the astronauts themselves. Each person gets an in-depth look into how they became involved with the program and how they fit the positions they filled. Along with the people, Kluger also examines the all of the missions and how they brought NASA closer and closer to the moon.

Even though the details given in the book provided significant insight into the workings of the Gemini Program, I found them a bit too much at times. The many details made it hard for me to pay attention at times, and I occasionally drifted off while reading. Although this book contains a lot of information and people and Kluger does a good job making it clear who is who and what their position was in the program. His writing style is engaging and the discussion of the missions are interesting to read.

While the book can be dry at times, this look into the Gemini Program provides a much-needed expansion in the history of the United States space program. Without Gemini, space exploration would not be what it is today, and Kluger does a good job of showing that in his book. If you are interested in outer space and the lengths the US took to bring man to the moon, then you should definitely check out this book.

An unforgettable time in history captured in both the technical and human aspects of early space travel by one who knows from the inside out. I found it to be eminently readable by one who is neither astronaut nor engineer of any stripe. A good read and comfortably absorbed. Lots of witty parts, too.
I requested and received a temporary uncorrected digital galley from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley. Pub Date Nov 11, 2025
#GeminiBook by @jeffkluger #SteppingStonetotheMoon #untoldstory @stmartinspress #astronauts #usspaceprogram #nonfiction

"Without Gemini, there would be no Apollo." I love that line.

This fascinating book recounts the history of the Gemini (Geminee!) space program and also touches on the Mercury and Apollo programs. All I can say is it's a miracle we've made it as far as we have! It was downright shocking to read of how many things went wrong, and how many things didn't work as they should. The space race, and then the race to reach the moon first, was NOT a smooth journey, by any means.

Gemini: Stepping Stone to the Moon, the Untold Story describes how the Gemini program laid the foundation for America's successful moon landing. It details the challenges, dangers, and groundbreaking achievements of the Gemini missions and astronauts, including orbital maneuvers, rendezvous and docking, and spacewalks, which were all essential skills for the later Apollo missions.

I wholeheartedly recommend this fascinating book.

BIG thanks to #StMartinsPress, for providing this book for review and consideration via #NetGalley. All opinions are my own. Gemini: Stepping Stone to the Moon, the Untold Story has an expected publication date of November 11, 2025.

#JeffreyKluger #Astronaut #History #NonFiction #Mercury #Gemini #Apollo #SpaceRace

This look back at the history of the Gemini program was interesting. Looking back at the history evolving during the program helped provide the sense of urgency the program felt.
I enjoyed the background of the astronauts and others involved.
In many instances, I felt overwhelmed or bogged down by what I felt was extraneous information. Some of the details were too detailed and derailed some of my enjoyment.
Overall, this was an interesting book that I would recommend for those interested in the history of our nation's space programs.

The Gemini missions were sandwiched between the Mercury and Apollo missions, but as author Jeffrey Kluger points out, it was “Gemini that taught the US to live in space, to work in space, to walk in space, to thrive in space. Without Gemini, men would never have walked on the moon.” This reader has been fortunate to have been alive during the period and my e-reader has many space related books most of which concentrate on the Apollo flights. This volume adds many previously unknown stories of what it really took to go from suborbit to earth orbit to moon orbit to actually landing on the lunar surface. I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book from NetGalley. Most highly recommend.

Gemini: Steppingstone to the moon, the untold story by Jeffrey Kluger
4 stars
Overall the book was very interesting and covered the material well. I was surprised however at how much the book covered Project Mercury – almost 25% of the book and Apollo. I would have liked to see more details on the Gemini flights such as:
· The problems with the fuel cells – a reoccurring issue on several early flights.
· The quiet discussion of if Armstrong panicked using the reentry thrusters too soon.
· More of what the USSR was doing at that time.
These are minor things. I enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone who is interested in the program.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Gemini is an impressive work. Anyone who grew up obsessed with the space program will enjoy this amazingly well researched and detailed book. The author weaves a compelling timeline of the space race and the development of NASA. He provides background and personal stories about many astronauts and other people involved in the space race along the way. Even though this book is dense with facts and technical information, the way the author personalizes the story makes it very readable and enjoyable. I would recommend this to anyone seeking to expand their knowledge of the early days of NASA and the space race.

What a wonderful look at an often forgotten part of the NASA story, We all know about the Mercury and Apollo missions, but for some reason we seem to skip the Gemini phase. But without Gemini, Neil Armstrong would never have landed on the lunar surface. I found the book filled in the story for me in a nice way. My only complaint would be I wished it spent even more time detailing the Gemini experience (I still felt a bit short changed). This is a great read if you want to learn more about the NASA space program in the 1960’s as we raced the Soviets to be the first to the moon. Thanks NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for this ARC in exchange for my unbiased review,

While the Gemini program surely deserves more attention, this book doesn't do it justice. There's got to be a more nuanced and thoughtful approach than this one by Kluger, which is a long list of what and who went up when and how they came back, often told in a faux-folksy tone (no book needs to use the word "walloping" as often as this one does). It's focused almost exclusively on the astronauts and their manly men ways, and their bosses and their manly man ways, eschewing much of the complexities of the political, social, and physical influences and effects of creating, maintaining, and making the program work. It's an unfortunately superficial account that also uses problematic language and avoids serious discussion of NASA's (also problematic) culture and practices. You'll get a better overview of Gemini by reading the Wikipedia article on it.

This was a fascinating book. It is non-fiction that reads like fiction. Perfect for fans of the Space Program. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

I received a free copy of, Gemini, by Jeffrey Kluger, from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Space travel has changed so much throughout the years. Gemini was a space program that started in 1961, it was not without tragedy, but was a much needed program to learn more about space. This was a very interesting read about the Gemini.

Gemini shares the story, from inception during the Mercury missions, to the impact of everything learned for the Apollo missions, of the fast-paced, hard-hitting space program that got us the skills to get to the moon. The tone, writing style, and information presentation is gorgeous and incredibly well-crafted, This book provides an insight to the Gemini space program that I've never seen before, and am thankful to have been able to read. It's respectfully somber in the moments it needs to be, and humorous in the others, reflecting the attitudes and tones of engineers, pilots, and all working members of NASA during that time.
The book felt like it sped through a lot of the Gemini missions, cutting some to only a couple of pages, after spending half the book on Mercury. I enjoyed every last second of it, but I do wish there'd been more Gemini. More over, I wish we'd gotten more time with the Gemini astronauts, and a closer look at the engineering processes that took place. Really, the book could be 100 pages longer.
But overall this book was wonderful and I will be ordering a physical copy.

This was a fascinating and fast paced deep-dive into NASA’s Gemini program. I went in knowing very little about NASA's program history and came away with a much better appreciation for how critical this program was to the moon landing. Kluger’s compelling writing brings history to life, while blending historical detail and gripping storytelling. Stories like astronauts sneaking a sandwich on board or Gus Grissom’s snarky responses to reporters made the book very enjoyable. The book has a wonderful balance between suspense and insight, and I would recommend this to anyone interested in space programs or just wanting to learn a little more about history. Overall, a great read!

What a book! Imagine having a job where you’re paving the way for people to land on the moon. You go into it knowing the risks, but the success would make it worthwhile. Some of your friends will die, some will have close calls, but the work you did helped get us to the moon in 1969.

Yes, the premise sounds like fiction, but this all happened. I loved this book!

This was a very good book. It was well-written. I would highly recommend this book. It's very easy to read.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the ARC.

This is an excellent and powerful Historical Non Fiction book about the NASA Astronauts of The Mercury, Gemini, Apollo missions and the Intrepid men who made the trips to the Moon possible.
Having grown up in the 1960’s I was very interested in the beginning and early advancements of the space program. This wonderful book filled in all of the blanks of the information of which I was not aware. I highly recommend this book to all of those who share my lifetime of interest.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advanced reader copy of this book.

Thank you Mr. Kruger for this wonderful book. How well I remember the Gemini program. I was a young Navy wife in 1960 (a very long time ago), but I well remember President Kennedy's address, and then all the names of the astronauts and the early Mercury and Gemini flights. We were glued to the TV listening to Walter Cronkite, televising from the back of a pick-up.!! My young children saw the moon landing. You brought me back to that world, and I'm so glad you write about those early times when absolutely nothing was guaranteed or taken for granted. Everyone should visit Cape Canaveral and be so thankful for all the dedicated people at NASA.

More! Noone is going to say "I want to learn about the space program, let's read this book!" No, the person who is going to read this is someone who already has a general idea of the history, or at least has read about Mercury. And yet, we don't get to the start of Gemini until 45%, we spend time on the founding of the space program, NASA, JFK and LBJ, and lots of details on Mercury. Anyone with basic knowledge of the space program knows this. Once we got to Gemini, we got to why a person is reading this book-- to learn about Gemini. The rest could have been a prologue.

There's lots of information and details, but then one flight was 2 pages long. I wanted more on what happened during the flights and interesting information. Did Lovell and Borman ever feel better during their flight What about the relationship between Grissom and Stafford like after he switched him out? What about the experiment Pete Conrad screwed up? If the pre-stuff had taken less space (sorry for the pun), there would have been more room for more information.

Totally voiding what I just said- the book begins on 2 cliff-hanger flash forwards. That was weird. You only need one. Pick one of the stories and move on.

So in conclusion, I wanted more Gemini, less of other programs. He really made the astronauts and NASA staff pop, but for brief moments like fire crackers. More!

I was worried at first that a book about the Gemini space program might be dry and boring, but the book, Gemini, is extraordinary. It details the Gemini flights and the political landscape leading up to them in a way that's really compelling and almost feels like a thriller in parts. I was pleasantly surprised and thoroughly enjoyed Gemini. Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC.