This book is about how the dreams of exploring other worlds became a reality with the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. The problems encountered in the development of the spacecraft, including the disastrous fire aboard Apollo 1 which resulted in the deaths of the three American astronauts, Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chafee are covered. When Neil Armstrong stepped out onto the surface of the Moon on 20 July 1969, many people thought that this was the first time man had visited its nearest neighbour. Although this was the first manned landing, there had been forty-one missions prior to this by both the Americans and the Russians. This book is about all those missions and the sixty-five missions that followed.

Also included, although in much lesser detail, is the part the Russians played in the formative years of the ‘space race’ and the problems they encountered, culminating in the successful Apollo/Soyuz program which proved that the two super-powers could work together. The laboratory in the sky, Skylab, the forerunner of the ISS station is also covered.

The book contains over 200 photographs, all of which are either credited to NASA or from the author's own collection. The sources include correspondence and the author's personal conversations with some of the astronauts involved in the early part of the space program.