Although rockets and rocket-like gadgets have been known for about 2000 years, the development of high-performance, high-precision rockets began only about 60 years ago when Wernher von Braun started an energetic and systematic program to build rockets for space flight. In 1958, von Braun's team launched the Saturn V rocket that was to launch 12 American astronauts on their way to the moon. This book is based on very close personal and work relationships between von Braun and the authors (25 years for Frederick Ordway, 34 years for Ernst Stuhlinger). More than 100 carefully recorded and edited interviews, and several hundred verbal and written comments on von Braun by people who knew him well, were used for the book.