Dr. Robert Goddard meets Buck Rogers -- Kennedy, Von Braun, and the Crucible of World War II -- Surviving a savage war -- Who's afraid of the V-2? -- Spooked into the space race -- Sputnik revolution -- Missile gaps and the creation of NASA -- Mercury Seven to the rescue -- Kennedy for President -- Skyward with James WEB -- Yuri Gagarin and Alan Shepard -- "Going to the moon" : Washington, DC May 25, 1961 -- Searching for moonlight in Tulsa and Vienna -- Moon momentum with television and Gus Grissom -- Godspeed, John Glenn -- Scott Carpenter, Telstar, and Presidential space touring -- "We choose to go to the moon" : Rice Universtiy, September 12, 1962 -- Gemini Nine and Wally Schirra -- State of space exploration -- "The space effort must go on" -- Cape Kennedy -- Epilogue : The triumph of Apollo 11.