Destination Moon
Author: Robert A. Heinlein
Genre: Science Fiction
Year: 1950
Rating: 7.5 of 10
A fun short novella adapted from the Destination Moon screenplay. I imagine that when this story was first published, long before we made it to the moon, that it was terribly exciting, especially since the technical progress was being made to make the moon shot a reality. The story doesn’t have much characterization and is mostly about the technicalities and politics of the first moon launch. It is interesting that Heinlein chose to make the endeavor from the private sector instead of a government effort. It is also interesting that he chose the Mojave Desert, specifically Lucerne Valley as the launch site, because today Space X isn’t too far off from that location. All in all this wasn’t my favorite of Heinlein’s work but it was an enjoyable read and an interesting companion piece to the film. The original screenplay was adapted from one of Heinlein’s juvenile novels Rocket Ship Galileo, and I’ll have to read that as well to look further into how this story developed.