This is the story of a unique American hero who came of age as an astronaut during the few dramatic years when man reached the moon. Cernan's career spanned the entire Apollo program, from the tragic fire that killed three of his comrades on Apollo 1, through the moment when he left man's last footprint on the moon as commander of Apollo 17.This is the inside story of how space was conquered, and at what price. Cernan writes candidly not only about the program, but about the high divorce rate among the astronauts, the loss of family privacy that came with celebrity, and the ever-present shadows of death and failure.