First Men to the Moon

{{Short description|1960 novella by Wernher von Braun}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2020}}

{{Infobox book

| name = First Men to the Moon

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| image = FirstMenToTheMoon.jpg

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| caption = First edition cover

| author = Wernher von Braun

| illustrator = Fred Freeman

| cover_artist = Fred Freeman

| country = United States

| language = English

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| genre = Science fiction

| publisher = Holt, Rinehart and Winston

| release_date = 1960

| media_type = Hardcover

| pages = 96

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First Men to the Moon is a novella{{cite web |url=http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?830170 |title=First Men to the Moon |website=Internet Speculative Fiction Database |access-date=December 17, 2020}} by rocketry expert Wernher von Braun,[http://www.economist.com/node/18897425 "The End of the Space Age"]. The Economist. published in 1960.{{cite web |url=http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/vonbraun/vbbiblo.html |title=A Bibliography of Werner von Braun with selected biographical supplement 1930–1969 |website=Mitchell R. Sharpe, National Aeronautics and Space Administration |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021003220120/http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/vonbraun/vbbiblo.html |archive-date=October 3, 2002}}{{cite book|author=Howard E. McCurdy|title=Space and the American Imagination|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=idR2g6gLTVkC&pg=PA328|date=January 24, 2011|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=978-0-8018-9868-6|page=328}} The book was designed and illustrated by Fred Freeman.{{sfn|von Braun|1960|p=3}}{{cite book|author1=David Meerman Scott|author2=Richard Jurek|author2-link=Richard Jurek|title=Marketing the Moon: The Selling of the Apollo Lunar Program|url=https://archive.org/details/marketingmoonsel0000scot|url-access=registration|date=February 28, 2014|publisher=MIT Press|isbn=978-0-262-02696-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/marketingmoonsel0000scot/page/7 7]}} Portions of the novella had previously been serialized in the American syndicated Sunday magazine supplement, This Week between 1958 and 1959.{{sfn|von Braun|1960|p=4}}

Von Braun dedicated the book to his daughters Iris and Margrit, "who will live in a world in which flights to the moon will be commonplace".{{sfn|von Braun|1960|p=5}} It was included in The New York Times{{'s}} "[100] Outstanding Books for Young Readers" on November 13, 1960{{cite web |url=http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?250551 |title=First Men to the Moon |website=Internet Speculative Fiction Database |access-date=December 17, 2020}} and was translated into German as Erste Fahrt zum Mond and French as Les premiers hommes sur la lune, both published in 1961.

First Men to the Moon tells the story of John Mason and Larry Carter, fictional astronauts traveling to the Moon.[http://io9.com/5706091/1960s-spacesuit-designs-from-wernher-von-brauns-science-fiction-novel "1960s spacesuit designs from Wernher von Braun's science fiction novel"] Matt Novak, I09 Von Braun based his novella on his own scientific knowledge and includes technical explanations of the journey and diagrams in footnotes in wide margins on each page. The novella describes the use of a method of investigating the interior of the Moon using seismograph-equipped solid propellant rockets.[http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=24421 "Robotics: Pushing the Envelope"]. Centauri Dreams by Paul Gilster on September 5, 2012