We Have Lift Off

One of the most successful public relations campaigns in history, featuring heroic astronauts, press-savvy rocket scientists, enthusiastic reporters, deep-pocketed defense contractors, and Tang. In July 1969, ninety-four percent of American televisions were tuned to coverage of Apollo 11's mission to the moon. How did space exploration, once the purview of rocket scientists, reach a larger audience than My Three Sons? Why did a government program whose standard operating procedure had been secrecy turn its greatest achievement into a communal experience? In Marketing the Moon, David Meerman Scott and Richard Jurek tell the story of one of the most successful marketing and public relations campaigns in history: the selling of the Apollo program. Primed by science fiction, magazine articles, and appearances by Wernher von Braun on the “Tomorrowland” segments of the Disneyland prime time television show, Americans were a receptive audience for NASA's pioneering “brand journalism.” Scott and Jurek describe sophisticated efforts by NASA and its many contractors to market the facts about space travel—through press releases, bylined articles, lavishly detailed background materials, and fully produced radio and television features—rather than push an agenda. American astronauts, who signed exclusive agreements with Life magazine, became the heroic and patriotic faces of the program. And there was some judicious product placement: Hasselblad was the “first camera on the moon”; Sony cassette recorders and supplies of Tang were on board the capsule; and astronauts were equipped with the Exer-Genie personal exerciser. Everyone wanted a place on the bandwagon. Generously illustrated with vintage photographs, artwork, and advertisements, many never published before, Marketing the Moon shows that when Neil Armstrong took that giant leap for mankind, it was a triumph not just for American engineering and rocketry but for American marketing and public relations.

Mr Tanner the farmer pollutes his farm and mistreats his animals, leading them to stage a rebellion. They build an intergalactic space rocket to take them up into the clean, clear skies, far away from those who are polluting the planet. First a chicken, then a clever rabbit, and lastly a calm sheep, are chosen for test flights. But each time something goes wrong and the rocket returns to Earth. The animals don't know what to do. But then Farmer Tanner discovers the rocket and, determined to take it for his own, he zooms off into space, and is never seen again. Created in consultation with literacy specialist, Prue Goodwin, this edition contains the complete story, re-designed to help support children who are gaining confidence in reading.

Ready, set, liftoff! Align your team to one purpose: successful delivery. Learn new insights and techniques for starting projects and teams the right way, with expanded concepts for planning, organizing, and conducting liftoff meetings. Real-life stories illustrate how others have effectively started (or restarted) their teams and projects. Master coaches Diana Larsen and Ainsley Nies have successfully "lifted off" numerous agile projects worldwide. Are you ready for success? Every team needs a great start. If you're a business or product leader, team coach or agile practice lead, project or program manager, you'll gain strategic and tactical benefits from liftoffs. Discover new step-by-step instructions and techniques for boosting team performance in this second edition of Liftoft. Concrete examples from our practices show you how to get everyone on the same page from the start as you form the team. You'll find pointers for refocusing an effort that's gone off in the weeds, and practices for working with teams as complex systems. See how to scale liftoffs for multiple teams across the enterprise, address the three key elements for collaborative team chartering, establish the optimal conditions for learning and improvement, and apply the GEFN (Good Enough for Now) rule for efficient liftoffs. Throughout the book are stories from real-life teams lifting off, as seasoned coaches describe their experiences with liftoffs and agile team chartering. Focused conversations help the team align, form, and build enough trust for collaborating. You'll build a common understanding of the teams' context within business goals. Every liftoff is unique, but success is common!

Liftoff-it's the unexplored, often ignored, Agile project practice. As the first act of flight, a rocket launch requires an entire set of systems to lift the vehicle into orbit-not just the vehicle itself, but all the systems needed for smoothly moving off the ground into space. Likewise, your project needs its entire set of supporting systems in place to begin a successful journey to delivery. Whatever you call it (project kickoff, bootcamp, inception, or jump start), liftoff gives your team its trajectory, and launches your project. This critical practice informs, inspires, and aligns everyone to a singular purpose: the successful delivery of software. This success is in your hands! Agile veterans Diana Larsen and Ainsley Nies teach you how to organize and conduct liftoffs, hold team activities to discover what's most important, and offer a working framework for effective and lightweight agile chartering.

Liftoff! is your guide to leveling up as a design manager and leader. Its experience-driven approach--written by designers for designers--will help you hire and scale teams, develop careers, learn why diversity matters to your business, and solidify design's role in your organization. Liftoff! will elevate your skills to lead your team and company to new heights.

An inspirational rallying call about education, race, and the true nature of equality—the Harvard Graduate School of Education convocation speech praised as “powerful” by Hillary Rodham Clinton in Teen Vogue and “inspired” by Justin Timberlake. In emotionally charged spoken-word poetry, Livingston shares a message of hope and hard truths, declaring that education can become an equalizer only if we first acknowledge the inequality and racial divides holding back America’s future. Livingston is dedicated to helping young people reach their celestial potential, and in his galvanizing commencement address, now adapted for the first time to the page, he calls on us to raise our voices on behalf of all children, as their brighter futures can light up our own. Together, we can lift off! Praise for Donovan Livingston “Donovan Livingston gave a powerful speech at the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s convocation. In a spoken-word poem, he shared his struggles in life and urged his fellow graduates to fight inequality and inspire students. . . . Donovan’s message hit home. . . . [He is] part of a rising generation that’s . . . standing up to some of the biggest challenges in the world today.”—Hillary Rodham Clinton, Teen Vogue “These are the words, and Donovan Livingston’s voice and spirit are the music, but in any form, this rare graduation speech tells us that learning is full of bias yet can lead us to the stars.”—Gloria Steinem “Donovan Livingston’s Lift Off is our youth’s gift to us. In this joyous young man’s voice is the promise of tomorrow.”—James McBride

Find out what it takes to become an astronaut from someone who knows! With Dr. Dave's first-hand photos and amusing illustrations, Go for Lift off is the go-to book for aspiring astronauts.

A New York Times Bestseller "Celebrates a bold era when voyaging beyond the Earth was deemed crucial to national security and pride." -The Wall Street Journal Restoring the drama, majesty, and sheer improbability of an American triumph, this is award-winning historian Craig Nelson's definitive and thrilling story of man's first trip to the moon. At 9:32 a.m. on July 16, 1969, the Apollo 11 rocket launched in the presence of more than a million spectators who had gathered to witness a truly historic event. Through interviews, 23,000 pages of NASA oral histories, and declassified CIA documents on the space race, Rocket Men presents a vivid narrative of the moon mission, taking readers on the journey to one of the last frontiers of the human imagination.

Billionaire Rose West suffers no fools. Growing up abandoned by her parents and left to the socialite wolves at an all-girl boarding school, Rose learned early on how to survive with a smile, a wink, and cleavage full of cash. As an oil baroness, a soon-to-be honors graduate from a prestigious university, and a fairly attractive woman --if you're into big hair and bigger boobs-- Rose is poised to take over the world. Too bad she has no idea what she wants to do with her life. Hashtag quarterlife crisis NASA astronaut Vance Bodaway made a deal with himself a long time ago-be an astronaut, be alone. After his Army captain father died in action, Vance saw first-hand what losing a husband did to his mother. He promised himself to never put someone he cares about in that situation. So he keeps his dating life casual and has made peace with not having a family of his own. Until a feisty blonde with a penchant for glitter and trouble enters his orbit, challenging all his hard-and-fast rules. Hashtag friends with benefits. But between Rose's pole dance classes with Vance's mom, their hands-free shot contest at the bar, and a run-in with mall security during a Black Friday shopping fiasco, their no-strings-attached booty calls agreement starts to cross emotional stopgaps neither one of them knew they had. And when a different clock starts ticking, the kind with a "T-minus nine months" countdown, will these two be able to power cycle through their emotional baggage and lift-off into love? Or will they crash and burn?