Never Panic Early

An Apollo 13 Astronaut's Journey

By: Fred Haise

Narrated by: Joe Barrett

Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

The extraordinary autobiography of astronaut Fred Haise, one of only twenty-four men to fly to the moon.

In the gripping Never Panic Early, Fred Haise, Lunar Module Pilot for Apollo 13, offers a detailed firsthand account of when disaster struck three days into his mission to the moon. An oxygen tank exploded, a crewmate uttered the now iconic words, “Houston, we’ve had a problem here,” and the world anxiously watched as one of history’s most incredible rescue missions unfolded. Haise brings listeners into the heart of his experience on the challenging mission—considered NASA’s finest hour—and reflects on his life and career as an Apollo astronaut.

In this personal and illuminating memoir, Haise takes an introspective look at the thrills and triumphs, regrets and disappointments, and lessons that defined his career, including his years as a military fighter pilot and his successful twenty-year NASA career that would have made him the sixth man on the moon had Apollo 13 gone right.

Many of his stories navigate fear, hope, and resilience, like when he crashed while ferrying a World War II air show aircraft and suffered second and third-degree burns over sixty-five percent of his body, putting him in critical condition for ten days before making a heroic recovery. In Never Panic Early, Haise explores what it was like to work for NASA in its glory years and demonstrates a true ability to deal with the unexpected.

©2022 Fred Haise (P)2022 Blackstone Publishing

The alright or Ok stuff

Had to spend the last hour of the book, on 1.2 speed, probably won’t return to this book

Expected just a little more

I was excited for the book to come out and hear the "never panic early " stories. But the book started out a little slow and i had a hard time getting in to it. The story itself didn't end up being bad by the narrator is very monotone and does not capture the true adrenaline of an emergency situation in aviation.

Great book

Thank you for your excellent behind the scenes story. I’ve always been interested in NASA and anything space. So this book was right in my wheelhouse.

Always interesting to learn about the life of an Apollo astronaut

From fighter pilot to test pilot to Apollo 13 astronaut to corporate executive, Fred Haise has distinguished himself. As I have found with other audiobooks having some technical content the narrator here mispronounced so many words it became annoying. Other than that, recommend. Doesn’t anyone listen to the narration before the audiobook is released? Sure doesn’t seem so

I like Fred Haise’s story..

… Especially his account of lunar module development, and of course, the Apollo 13 accident… But it drives me a little crazy when narrators get aerospace terms, wrong… I don’t mean to be nitpicky… It was a fine narration, but at one point the narrator says “altitude“ when the context of the sentence clearly indicated to me that the author had written “attitude”. The “altitude” and “attitude” of a spacecraft are entirely different things… And it just kind of makes me shake my head when mistakes like that are made in a book that is clearly designed for a fairly sophisticated aerospace audience.

A fine book

This is a fine book written by an astronaut from Apollo 13. I like and recommend it.

Very good

This was a good book. I really enjoyed the insights into the Apollo 13 mission. Worth reading.

Maybe for the Knowledgeable Aviator, but Otherwise, No.

I love reading the stories of the early Astronauts. But I recommend against this one unless you are an experienced and technical aviator.
A lot of technical information that is often unexplained. Not a lot of detail on the human-aspects of his stories. Just nit that well written. It was disappointing.
The presentation has a lot to be desired, too. Many times he goes from one sentence to another, like run-on sentences. Also from one topic to another with barely a break to indicate a change in topic.

Phoned it in

Was expecting more details of everything. Perhaps not as much as Lovell’s book but was truly disappointed in the meat of the story. Told a fellow aviator it was by far the worst aviation/astronaut memoir that I’ve read and that is a big number. Author did get into better details on the free fall tests and his time after NASA but the die had been cast by then. The reader was OK but even his reading could not save this book.

High hopes but weak book

The title seemed promising, and the idea of another Apollo 13 book tempted me to buy it. However, Fred Haise isn't much of a writer. Lots of sentences that are lacking in style and work poorly together. and a lot of name-dropping. This reads more like a dry test pilot's report; long on facts but short on feeling.
Want an astronaut memoir with feeling and fun? Try "Spaceman" by Mike Massimino (available on Audible).