This is a book that only a 1940's teenage science enthusiast could love. The first 6 chapters are spent on establishing that our teen protagonists are competent to assist an adult scientist in building a rocket and flying it to the moon, then convincing their parents to allow it. I gave up when the scientist started lecturing one of the boys on leadership qualities. I understand that there are space-nazis later, whenever they get to the moon, and that sounds like it could be fun, but I just couldn't get there.

Audiobook version, borrowed from my public library via Overdrive. Abandoned at 27%. Spider Robinson does his best with reading this dull, dull, story. ( )

Solid beginning to this "series" of books. Moves right along, with plenty of incident. There's only one semi-defined character (Cargraves), the others are all ciphers, but the book is over so quickly it doesn't really matter. Possibly a little too much popular mechanics for some tastes, and there are a few sermons that are tiresome (although the off-handed way in which Heinlein's spokesman asserts that "mathematics has no content" as if this was a simple observation of fact, is kind of unintentionally hilarious). ( )

I really enjoyed the outset of this book, with reference to rocket design and space travel, but the plot was a bit too juvenile for my taste - the ending being far-fetched. Of course when it was written, the Nazi threat was on everybody's minds. I was amused to find a reference to Ley's "Rockets" within the story, as this is the book I found a reference to "Rocketship Galileo" in. ( )

An interesting piece of period fiction, from more innocent days (pre-Sputnik, even) when the difficulties of nuclear rockets and space travel were less well understood. Although I guess it was intended to be futuristic science fiction, today it reads more like alternate history.

One thing I liked about it was the portrayal of the boy heroes: more grown-up than grown-ups, responsible yet daring, disciplined, determined, knowing what they wanted, and diligent enough to learn what they had to learn to accomplish it. In short, they start out as the kind of person you *wish* you had been years ago, and you *wish* we had more of nowadays. (Thus this is *not* a coming-of-age novel where someone learns to be an adult, even though it is about adolescent boys; it is not a character development story.) I read it to my upper elementary school kids, and they enjoyed it, because it's a pretty good story.

*mild spoiler alert*



The story is not *just* about getting to the moon. If it's easy enough to get to the moon so that three boys and their uncle can do it, then so can somebody else. This was unexpected to me, but totally realistic. In fact, anything other than that would be unrealistic. ( )

I enjoyed the book. All of the Heinlein I have read has been mid to late career. It was interesting seeing where he started. It was much more hard-science than I expected, but that makes sense considering Heinlein's background. And I loved that there was still a know-it-all mentor character, even though he is open to the kids knowing some stuff, too. I can do without the gun tolerance, but I realize that's part of reading Heinlein. Although, my first and favorite novel of his questioned that deeply. But, SiaSL questioned everything. That's why I love it so. All in all, Galileo was a fun read with some insight into space travel and how to achieve goals without squelching potential. Oh, and Nazis. ( )

I enjoyed the book. All of the Heinlein I have read has been mid to late career. It was interesting seeing where he started. It was much more hard-science than I expected, but that makes sense considering Heinlein's background. And I loved that there was still a know-it-all mentor character, even though he is open to the kids knowing some stuff, too. I can do without the gun tolerance, but I realize that's part of reading Heinlein. Although, my first and favorite novel of his questioned that deeply. But, SiaSL questioned everything. That's why I love it so. All in all, Galileo was a fun read with some insight into space travel and how to achieve goals without squelching potential. Oh, and Nazis. ( )

3 sterren voor dit boek. Twijfelde aan 2,5 maar aangezien dat niet mogelijk is bij Goodreads heb ik toch maar voor 3 gekozen.

Dit is een verhaal voor kinderen. Toch had ik wel wat meer verwacht van dit boek. Helaas viel dat tegen. Het begon aardig, maar zakte al snel in.

Dit verhaal gaat over 3 jongens die graag raketten bouwen en in contact komen met een oom van een van hen die toevallig wetenschapper is, en een raket wil bouwen om naar de maan te vliegen.
Eenmaal op de maan aangekomen wordt hun raket gebombardeerd door een ruimteschip. Dankzij slim denken komen ze in bezit van dit ruimteschip en komen er achter dat er een geheime basis is van .... de NAZI's.

De Tweede Wereldoorlog is voorbij, maar een kleine groep nazi's verblijven op de maan met een aantal atoom-bommen. De jongens moeten al hun kunnen gebruiken om te overleven en weer naar Aarde terug te keren.

Duidelijk een gedateerd verhaal (1947). ( )

Not one of my favorite Heinlein juveniles, but not bad. I enjoy the nuts-and-bolts bits of building the rocket and figuring things out (and the rocket club, at the beginning); the intrigue aspects are...highly unlikely, and detract from the main story. The timing is too close (three months?) and how did they hear about the plan anyway? It looks like someone told him to punch it up, just going to the moon wasn't enough - and whoever it was (possibly Heinlein told himself...) was just plain wrong. It also leaves the questions of what they find on the Moon completely out of the picture. OK story, could have been much better. There were some amusing bits where things that were considerations during the actual moon landings (flags stiffened with wire to "fly", for instance) came up in the story. Note that this was written more than twenty years before the actual moon landings...not bad. ( )

I've been valiantly attempting to finish this book, but at the halfway point I've given up, and admitting that I'm not interested in what happens. The story is not engaging at all, and the writing isn't up to par with this author's other works, including his other early "juvenile" books I've read. ( )

Pretty entertaining little read for a Heinlein juvenile. Pacing was a bit uneven in the final stages of the novel, but overall it flowed well and had a pretty good heart. This was Heinlein's first juvenile fiction, written in 1947, and the experience of reading it seems greatly enhanced if you're able to put yourself in the mindset of a 16 year old boy fascinated with rocketry just after the culmination of WWII.

Of course the entire thing is wildly implausible and pure fantasy with an interesting amount of physics and rocketry (ca. 1947 of course) thrown in. But he fulfilled his goal in writing it. Somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 of the NASA personnel who helped engineer the Apollo moon landing admitted in a 1970 survey that this book (as well as several other Heinlein juveniles) was strongly influential in their career choice.

I think this book may have been a bit too 'clean' and good-spirited for me to have fully enjoyed when I was 16, but I found it a very satisfying and uplifting little read at 40. ( )

This book has all the charms of early SF. Dialogue like, "Gee, am I glad to see you! This place was giving me the jim-jams!" Characters who build a rocket ship to the moon, atomic powered, out in the desert, while using slide rules and corded phones. They go to the moon and meet an unexpected welcoming committee . . . of sorts. ( )

One of the better books I have read of late. This, for the midday part fires into the category my friend An would call high science fiction. It is written in 1947 and takes place in 1949. Its about a you of recent high shook graduated that have been building midweek tickets for some time. Just s they are about to split ways and go off to college one of their unless offers then the chance of a love time to be the first men on the moon. Because "obviously" no government nor government protected vituperation would take on such an asteroid risk, they need to self find it, and not pushing 18 year olds I'd pay off the solution to make it affordable. It seems like someone or something. Is trying to stop then all along the way, incident a 1940s version of cold perturbed archives, but they find their way around but Henry and their goons.. Many scientific ideas are explorred, many did with what our host books show happened in the 60s though Jarlin was wrong on a few. The story kind of his to pieces when they rib into someone wise on the moon, and out is subside you'd never expect. Either way I highly recommend, and the audio book performance is also fabrfantastic, and I look forward not only to reading other works of Harlin but the writings of Spyder tve official who happened to read the audio Vedic appears to be a sifi writer in his own right ( )

Now this is proper lunar exploration, a scientist and three strapping teenage lads banding together to build a rocket in their back yard (well, the desert, but same thing) with nothing more than ingenuity, guts, sweat (there’s a lot of sweating in this book), solder and quite a lot more fissionable material than you’d expect to be allowed to pass into private hands.
‘Rocket Ship Galileo’ starts with three lads in their den, blowing up the latest version of their model rocket. Given the safety precautions that appear habitual, and the fate of their latest test rocket, one senses that their experiments with rocket flight usually end in their rockets being evenly distributed over a wide horizontal area, rather than any sort of vertical achievement. Nevertheless, one of the chaps’ uncle, a renowned nuclear physicist no less, comes to the three with a proposition; he’s got an idea for a nuclear engine that will take a rocket to the Moon (and back), but needs a crew of cheap and eager engineers to help him convert a commercial transatlantic mail rocket into something that will take them to the Moon (and back).
Before long, the four of them are in an isolated part of the desert, getting busy.
The premise of private space flight, the centrepiece of the novel, is quickly explained at the start, but is a recurring theme. The wise uncle explains that private space flight is the only way that mankind will ever reach the Moon. Corporations are not interested in this sort of thing until they can be sure that there’s money in it, and simply put the daunting start up costs and the risks of heroic failure will never pursued the imagination-free accountants and shareholder-fearing boards of directors that going to the Moon can result in vast profit. Government he dismisses out of hand as having no interest at all in going to the Moon. No, it will be for private individuals to go to the Moon.
And what better sort of private individual than Americans?
This, at least, is convincing, a few generations back the forefathers of the kids with the space suits and the slide rules were covering vast distances with nothing more than a covered wagon and a rifle (and, true to the pioneer spirit, the lunar travellers do take guns with them to the Moon), before that, some young gal in a bonnet was scampering aboard the Mayflower ready to strike out for a new world.
So, the boys and the scientist build their rocket.
The ambition to reach the Moon is not without its problems. Problem number one is, of course, converting a rocket ship for lunar flight. This is nothing the native ingenuity of three high school lads can’t fix though, remember, these fellows are ace engineers, they’ve even got their own rocket club.
Problem number two is money. No wonder the uncle has to rely on the willing, unpaid labour of the three lads, he barely has enough money to buy a second hand rocket, all the gear to fly it to the moon and, oh yea, loads of radioactive material to power the thing.
Problem number three is somebody is trying to sabotage the project.
The rocket ship itself is a thing of beauty, as are the preparations for the trip to the Moon. Every rocket ship should have a hot plate for preparing food on board. Home comforts are important, although sacrifices are made, such as the uncle not being able to smoke his pipe on the journey. Once on the Moon, the plan is to use plants to help recycle the atmosphere, once you’ve read this book, you’ll never look at rhubarb the same way again.
Exciting as the first half of the book is, things really pick up when they actually reach the Moon and find, to put it mildly, a few surprises. Before long it’s time to saddle up and smile grimly if knowingly at all those who mocked the crew for going to the Moon, in peace for all mankind, with couple of rifles.
This is for anyone who ever looked at the moon, looked at their shed and thought ‘maybe, just maybe’. ( )

Approaching this story with no foreknowledge of its content, I quickly learned it is solidly a Heinlein Juvenile, one of those stories aimed squarely at the post-war youth of 1947’s middle class readers. Later research informed me that it is Heinlein’s first such book, and provides some of the template seen in the rest. A threesome of graduating high-school chums team up with an uncle, who happens to be a talented rocket scientist, to escalate their backyard rocket-design club into a mission to launch the world’s first moon visit. It’s interesting to see some of the predictions Heinlein optimistically made for the politics and scientific developments of his near-future tale: a substantial United Nations keeping the world peaceful, and a booming (sorry) private rocketry industry proving cargo & passenger service worldwide. Economically, the same optimism seen in the Detroit auto industry’s roaring 1950’s applies to Heinlein’s fictional atomics and rocketry industries. After piloting their four-man nuclear-powered backyard rocket to the moon, they are ambushed there by a secret garrison of Nazi holdovers, who have eluded the fate of the rest of the Reich, and are planning a Lunar counterstrike. The remainder of the story continues to fulfill adventure fantasies for its adolescent audience, with our protagonists triumphant in the end. It’s interesting to see how early the theme of technology outpacing the wisdom to use it appears, and the worries of nuclear holocaust begin to appear in the bellwether genre. ( )

Originally reviewed at FanLit:
http://www.fantasyliterature.com/reviews/rocket-ship-galileo/

When I was a kid I loved the �??Heinlein Juveniles.ƒ? Rocket Ship Galileo, Heinleinƒ??s first Juvenile, is one I missed back then. It wonƒ??t hold up well today (actually, it wouldnƒ??t have held up well when I was reading Heinlein Juveniles in the 1980s) but sometimes itƒ??s fun to read these old science fiction stories for kids and I did have fun recently reading Rocket Ship Galileo even though I am very much aware of its flaws. Letƒ??s remember that it was published in 1947, just after World War II and well before we managed to put a man on the moon.

Ross, Art, and Morrie (I love those retro names!) are three teenage boys who love science and each have special geeky skills. When Morrieƒ??s uncle, a Nobel Prize-winning nuclear physicist, discovers that the boys are building a rocket ship, he gives them some funds and a little help and off they all go to the moon. When they get there they discover that theyƒ??re not the first ones there. The humans whoƒ??ve covertly come before have dangerous plans. Can the boys stop them before the bad guys destroy the Earth?

Okay, thatƒ??s just fun, right? In the year 2013 itƒ??s impossible to take Rocket Ship Galileo seriously. I donƒ??t know if they did back in 1947. I suspect not because I doubt anyone thought it was possible to build a space ship in your backyard or to mail order space suits and asbestos shoes. Still, boys can dream, and Rocket Ship Galileo is definitely an exciting dream, especially when you get to not only fly to the moon, but kill Nazis and save the Earth on top of it all. Too cool!

Other than the outlandishness of it all, the main problem with Rocket Ship Galileo is all the teachy technobabble. Some of it is real science, some of it is made up (I hope kids can tell this apart), most of it is dated, and a lot of it is boring because itƒ??s delivered in Uncle Cargravesƒ?? lessons or the boys recitation of what theyƒ??ve previously learned. Heinlein has an issue with this in his adult novels, too. If the lessons donƒ??t turn kids off they might enjoy experiencing the fantasies of teenage boys in the 1940s.

The audiobook I listened to was narrated by Spider Robinson who has the tone just right. When he narrates the boysƒ?? parts he sounds appropriately wide-eyed, innocent, and geeky. Golly, Mr. Robinson, great job! ( )

Of all of Heinlein's novels, this one is probably the most dated in feel. Yes, others of his novels have that charming combination of ray guns and slide rules, but while others shoot for the planets or the stars, Rocket Ship Galileo, published in 1947 is about the first voyage to the moon--made by teenagers. Where they find Nazis! Yes, really. And yet.. I have to admit, you'll have to pry my copy out of my cold, dead hands. It's fun to read what Heinlein got right over twenty years before the first moon landing, and what hilariously wrong. And if nothing else, Heinlein is always readable, pulling you in and through. ( )

A very old fashioned and romantic view of early space travel. Heinlein clearly relied on the ability of people to build their own airplanes, which continues today. However, at the time the math hadn't been done to show how difficult it was to get into orbit - unless you rely on atomic energy. It was interesting to read, sort of a time capsule back to the 1940's, not a vision of the future. ( )

In the last few months I've read most of the Heinlein Juveniles.

This one certainly seems to be the most dated, and I struggled with it. It's not going to be one that I re-read at all.

It does have a schoolboy 'Jolly Rocket Ships' and 'Lashings of Ginger Beer' vibe, and belongs in the time period it was written.

2.75 Stars. Thankfully he got a great deal better after 1947. ( )

Robert Heinlein is a Sci-Fi God.

Rocket Ship Galileo, published in 1947, exactly 22 years before man landed on the moon, accurately predicted the Great Space Race between the United States and Soviet Union, and the conditions future astronauts would face while stepping over the moon's surface. Although way off base on a lot of technology (computers, the speed of space travel, etc.) overall he generally hits the nail on the head. This is also Heinlein’s first book, and from what other novels I have read of his this is one of his best. Reading it makes little bubbles of joy fill my head.

Taking place right after WWII, the story focuses around four main characters: three young gents who happen to enjoy experimenting with rockets; and a Dr. Cargraves, who is a Nobel Prize winning physicist who is related to one of the boys. The doctor hires on the three young boys to help him build and pilot a rocket ship on a trip to the moon. Bombs, Quonset huts, Nazis, guns, clever banter and an Indiana Jones like spirit fill the 187 page novel with personified love.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Sci-Fi or adventure novels. It’s a quick, easy, and enjoyable read. If you don’t like pages and pages of technological theory this book may not be for you, but that aside it’s pretty perfect. ( )

boring. teen fiction. naive and laughable. if you are looking for shallow entertainment you have found it ( )

Great Read Like the Rest of Heinleins Juveniles, I would love if he went further with this story. Has a Twist i did not expect at the end, mainly because i forgot when it was written. I love Heinleins Futures ( )

Eigentlich ein Jugendroman, was ihn aber keinesfalls abwertet. ( )

Three teenage friends are recruited by a world-class scientist to help him build and fly a rocketship that will reach the moon. They don't know what to expect what they get there, but what they find couldn't surprise them more.

Science Fiction, Teen fiction