ROCKET MEN: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon. Craig Nelson. Viking. 404 pages. $27.95.

The Soviet space program's successful launch of Sputnik in 1957 was a cause for much soul-searching among citizens of the United States. And when John F. Kennedy in May 1961, announced, ``I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to Earth,'' there was no certainty that the United States would do so.

Craig Nelson's Rocket Men is a fitting tribute to that achievement. Nelson draws on older material, much of it declassified since the 1960s, and, most important, he has used interviews with former employees conducted in the past 10 years by NASA's Oral History Project.

The range of voices in the selections Nelson quotes, from German scientists with still-haphazard English, to fact-spouting engineers, to laconic test pilots, gives this sky-gazing book its solidly grounded air. (Nelson, who occasionally reveals a wry sense of humor, describes NASA jargon as ``a vernacular that combined the studied flair of pocket-protecting engineers with the delicate nuance of Pentagon bureaucrats.'')

Kennedy has gotten most of the credit as the instigator of the lunar landing program, but Nelson reveals the president as far from certain that the race would be worth the cost. Kennedy initially saw the exploration of space as a multination affair and invited Nikita Khrushchev to partner with us in developing the technology. Only after the Soviet leader turned him down did Kennedy decide the United States had to go it alone.

The unsung hero behind the space program, Nelson argues, was Lyndon Johnson. Made point man, the vice president pushed hard for funding for the program. When questioned about the expense, he would reply, ``Would you rather have us be a second-rate nation, or should we spend a little money?''

Nelson has a novelist's skill at weaving a compelling narrative, beginning his book with the 1969 launch, then going back to the beginnings of rocketry with Robert Goddard in the United States during the 1910s and 1920s and with German and Soviet scientists during the 1930s.

Nelson deftly sketches his leading characters: the visionary Goddard, who turned bitter and reclusive after ridicule in the press; Wernher von Braun, the amoral scientist with masterly survival instincts, who served Hitler, then the U.S. military; and Sergei Korolyov, chief designer of the Soviet missile program, who almost died of scurvy in the gulag after being arrested during Stalin's Great Terror.

The astronauts of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions generally fit a pattern. Of the 30 men selected, 22 were the first born in their families, and five more were eldest sons.

Of the Apollo 11 team, only Michael Collins cooperated with Nelson, and his comments are insightful. Buzz Aldrin has written much about his Apollo and post-Apollo experiences, and Nelson quotes from them liberally to produce a portrait of a complex individual.

The mystery man remains the commander of the mission, Neil Armstrong, an intensely private person yet capable of real eloquence. His first words on stepping onto the moon's surface, ``That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,'' have been engraved in the history that Nelson's book eloquently captures.

Reagan Upshaw reviewed this book for The San Francisco Chronicle.

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