The Moon-Voyage

by Jules Verne

"The Moon-Voyage" by Jules Verne is a novel published in 1865. It follows the Baltimore Gun Club, a society of post-Civil War weapons enthusiasts, as they attempt an audacious feat: building an enormous space gun to launch three men to the Moon. When a French adventurer volunteers for the journey, the club's president and his rival join him aboard the projectile. Verne's calculations were remarkably accurate for his time, though the cannon concept proved impractical for actual space travel. The story ends without revealing the astronauts' fate.