It’s the early 1970s and the official, real-world Apollo space program has come to an end with Apollo 17. Chris Hadfield’s new novel begins with the planning of a fictional, Apollo mission, Apollo 18. This final mission is a joint project between NASA and the U.S. military. It’s a secret mission with the goal of scouting a Soviet spy satellite orbiting the Earth before landing on the moon near Russia’s new lunar rover. If possible, the crew is tasked with disabling the satellite and the rover.

But Russia has received intel on the secret mission and is putting its own plan into motion, and not everyone on Apollo 18 is who we believe them to be.

Real-life astronaut Chris Hadfield uses his experience with NASA to fill his debut novel with technical details that make his outlandish outer space thriller story feel grounded and real.