Jules Verne

From the Earth to the Moon, Jules Verne, Classic collection

"From the Earth to the Moon" is a novel written by Jules Verne in 1865. The novel is the story of an inventor named Barbicane, living after the end of the American Civil War who devises an enormous canon to shoot a bullet from to the moon from a small town in Florida.
Many difficulties arrest the creation of the canon, as its gargantuan size requires an astronomical amount of money and time to build. Eventually, however, the canon is completed. Shortly before its completion, a French adventurer named Ardan arrives to say that he wishes to travel inside of the bullet to the moon. A hollow capsule is made in which the Frenchman can travel and Barbicane and his long time rival, Captain Nicholl decide to go with him on the journey in order to settle their rivalry.
Unfortunately, the Barbicane's astronomic calculations are slightly off and the capsule ends up orbiting the moon instead of landing on it. In the end, the three would-be astronauts are left orbiting the moon with no sign if they will ever manage to land.
The novel is one of Verne's most well-known works and is notable specifically for its early calculations for the requirements to the canon and their surprising realism, despite limited research on the moon at the time.