Apollo 11
The Inside Story
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Narrated by:
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Simon Mattacks
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By:
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David Whitehouse
About this listen
Informed by extensive interviews with astronauts such as Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Gene Cernan, David Scott, John Young, Alan Shepard, Charlie Duke, Al Bean, Gordon Cooper, Al Worden, Walt Cunningham, Tom Stafford, Dick Gordon, John Glenn, Pete Conrad, Edgar Mitchel, James Irwin, Stu Roosa, Ron Evans, Deke Slayton, Wally Schirra, as well as key politicians and NASA personnel
Fifty years ago in July 1969, Apollo 11 became the first manned mission to land on the moon, and Neil Armstrong the first man to step onto its surface. President Nixon called it the greatest week since creation.
In the most authoritative book ever written about Apollo, David Whitehouse reveals the true drama behind the mission, telling the story in the words of those who took part - based around exclusive interviews with the key players.
This enthralling book takes us from the early rocket pioneers to the shock America received from the Soviets' launch of the first satellite, Sputnik; from the race to put the first person into space, through President Kennedy's enthusiasm and later doubts, to the astronauts' intense competition to leave the first footprint.
Here is the story as told by the crew of Apollo 11 and the many other astronauts who paved the way or went to the moon themselves after Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins. Astronauts, engineers, politicians, NASA officials, Soviet rivals - all tell their own story of a great moment of human achievement.
The full list of interviewees includes NASA employees such as James Fletcher, Roco Petrone, Brainerd Homes, Bob Gilruth, George Mueller, James Webb, John Houbolt, Robert Seamans, Max Faget, Director of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory William Pickering, and Sergei Khrushchev, son of Soviet Premier.
©2019 by David Whitehouse. (P)2019 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Journalist Pat Duggins, National Public Radio's resident "space expert", chronicles the planning stages of the Space Shuttle program in the early 1970s, the thrill of the first flight in 1981, construction of the International Space Station in the 1990s, and the decision in the early 2000s to shut the program down.
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End of the Shuttle
- By Jean on 09-25-14
By: Pat Duggins
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Moon Shot
- The Inside Story of Man's Greatest Adventure
- By: Dan Parry
- Narrated by: John Chancer
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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‘It didn’t matter that they were now three miles beyond their target site, that communications were dropping out and that they were running low on fuel. All that mattered to Neil as he searched for a safe spot to land was that boulders littered the surface below. “Thirty seconds,” called mission control. In truth, the flight controllers were now no more than spectators, just like everybody else. No more needed to be said. It was down to Armstrong
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Wow.
- By Shellbin on 02-04-12
By: Dan Parry
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First Man
- The Life of Neil A. Armstrong
- By: James R. Hansen
- Narrated by: Jeremy Bobb
- Length: 16 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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When Apollo 11 touched down on the Moon’s surface in 1969, the first man on the Moon became a legend. In First Man, author James R. Hansen explores the life of Neil Armstrong. Based on over 50 hours of interviews with the intensely private Armstrong, who also gave Hansen exclusive access to private documents and family sources, this "magnificent panorama of the second half of the American twentieth century" (Publishers Weekly, starred review) is an unparalleled biography of an American icon.
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Not really 'unabridged'
- By A Reader on 06-06-18
By: James R. Hansen
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Into the Black
- The Extraordinary Untold Story of the First Flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia and the Astronauts Who Flew Her
- By: Rowland White, Richard Truly
- Narrated by: Eric Meyers
- Length: 15 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Using interviews, NASA oral histories, and recently declassified material, Into the Black pieces together the dramatic untold story of the Columbia mission and the brave people who dedicated themselves to help the United States succeed in the age of space exploration. On April 12, 1981, NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia blasted off from Cape Canaveral. It was the most advanced, state-of-the-art flying machine ever built, challenging the minds and imagination of America's top engineers and pilots.
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Great Story About a Flawed Spacecraft
- By John on 12-04-16
By: Rowland White, and others
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Rocket Men
- The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man's First Journey to the Moon
- By: Robert Kurson
- Narrated by: Ray Porter, Robert Kurson
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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By August 1968, the American space program was in danger of failing in its two most important objectives: to land a man on the moon by President Kennedy's end-of-decade deadline and to triumph over the Soviets in space. With its back against the wall, NASA made an almost unimaginable leap: It would scrap its usual methodical approach and risk everything on a sudden launch, sending the first men in history to the moon - in just four months.
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The Men Who Saved 1968
- By Gillian on 04-04-18
By: Robert Kurson
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Apollo 8
- The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon
- By: Jeffrey Kluger
- Narrated by: Brian Troxell
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
In August 1968 NASA made a bold decision: In just 16 weeks, the United States would launch humankind's first flight to the moon. Only the year before, three astronauts had burned to death in their spacecraft, and since then the Apollo program had suffered one setback after another. Meanwhile, the Russians were winning the space race, the Cold War was getting hotter by the month, and President Kennedy's promise to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade seemed sure to be broken.
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Great history of NASA and Apollo 8: a must listen
- By J on 11-17-17
By: Jeffrey Kluger
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The Burning Blue
- The Untold Story of Christa McAuliffe and NASA's Challenger Disaster
- By: Kevin Cook
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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On January 28, 1986, NASA's space shuttle Challenger exploded after blasting off from Cape Canaveral. Christa McAuliffe, America's "Teacher in Space", was instantly killed, along with the other six members of the mission. At least that's what most of us remember. Kevin Cook tells us what really happened on that ill-fated, unforgettable day. He traces the pressures - leading from NASA to the White House - that triggered the fatal order to launch on an ice-cold Florida morning.
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Not bad, but not much new either
- By Dave on 07-27-22
By: Kevin Cook
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Neil Armstrong
- A Life of Flight
- By: Jay Barbree
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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Much has been written about Neil Armstrong, America's modern hero and history's most famous space traveler. Yet, shy of fame and never one to steal the spotlight, Armstrong was always reluctant to discuss his personal side of events. Here for the first time is the definitive story of Neil's life of flight he shared for five decades with a trusted friend - Jay Barbree.
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A Profound Personal Impact
- By Michael on 08-21-14
By: Jay Barbree
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The Right Stuff
- By: Tom Wolfe
- Narrated by: Dennis Quaid
- Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Millions of words have poured forth about man's trip to the moon, but until now few people have had a sense of the most engrossing side of the adventure: namely, what went on in the minds of the astronauts themselves - in space, on the moon, and even during certain odysseys on earth. It is this, the inner life of the astronauts, that Tom Wolfe describes with his almost uncanny empathetic powers that made The Right Stuff a classic.
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Righteous Book, Righteous Narrator, Righteous MEN!
- By Gillian on 02-08-18
By: Tom Wolfe
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Vulcan 607
- By: Rowland White
- Narrated by: Roy McMillan
- Length: 13 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Shoulder to shoulder with Strategic Air Command B-52s throughout the Cold War, the big delta-winged Vulcans of the Britain's V-bomber force faced down the Soviet threat to the West. In 1982, they were just months from retirement when they flew in anger for the first time. It was to be a record-breaking mission of breathtaking audacity: a single bomber launched from a remote island airbase to carry out what would be the longest-range air attack in history. An 8,000-mile round-trip.
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Wow, incredibly gripping and entertaining
- By MortonC on 09-10-24
By: Rowland White
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SR-71, the Blackbird, Q&A
- By: Terry Pappas
- Narrated by: Chris Abell
- Length: 4 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Higher, farther, faster - what every real aviator aspires to. The SR-71 was the epitome of this dream for three decades. The only way to beat the SR-71 was to rocket into space, and every astronaut in the office with me in the 1960s would have loved to have flown the Blackbird. In many ways it placed greater demand on piloting proficiency than any spacecraft.
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Great in sight on life and times of Blackbird crew
- By J Bo on 11-11-15
By: Terry Pappas
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Air Battle Force
- By: Dale Brown
- Narrated by: William Dufris
- Length: 15 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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On America's newest combat base, U.S. Air Force aerial warfare expert Major General Patrick McLanahan and his crew of daring engineers are devising the air combat unit of the future. Known as Air Battle Force, it can launch concentrated, stealthy, precision-guided firepower to any spot on the globe within hours. And soon McLanahan and his warriors will have their first target.
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Spellbinding
- By KRC on 09-05-05
By: Dale Brown
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The Last Man On the Moon
- By: Eugene Cernan
- Narrated by: Eugene Cernan
- Length: 5 hrs and 10 mins
- Abridged
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This is the story of a unique American hero who came of age as an astronaut during the few dramatic years when man reached the moon. Cernan's career spanned the entire Apollo program, from the tragic fire that killed three of his comrades on Apollo 1, through the moment when he left man's last footprint on the moon as commander of Apollo 17.
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Yet Another Perspective
- By Shellbin on 12-28-12
By: Eugene Cernan
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Audie Award, History/Biography, 2016. On the night of July 20, 1969, our world changed forever when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon. Based on in-depth interviews with 23 of the 24 moon voyagers, as well as those who struggled to get the program moving, A Man on the Moon conveys every aspect of the Apollo missions with breathtaking immediacy and stunning detail.
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What listeners say about Apollo 11
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Rick
- 07-06-19
Not bad if you already know the story.
This is a fine overview of the early days of space flight up to the end of the Apollo missions, but unless you already know a lot of the details this book seems to gloss over quite a bit, while being painstakingly detailed in other areas. Some people have complained that the book was read by an English performer, but given that the author is also English I don't see this as an issue. My main complaint is, probably, with the editing. There are practically no pauses between sections of the book, so it is difficult to tell sometimes when the perspective shifts say from the US to Russia, but this was a fairly minor annoyance and did not significantly detract from my enjoyment of the story. Overall I enjoyed Apollo 11, but I'd encourage newcomers to this bit of history to listen to a more comprehensive account or two before picking this one up.
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- Amazon Customer
- 08-06-19
Interesting
I love Science,Space and NASA!!! Do this book was perfect for me. The Space Race was so cool. This is perfect fo anyone who loves space and what’s to learn about the Space Race or space at all!! 👍🏻❤️
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- Happydaze
- 07-25-19
Not what it was cracked up to be
I have read or listened to many books about various aspects of space exploration. I had thought, based on the title, that this book would be an in-depth focus on Apollo 11, and I bought the Audible version just a number of days after the book’s publication-- before any reviews were available.
Apollo 11 was not discussed until about ¾ of the way through the book. Much of the preceding chapters discussed the US/Soviet space race and also gave details about the earlier Apollo missions. After the Apollo 11 discussion, there were chapters discussing the later Apollo missions. I understand that some background is needed in order to better understand Apollo 11 itself, but for someone like me who has read several background books, I felt a bit “cheated” that this book didn’t deliver Apollo 11 in any more than a relatively cursory way.
Since the book was just released on June 11, 2019, I can’t help but wonder if it was named “Apollo 11” in hopes of cashing in on the increased interest in Apollo 11 with its 50th Anniversary happening in July.
The Publisher’s Summary calls this book “The most authoritative book on Apollo ever written.” I do not agree and feel that “A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts,” by Andrew Chaikin was much more in-depth and the information was better presented.
I understand that the narrator is English, likely because the author is English. But it would have been great if he had learned to pronounce all the names of the astronauts. It was grating and distracting for him to mispronounce the names that we grew up hearing in the U.S. Actually, since the target audience is probably Americans, an American narrator would have been a more natural choice.
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- denise collins
- 06-29-19
Detailed
For me, it was too much detail, especially about what the Russians were doing. I found myself drifting to other thoughts while listening. Normally I love to listen to a British accent. But, Simon Mattacks narration was distracting to what is an American story.
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- JPS
- 12-17-21
Interesting Reader Choice
It is a good overview on the race to the moon. Especially enjoyed hearing some of the USSR perspective.
The reader is good but is British. This threw off some of the cadence and emphasis and thereby some of the impact when quoting American Astronauts.
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- Doug
- 06-14-19
Space Race Revivalism
I recently saw the 2019 documentary 'Apollo 11' and have been utterly inspired by the Apollo stories. As a Gen X-er, my domain had always been the Space Shuttle era. It was my parents that got all misty-eyed when speaking of the lunar landing. And, yes, like everyone else in the world, I've seen the black and white grainy footage of Neil Armstrong's first step. But the documentary brought July of 1969 into 4K and breathed high-resolution life into that moment in time. I watched the lunar landing in the full and vivid colors of today. I wanted more.
So, when I saw a book with the same title, I pounced. I wasn't disappointed. The author compliments my growing fascination with the Apollo missions. The opening of the book details humanity's ancient first thoughts about the moon and moves into the origins of rocketry, mainly from 19th Century German and Russian elites. You see how World War 2 brought rockets onto the human stage with devastating consequences. The full gravity and scope of Apollo 11 struck me with a much deeper sense of amazement. How many centuries, how many brilliant minds, how many cultures and languages were carried on the backs of three astronauts when they landed on the moon? For me, hearing about all those smaller streams of human thought and effort that came down from our past, converging in the 20th Century, and then feeding into the extraordinary momentum of Apollo 11 was a gift to read about.
Secondly, the book toggles back and forth between the American and Soviet space programs as they play out on the world stage in chronological order. The book left me admiring more the Soviet cosmonauts and scientists who had the same adventurous pulse but were undermined by a tragically inept government. That said, when you read this book, you'll get a powerful appreciation of the American space program. They didn't just "beat" the Soviet Union, they did it right. They were professionals about it. They were open about it. They hired armies of brilliant men and women to support the entire operation. You'll realize how much of a one-sided affair the space race was in the end. You'll come to appreciate the American astronauts and flight controllers much more than you already do. If you get a chance, look up Eugene Kranz's "tough and competent" speech after the Gemini disaster. It really hit me hard...
The book does a great job of including its history through the conversations of those involved. The downside is that while the book succeeds at providing some new perspective, it gets dry here and here. At a few points, the narration slides into an uninspiring catalog of events and details. Other than that, the book was a fantastic read. I'm glad I read it!
With a new space race on the horizon in the 21st Century, I anticipate everyone will want to brush up on their knowledge of the Apollo missions. There really seems to be a revival in American interest what NASA achieved back then and what accomplishments are just around the corner. I think this book is part of fresh revival. in our greatest pioneering spirit
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- F. T. Hoffmann
- 04-21-23
narrator difficulties
The frequent mispronunciation of names of both the astronauts and companies was distracting. With the title being Apollo 11 it was surprising how little of the book was about Apollo 11.
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- M. Bryant
- 08-17-19
Not Much Apollo 11
A vast majority of this book covers Mercury, Gemini, and the other Apollo missions. Very disappointed in a book calling itself the inside story but didn’t really go in depth of Apollo 11. This book should be renamed “A brief history of NASA from Mercury through Apollo”
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- Robert Scheibel
- 08-11-19
Narrator mispronunciations are distracting
The story is thorough and interesting, delving deeply into some of the background stories that are not well known. Having worked in the aerospace arena for 51 years, I was annoyed by the substantial and repetitive mispronunciation of names and other words. I could only conclude that the text was not reviewed before publication. Some of the incorrect renditions included: Max Faget, Schirra, Eisele, Baikonur, aluminum, schedule, and the name of the Saturn 5 second stage (S-IVB). It is also stated incorrectly at one point that the first stage of the Saturn V burned liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen.
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- Amazon Customer
- 02-18-22
A Mistitled but Interesting Book
While I've read a dozen or so books on the American space program up to the conclusion of Apollo 17, I've not heard much on the Soviet program of the 1960s. This book, though entitled "Apollo 11," provides that information. In fact, there is so much about the Space Race compared to the narrative about Apollo 11 in this book that is why I believe it to be mistitled.
Concerning the narration, Mr. Mattacks' voice is pleasant to listen to. However, there are mispronunciations or misreadings that were a distracting to me. Examples include the mispronunciations of Max Faget's, George Mueller's, Wally Schirra's, and Don Eisele's last names. One misreading concerns the S-IV-B (pronounced S 4 B) that was read ess eye vee bee.
Concerning content, the author tells the story of the Space Race well. This, Apollo 11 is set in its context. The brief description of Armstrong's, Aldrin's, and Collins' lives after their return to earth is simple, yet insightful.
Overall, a very good book.
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