Final Countdown: NASA and the End of the Space Shuttle Program
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Narrated by:
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Pat Duggins
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By:
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Pat Duggins
About this listen
The Space Shuttle was once the cornerstone of the U.S. space program. However, each new flight brought us one step closer to the retirement of the shuttle in 2010. Final Countdown is the riveting history of NASA's Space Shuttle program, its missions, and its demise. It also examines the plans and early development of the space agency's next major effort: the Orion Crew Exploration Capsule.
Journalist Pat Duggins, National Public Radio's resident "space expert", chronicles the planning stages of the 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.
As a rookie reporter visiting the Kennedy Space Center hangar to view the Challenger wreckage, Duggins was in a unique position to offer a poignant eyewitness account of NASA's first shuttle disaster. In Final Countdown, he recounts the agency's struggle to rebound after the Challenger and Columbia tragedies, and explores how politics, scientific entrepreneurship, and the human drive for exploration have impacted the program in sometimes unexpected ways.
Duggins has covered 86 shuttle missions, and his 20-year working relationship with NASA has given him unprecedented access to personnel. Many spoke openly and frankly with him, including veteran astronaut John Young, who discusses the travails to get the shuttle program off the ground. Young's crewmate, astronaut Bob Crippen, reveals the frustration and loss he felt when his first opportunity to go into space on the first planned space station was taken away.
Final Countdown is a story of lost dreams, new hopes, and the ongoing conquest of space.
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Story
In the Shadow of the Moon tells the story of the most exciting and challenging years in spaceflight, with two superpowers engaged in a titanic struggle to land one of their own people on the moon. Drawing on interviews with astronauts, cosmonauts, their families, technicians, and scientists, as well as rarely seen Soviet and American government documents, the authors craft a remarkable story of the golden age of spaceflight as both an intimate human experience and a rollicking global adventure.
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Interesting book for space afficionados
- By Leslie F. on 04-21-16
By: Francis French, and others
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Apollo 11
- The Inside Story
- By: David Whitehouse
- Narrated by: Simon Mattacks
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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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.
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Space Race Revivalism
- By Doug on 06-14-19
By: David Whitehouse
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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 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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Last Days of the Concorde
- The Crash of Flight 4590 and the End of Supersonic Passenger Travel
- By: Samme Chittum
- Narrated by: Teri Schnaubelt
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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On July 25, 2000, a Concorde, the world's fastest passenger plane, was taking off from Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris when it suddenly burst into flames. An airliner capable of flying at more than twice the speed of sound, the Concorde had completed 25 years of successful flights, whisking wealthy passengers - from diplomats to rock stars to corporate titans - between continents on brief and glamorous flights. Yet on this fateful day, the chartered Concorde jet, en route to America, crashed and killed all 109 passengers and crew onboard and four people on the ground.
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A Solid Introduction
- By Reggie on 03-03-19
By: Samme Chittum
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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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Moon Shot
- The Inside Story of America's Apollo Moon Landings
- By: Alan Shepard, Deke Slayton, Jay Barbree, and others
- Narrated by: Christopher Grove
- Length: 13 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik I, and the space race was born. Desperate to beat the Russians into space, NASA put together a crew of the nation's most daring test pilots: the seven men who were to lead America to the moon. The first into space was Alan Shepard; the last was Deke Slayton, whose irregular heartbeat kept him grounded until 1975. They spent the 1960s at the forefront of NASA's effort to conquer space, and Moon Shot is their inside account of what many call the 20th century's greatest feat - landing humans on another world.
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A Definitive Summary of Our Manned Space Missions
- By Robert on 08-15-19
By: Alan Shepard, and others
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The Dream Machine
- The Untold History of the Notorious V-22 Osprey
- By: Richard Whittle
- Narrated by: Kevin Foley
- Length: 18 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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When the Marines decided to buy a helicopter-airplane hybrid "tiltrotor" called the V-22 Osprey, they saw it as their dream machine. The tiltrotor was the aviation equivalent of finding the Northwest Passage: an aircraft able to take off, land, and hover with the agility of a helicopter yet fly as fast and as far as an airplane. Many predicted it would reshape civilian aviation. The Marines saw it as key to their very survival. Opponents called it one of the worst boondoggles in Pentagon history.
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Innovation runs into government
- By Cx30 on 09-25-10
By: Richard Whittle
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Apollo 13
- By: Jim Lovell, Jeffrey Kluger
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 16 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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In April 1970, during the glory days of the Apollo space program, NASA sent Navy Captain Jim Lovell and two other astronauts on America's fifth mission to the moon. Only 55 hours into the flight of Apollo 13, disaster struck: a mysterious explosion rocked the ship, and soon its oxygen and power began draining away. Written with all the color and drama of the best fiction, Apollo 13 (previously published as Lost Moon) tells the full story of the moon shot that almost ended in catastrophe.
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Great story but a terrible narrator
- By Nicci on 01-29-20
By: Jim Lovell, and others
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Apollo
- By: Charles Murray, Catherine Bly Cox
- Narrated by: Bob Souer
- Length: 18 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Apollo is the behind-the-scenes story of an epic achievement. Based on exhaustive research that included many exclusive interviews, Apollo tells how America went from a standing start to a landing on the moon at a speed that now seems impossible. It describes the unprecedented engineering challenges that had to be overcome to create the mammoth Saturn V and the facilities to launch it. It takes you into the tragedy of the fire on Apollo 1, the first descent to the lunar surface, and the rescue of Apollo 13.
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Best book ever for space, ops, and engineering fans
- By JDM on 10-29-19
By: Charles Murray, and others
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The Crash Detectives
- Investigating the World's Most Mysterious Air Disasters
- By: Christine Negroni
- Narrated by: Christine Negroni
- Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Crash Detectives, veteran aviation journalist and air safety investigator Christine Negroni takes us inside crash investigations from the early days of the jet age to the present, including the search for answers about what happened to the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. As Negroni dissects what happened and why, she explores their common themes and, most important, what has been learned from them to make planes safer.
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MISSLEADING TITLE.
- By Daniel Schneider on 11-02-16
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Riding Rockets
- The Outrageous Tales of a Space Shuttle Astronaut
- By: Mike Mullane
- Narrated by: Joel Richards
- Length: 18 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1978, the first group of space shuttle astronauts was introduced to the world - 29 men and six women who would carry NASA through the most tumultuous years of the space shuttle program. Among them was USAF Colonel Mike Mullane, who, in his memoir Riding Rockets, strips the heroic veneer from the astronaut corps and paints them as they are - human.
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Not for the young...
- By Collecting Warehouse on 11-14-18
By: Mike Mullane
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Skunk Works
- A Personal Memoir of My Years of Lockheed
- By: Ben R. Rich, Leo Janos
- Narrated by: Pete Larkin
- Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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From the development of the U-2 to the Stealth fighter, the never-before-told story behind America's high-stakes quest to dominate the skies. Skunk Works is the true story of America's most secret and successful aerospace operation. As recounted by Ben Rich, the operation's brilliant boss for nearly two decades, the chronicle of Lockheed's legendary Skunk Works is a drama of Cold War confrontations and Gulf War air combat, of extraordinary feats of engineering and human achievement against fantastic odds.
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Ben Rich's life story...but not in that order
- By Allstar on 11-05-16
By: Ben R. Rich, and others
What listeners say about Final Countdown: NASA and the End of the Space Shuttle Program
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Liz Solera
- 11-16-22
Entertaining and thorough with an erratic narrati
An enjoyable, intimate account of the shuttle program and it's socioeconomic influences, but the way the narrative kept suddenly jumping backward to the 1960s and forward to the 2000s in chapters dedicated to the 1970s-90s was confusing. It almost felt like the author couldn't stick with one topic for more than a few paragraphs without getting bored.
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- A . Irborne
- 06-25-12
Great Technical story
A great general overview, with lots of nuts and bolts for the technically inclined.
We now know just how dangerous the Shuttle was,
it must have felt like driving a 17,000 mph Mack truck,
with bad steering, a stuck gas pedal, and no brakes.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Vaughan
- 08-03-14
Concise analysis of the decline of the Shuttle mis
Would you consider the audio edition of Final Countdown: NASA and the End of the Space Shuttle Program to be better than the print version?
yes
Have you listened to any of Pat Duggins’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
no
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
yes
Any additional comments?
Precisely written and perfectly read. A clear and matter-of-fact discussion of the issues confronting the Space Shuttle's development, missions and ultimate demise.
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- Jean
- 09-25-14
End of the Shuttle
This is a short book that makes a nice break from reading extremely long books. I have been a fan of the space program since it started. I try to read as much about NASA as I can, thus I grabbed this book to read. Duggins provides us with the reasons for the end of the shuttle program. As well, it covers major milestones for the program. It is neither a concise history nor a program review. Rather, Duggins book takes the reader on a human perspective. It is, the social issues come more to the fro than those of a technical nature.
The author’s fondness for the space industry comes through in the book. Duggins acknowledges the shuttles shortcomings, he also lauds it successes. Duggins discusses the dramatic influences of politics up on the space shuttle program. The author does not cover the effect of closing the shuttle program on the key areas such as Florida’s Space Coast, The Johnson Space Center or California space area or about the thousands of workers who will lose their jobs.
Pat Duggins is a senior news analyst at WMFE in Central Florida. He has covered more than 85 shuttle launches. Pat Duggins does his own narration.
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6 people found this helpful