One Giant Leap Audiobook By Charles Fishman cover art

One Giant Leap

The Untold Story of How We Flew to the Moon

Preview
Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

One Giant Leap

By: Charles Fishman
Narrated by: Fred Sanders
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $22.49

Buy for $22.49

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

The New York Times best-selling, "meticulously researched and absorbingly written" (The Washington Post) story of the trailblazers and the ordinary Americans on the front lines of the epic Apollo 11 moon mission.

President John F. Kennedy astonished the world on May 25, 1961, when he announced to Congress that the United States should land a man on the Moon by 1970. No group was more surprised than the scientists and engineers at NASA, who suddenly had less than a decade to invent space travel.

When Kennedy announced that goal, no one knew how to navigate to the Moon. No one knew how to build a rocket big enough to reach the Moon, or how to build a computer small enough (and powerful enough) to fly a spaceship there. No one knew what the surface of the Moon was like, or what astronauts could eat as they flew there. On the day of Kennedy’s historic speech, America had a total of 15 minutes of spaceflight experience - with just five of those minutes outside the atmosphere. Russian dogs had more time in space than US astronauts. Over the next decade, more than 400,000 scientists, engineers, and factory workers would send 24 astronauts to the Moon. Each hour of space flight would require one million hours of work back on Earth to get America to the Moon on July 20, 1969.

"A veteran space reporter with a vibrant touch - nearly every sentence has a fact, an insight, a colorful quote or part of a piquant anecdote" (The Wall Street Journal), and in One Giant Leap, Fishman has written the sweeping, definitive behind-the-scenes account of the furious race to complete one of mankind’s greatest achievements. It’s a story filled with surprises - from the item the astronauts almost forgot to take with them (the American flag), to the extraordinary impact Apollo would have back on Earth, and on the way we live today. From the research labs of MIT, where the eccentric and legendary pioneer Charles Draper created the tools to fly the Apollo spaceships, to the factories where dozens of women sewed spacesuits, parachutes, and even computer hardware by hand, Fishman captures the exceptional feats of these ordinary Americans. "It’s been 50 years since Neil Armstrong took that one small step. Fishman explains in dazzling form just how unbelievable it actually was" (Newsweek).

©2019 Charles Fishman (P)2019 Simon & Schuster
Aeronautics & Astronautics Americas Astronomy & Space Science Science United States Space Station Thought-Provoking Inspiring Space Air Force
adbl_web_global_use_to_activate_T1_webcro805_stickypopup
Compelling Story • Inspirational Journey • Excellent Narration • Captivating Storyline • Fascinating Behind-the-scenes
Highly rated for:
All stars
Most relevant  
One Giant Leap is extremely good for those looking to have a better understanding of what took place to land a man on the moon. However, if you are looking for a book that’s a chronological historical reference, this probably isn’t the book for you at this time. Highly recommended you read it sometime though!

Great Facts but Choppy

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

This was beyond fascinating to me as a 6th grade girl during Apollo 11 who was more interested in the Beatles & The Monkeys than in astronauts. I listened with great eagerness & now want to buy the book to read for myself & to keep.

Brilliant Brain Motivation

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Loved this book! I learned so many interesting things about the race for the moon

Loved It

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Especially interesting was the frank discussion of the economics and wavering political support related to NASA through the years as well as the impact, years later, of technology we take for granted today, that then, was built from scratch to facilitate the moonshot.

Enjoyed it

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Lots of behind the scenes information I never knew about. Very detailed. Great narration.
Ties in the context of what was happening in America in that time period.

Amazing insight!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

This book had more new to me info than any book or documentary I’ve consumed.

I thought I knew a lot about the US space program.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I really enjoyed listening to this book about the history of space travel. I learned a lot about it.

Space travel

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I really enjoyed this book. It’s one of the first ones I have read that connected the dots from the space program to the world we live in today

Putting Apollo in context

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

To start, though well done, the narration is incredibly slow. Making an already filler heavy book slower than necessary. Second, very repetitive, get like the publisher gave them a word count, akin to a school essay without enough content. Finally, the story told was great, I thoroughly enjoyed hearing about the complexities/logistics of the Apollo missions. I felt it was really beating a dead horse when it comes to the politics of it though. In my opinion, anyone who reads a book this sense about Apollo would more than likely know that motive. Even if they didn’t, it was repeated so much I think I’d still be bored of it. Additionally, the fact checking is iffy, so I wouldn’t take anything said as gospel.
Worth a read if you’re a space enthusiast, I personally found it to be quite moving.

Worth it if you’re into it, but not THAT into it

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I loved how Charles helps to give appreciation to what Apollo did for the future of America, the cost notwithstanding.

Good book, same history in a new direction

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

See more reviews