Test Gods
Virgin Galactic and the Making of a Modern Astronaut
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Narrated by:
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Nicholas Schmidle
About this listen
This program is read by the author.
In the spirit of The Right Stuff, updated for the 21st century, Test Gods is an epic story about extreme bravery and sacrifice, about the thin line between lunacy and genius. Most of all, it is a story about the pursuit of meaning in our lives - and the fulfillment of our dreams.
Working from exclusive inside reporting, New Yorker writer Nicholas Schmidle tells the remarkable story of the test pilots, engineers, and visionaries behind Virgin Galactic’s campaign to build a space tourism company. Schmidle follows a handful of characters - Mark Stucky, Virgin’s lead test pilot; Richard Branson, the eccentric billionaire funding the venture; Mike Moses, the grounded, unflappable president; Mike Alsbury, the test pilot killed in a fatal crash; and others - through personal and professional dramas, in pursuit of their collective goal: to make space tourism a reality.
Along the way, Schmidle weaves his relationship with his father - a former fighter pilot and decorated war hero - into the tragedies and triumphs that Branson’s team confronts out in the Mojave desert as they design, build, and test-fly their private rocket ship. Gripping and novelistic, Test Gods leads us, through human drama, into a previously unseen world - and beyond.
A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt and Company
©2021 Nicholas Schmidle (P)2021 Macmillan AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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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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An Officer, Not a Gentleman
- The Inspirational Journey of a Pioneering Female Fighter Pilot
- By: Mandy Hickson
- Narrated by: Mandy Hickson
- Length: 7 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Flying a multi-million pound fighter jet in hostile territory is not an everyday career, and it comes with a high degree of pressure and responsibility. It’s a dream job that takes years of ambition, training and commitment, but for Mandy Hickson, it was a dream that became reality. Find out about Mandy’s incredible journey to become one of the UK’s first female, fast-jet pilots and how she overcame many obstacles to develop the skills to succeed in such a demanding career.
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These reviews are getting hard to trust
- By Justin Campbell on 02-18-22
By: Mandy Hickson
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In the Shadow of the Moon
- A Challenging Journey to Tranquility, 1965-1969
- By: Francis French, Colin Burgess
- Narrated by: Gary L. Willprecht
- Length: 18 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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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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Razor 03
- A Night Stalker’s Wars
- By: Alan C. Mack
- Narrated by: Alan C. Mack
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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The attacks of September 11, 2001, prompted the creation of a robust and deadly special operations force—Task Force Dagger. Alan C. Mack, Callsign Razor 03, led a team of MH-47E helicopters and armed MH-60s. Their two-fold mission–Personnel Recovery (PR) and Unconventional Warfare (UW) involved flying in terrain and weather previously not thought possible. If that wasn’t enough, they pushed the flight envelope of their specially modified Chinooks to the limit and beyond.
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The honesty of the author
- By Daniel on 06-10-24
By: Alan C. Mack
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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 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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Bogeys and Bandits
- The Making of a Fighter Pilot
- By: Robert Gandt
- Narrated by: Thomas Block
- Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Americans are fascinated by the undeniable mystique of the elite world of Navy fighter pilots. In Bogeys and Bandits, Robert Gandt takes listeners on a thrilling ride in the FA-18 Hornet, one of the fastest, sleekest, and deadliest aircraft in the world. Gandt lived and worked with several pilots learning to fly the Hornet: the identical twins from Middle America; the computer nerd with a penchant for speed; the grandson of a Tuskegee Airman, trying to live up to a proud legacy; and two women dealing with the post-Tailhook world of the Navy.
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Great book but the narrator...
- By AshliDF on 08-03-17
By: Robert Gandt
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Tiger in the Sea
- The Ditching of Flying Tiger 923 and the Desperate Struggle for Survival
- By: Eric Lindner
- Narrated by: Gary Bennett
- Length: 9 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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September 1962: On a moonless night over the raging Atlantic Ocean, a thousand miles from land, the engines of Flying Tiger flight 923 to Germany burst into flames, one by one. Pilot John Murray didn't have long before the plane crashed headlong into the 20-foot waves at 120 mph. As the four flight attendants donned life vests, collected sharp objects, and explained how to brace for the ferocious impact, 68 passengers clung to their seats. They all expected to die.
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A disappointment. An exciting story ruined.
- By David on 06-07-21
By: Eric Lindner
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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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Sully
- My Search for What Really Matters
- By: Chesley B. Sullenberger, Jeffrey Zaslow
- Narrated by: Michael McConnohie, Chesley B. Sullenberger
- Length: 8 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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On January 15, 2009, the world witnessed a remarkable emergency landing when Captain "Sully" Sullenberger skillfully glided US Airways flight 1549 onto the Hudson River, saving the lives of all 155 passengers and crew. His cool actions not only averted tragedy but made him a hero and an inspiration worldwide. His story is now a major motion picture from director/producer Clint Eastwood and starring Tom Hanks, Laura Linney, and Aaron Eckhart.
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Really Dull.
- By Nick on 09-14-16
By: Chesley B. Sullenberger, and others
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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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Story
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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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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Overall
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Performance
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Story
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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Better than fiction!
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In the summer of 1913, the wooden-hulled brigantine Karluk departed Canada for the Arctic Ocean. At the helm was Captain Bob Bartlett, considered the world’s greatest living ice navigator. The expedition’s visionary leader was a flamboyant impresario named Vilhjalmur Stefansson hungry for fame. Just six weeks after the Karluk departed, giant ice floes closed in around her. As the ship became icebound, Stefansson disembarked with five companions and struck out on what he claimed was a 10-day caribou hunting trip. Most on board would never see him again.
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The Unseen Body
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Dr. Jonathan Reisman - a physician, adventure traveler, and naturalist - brings listeners on an odyssey, navigating our insides like an explorer discovering a new world. With unique insight, Reisman shows us how understanding mountain watersheds helps to diagnose heart attacks, how the body is made mostly of mucus, not water, and how urine carries within it a tale of humanity’s origins.
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Your Own Kind of Girl
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Clare Bowditch has always had a knack for telling stories. Through her music and performing, this beloved Australian artist has touched hundreds of thousands of lives. But what of the stories she used to tell herself? That 'real life' begins only once you're thin or beautiful, that good things happen only to other people. Your Own Kind of Girl reveals a childhood punctuated by grief, anxiety and compulsion and tells how these forces shaped Clare's life for better and for worse. This is a heartbreaking, wise and at times playful memoir.
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What listeners say about Test Gods
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- Daniel Cascaddan
- 10-23-21
Exceptional
This topic is near and dear to my heart. Usually when I read books about it, they are "journalistic" misunderstandings of much of the material. And so this one, the author having done such a good job, gave me extra pleasure. Any sort of an understanding of the pilot soul can seldom be found by someone who is not one of us, and rarely well articulated BY any of us. This guy, in attempt to understand his father, as well as the main pilot in this account, has managed to accomplish this rare and difficult feat with touching grace.
Of course, since I will almost certainly never get to space, a knowledge that I have had to live when since the day when I was twenty-three years old and got the second letter from the Navy telling me that Congress had cancelled funding for the NAVCAD program and I would not be going to Naval Air Officer Candidate School in Pensacola to become an aviator after all, this story was especially hard to read. Yet it was well worth the pain.
I also have the redemptive knowledge that even though the near certain failure of Virgin Galactic to ever achieve their ultimate goals has led to them summarily firing a real "right stuff" exhibiting pilot like Stucky, that he is better off at Space-X anyway. I am glad that he was one of the first two Americans to return to orbit on an American spacecraft, after all that time we were a non-spacefaring nation, ending the shame of riding to the International Space Station on enemy spacecraft.
God Speed, Forger!
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- Mr. Dixon
- 04-03-22
Approved by Burt Rutan
This was a fantastic story to hear about a company I invest in. Recently the company I work for in Coeur d Alene Idaho hosted Burt Rutan as a speaker for a "fireside chat" one question he was asked was, "what are 3 books you think everyone should read?" This was his first recommendation and he talked about it for 10 mins. This was a fantastic story and awesome to know information about our town will be forever remembered. Thank you for this literary artwork.
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- Shauntel M. Williams
- 05-28-23
Forger is a bad ass
It’s great to hear this story with all the inside details. Very interesting and real. Forger sounds like a fun person to have a beer with.
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- W. Buchanan
- 07-14-21
A Well Worth Listen!
I enjoy listening to journalistic stories and memoirs of humans launching themselves into space. This work now sits within my top three favorites! (Second place behind "First Man".).
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- SG_59
- 05-23-21
Very emotional Love the Background Stories.
The book starts kinda bumping with their upset at Mojave. You get to learn and experience the Virgin Galactic story and Also its Astronauts backstories and origins. An amazing book in the end and I enjoyed listening to the entire book. Great read.
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- Tyler
- 05-28-21
Wow. Great Book.
I thought it was a book about Virgin Galactic, but it was more than that. It's the story of human achievement, pushing past boundaries. Ultimately, it's the story of humans breaking the boundary of Earth, told through the eyes of fearless VG test pilots, charismatic and sometimes overly optimistic Richard Branson, and interestingly enough, through the eyes of the author himself, having childhood flashbacks while writing the book.
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- C. Coffee
- 07-16-21
Great story - one of the best books I ave listened
This is an amazing book about Virgin Galactic. Its focus on Mark "Forger" Stuckey introduced me to a true aviation pioneer. Get this book.
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- Tikicarver
- 06-19-21
accurate acount
I was an engineer at Scaled and part of the team that designed and built SpaceShipTwo.
I worked daily with Forger and the others in this book. this account of what happened is very accurate.
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- avilabeach
- 05-30-21
Great detail. Well written
4.5 stars. Great level of detail and good storytelling. The author is talented and effectively includes his personal experience into the story. Narrator is decent in performance.
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- John W. Zins
- 06-30-22
Accurate
I was aquatinted with the Spaceship Company in Mojave in 2019 and 2021. Plus I had a friend who previously worked for Scaled Composites and knew a lot of the pilots and workers. The story told in this book in my opinion is accurate and very well done. My hat is off to Nicholas Schindler for injecting the human element into the difficult and dangerous task of going into space.
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