
The Wrong Stuff
How the Soviet Space Program Crashed and Burned
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Narrated by:
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LJ Ganser
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By:
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John Strausbaugh
About this listen
A witty, deeply researched history of the surprisingly ramshackle Soviet space program, and how its success was more spin than science.
In the wake of World War II, with America ascendant and the Soviet Union devastated by the conflict, the Space Race should have been over before it started. But the underdog Soviets scored a series of victories—starting with the 1957 launch of Sputnik and continuing in the years following--that seemed to achieve the impossible. It was proof, it seemed, that the USSR had manpower and collective will that went beyond America's material advantages. They had asserted themselves as a world power.
But in The Wrong Stuff, John Strausbaugh tells a different story. These achievements were amazing, yes, but they were also PR victories as much as scientific ones. The world saw a Potemkin spaceport; the internal facts were much sloppier, less impressive, more dysfunctional. The Soviet supply chain was a disaster, and many of its machines barely worked. The cosmonauts aboard its iconic launch of the Vostok 1 rocket had to go on a special diet, and take off their space suits, just to fit inside without causing a failure. Soviet scientists, under intense government pressure, had essentially made their rocket out of spit and band aids, and hurried to hide their work as soon as their worldwide demonstration was complete.
With a witty eye for detail and a gift for storytelling, John Strausbaugh takes us behind the Iron Curtain, and shows just how little there was to find there.
©2024 John Strausbaugh (P)2024 PublicAffairsListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“Strausbaugh’s droll sense of humor fits well with this examination of the Soviet space program… [He] clearly enjoyed writing this entertaining book, an accessible, engaging story about an era that, for better or worse, is nearly forgotten.”—Kirkus
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Great book
- By Luis on 08-05-23
By: Chad Anderson
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Liftoff
- Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days that Launched SpaceX
- By: Eric Berger
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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The dramatic inside story of the first four historic flights that launched SpaceX - and Elon Musk - from a shaky startup into the world's leading-edge rocket company.
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Excellent. Would make a good movie.
- By Andrew Dodson on 03-04-21
By: Eric Berger
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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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Flying Blind
- The 737 MAX Tragedy and the Fall of Boeing
- By: Peter Robison
- Narrated by: Feodor Chin
- Length: 10 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Boeing is a century-old titan of industry. It played a major role in the early days of commercial flight, World War II bombing missions, and moon landings. The plane maker remains a cornerstone of the U.S. economy, as well as a linchpin in the awesome routine of modern air travel. But in 2018 and 2019, two crashes of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 killed 346 people. The crashes exposed a shocking pattern of malfeasance, leading to the biggest crisis in the company’s history—and one of the costliest corporate scandals ever.
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(Revised). Missing some, but informative.
- By Amazon Customer on 12-04-21
By: Peter Robison
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Space to Grow
- Unlocking the Final Economic Frontier
- By: Brendan Rosseau, Matthew Weinzierl
- Narrated by: William Sarris
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Space is a place of unparalleled possibility for humanity, and it's undergoing a revolution. A wave of companies led by gutsy entrepreneurs are unlocking opportunities that fire the imagination. No, it's not hotels on Mars or day trips to orbit (yet), but it's an awe-inspiring transformation driven by innovative technologies, creative approaches, hard work, and—for the first time—market forces.
By: Brendan Rosseau, and others
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Ignition!
- An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants
- By: John Drury Clark, Isaac Asimov - foreward
- Narrated by: Jonathan Todd Ross
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Ignition! is the story of the search for a rocket propellant which could be trusted to take man into space. This search was a hazardous enterprise carried out by rival labs who worked against the known laws of nature, with no guarantee of success or safety. John Drury Clark writes with irreverent and eyewitness immediacy about the development of the explosive fuels strong enough to negate the relentless restraints of gravity. The resulting volume is as much a memoir as a work of history, sharing a behind-the-scenes view of an enterprise that eventually took men to the moon.
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Science man lists names of chemicals for 9 hours
- By Adrian on 05-06-19
By: John Drury Clark, and others
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Skygods
- The Fall of Pan Am
- By: Robert Gandt
- Narrated by: Thomas Block
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Originally published by Wm. Morrow, in 1995, Skygods is the saga of America's most glamorous airline - from its meteoric ascent to its plunge to extinction. Pan Am blazed the way across the world's oceans with its magnificent Clipper ships, launched the first international jet service, was the first to fly the behemoth 747, was the lead customer for America's SST and the Concorde, and was even taking reservations for the first commercial flights to the moon.
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An Absorbing Slice of Social History
- By S. Perry on 06-01-14
By: Robert Gandt
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Challenger
- A True Story of Heroism and Disaster on the Edge of Space
- By: Adam Higginbotham
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 17 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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From the New York Times bestselling author of Midnight in Chernobyl comes the definitive, dramatic, minute-by-minute story of the Challenger disaster, based on fascinating in-depth reporting and new archival research—a riveting history that flows like a thriller.
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Best book about Challenger so far
- By Bruce Baumbush on 06-05-24
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Across the Airless Wilds
- The Lunar Rover and the Triumph of the Final Moon Landings
- By: Earl Swift
- Narrated by: Adam Verner
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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In this astonishing rediscovery of the final Apollo moon landings, the acclaimed author of Chesapeake Requiem reveals that these extraordinary yet overshadowed missions - distinguished by the use of the revolutionary lunar roving vehicle - deserve to be celebrated as the pinnacle of human adventure and exploration.
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Insights into the development and use of the rover
- By Douglas H. Holly on 07-19-21
By: Earl Swift
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The Perfectionists
- How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World
- By: Simon Winchester
- Narrated by: Simon Winchester
- Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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The New York Times best-selling author traces the development of technology from the Industrial Age to the Digital Age to explore the single component crucial to advancement - precision - in a superb history that is both an homage and a warning for our future.
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Somewhat less than perfect
- By enya keshet on 06-19-18
By: Simon Winchester
What listeners say about The Wrong Stuff
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Federico Medina Jr.
- 07-06-24
The Wrong Stuff - it’s a hoot!
The narrator performed amazingly and made my audible experience very joyful which in turn made my daily commute to & from work very joyful.
The book is well written and chock full of wonderful anecdotes and historic facts of the Russian space program. I’ve always followed the USA space program and this book marches through the space race comparing the two. I completely enjoyed it. Author John Straupsbaugh nailed it! Narrator LJ Ganser brought it to life!
I will look for more audiobooks from either one of these talented individuals.
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- thomas r dickson dds
- 04-04-25
Excellent and entertaining
an excellent review of the Soviet and US relationships in context with emphasis on the US and Soviet space programs. I enjoyed it very much, and would recommend it anyone who needs or wants a review of this material
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- Chip Work
- 08-17-24
Excellent Historical Account
As a child I experience the entire United States space program with great interest, mostly because my father was involved in both the Mercury and Apollo programs. So, listen to such a thorough and concise history of the Soviet Union's space program was quite enlightening.
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- M. Louras
- 09-06-24
Vodka, leisure suits & lack of compassion for all living things!
Scary, but not a surprise of the façade the USSR presented. Lives & families were destroyed for the space race…..
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- Mathias farnsworth
- 06-18-24
Scary how they made it too space
The true story of how the Russians space program worked and mostly not worked. The book made me sorry of the people who just wanted to go too space.
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- Michael Hudson
- 08-13-24
Great book and narration
Highly recommend. Behind the iron curtain look at the Russian side of the space race.
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- Lady Pamela
- 03-29-25
Enter Text here
A humorous look at the Soviet space program in all its tragedies and cover ups. An enjoyable read--I learned a lot. The Soviet space program was an under-funded, ad-hoc operation that put international competition over crew safety. An entertaining, and informative read.
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