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The Space Race cover art

The Space Race

By: Colin Brake, Patrick Chapman, Richard Hollingham, Richard Kurti, Sue Nelson, Helen Quigley, Andrew Mark Sewell
Narrated by: Kate Mulgrew
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Summary

Winner of the Gold Science & Technology trophy at the 2020 New York Festivals Radio Awards

The 1960s space race captured our imaginations and our dreams. Today’s efforts to revitalize and expand space travel is being driven not just by government agencies such as NASA, but also by visionaries such as Richard Branson (Virgin Galactic), Elon Musk (SpaceX), and Jeff Bezos (Blue Origin).

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1969 moon landing, this major documentary-drama series brings to life the past, present, and future of man’s exploration of space. Between 1969 and 1972, twelve Americans walked on the moon. You’ll get to experience the thrill of that era and much, much more.

Narrated by Kate Mulgrew (Emmy Award and Golden Globe nominee for Orange Is the New Black; Obie Award winner for Iphigenia 2.0); TV: Star Trek: Voyager, film: Star Trek: Nemesis), The Space Race uses actual audio, original interviews, dramatic reconstructions, and first-hand accounts to tell the story of mankind’s first amazing steps off our world and onto the lunar surface.

With unprecedented access, The Space Race takes listeners to Virgin Galactic’s space program in the Mojave Desert, features conversations with Buzz Aldrin, Gene Cernan, Sergei Krikalev, Tim Peake, and numerous key players at mission control. This Audible Original and takes you behind the scenes to see how these exciting adventures in outer space came to be. 

©2019 Audible, Ltd (P)2019 Audible, Ltd

What listeners say about The Space Race

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Not bad but skip the first chapter

Most important: Skip the first chapter. The first hour has little to do with the historical space race, but seems to be an 'America to the stars! (again)' piece of propaganda talking about the future of space exploration, and how America - with a little nod to other countries - deserves to rule space. This would have been much better placed at the end as a final chapter, but no - it's at the beginning.

The rest of the audiobook is pretty good - Mulgrew is a competent reader, the dramatisations are well done, and the mix between live-action, interviews, and historical dialogue is well done and not confusing - an ever present worry.

There is some repetition in places where a particular point is being hammered home, and once you get past the initial chapter there's a heady mix of national history starting with the V1 - not much of it is sugar-coated; Von Braun's Nazims isn't glossed over, and America's Vanguard TV-3 embarrassment is cheerfully remembered.

Yeah, worth a listen, but by its nature, probably not a recurring one.

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15 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Easy listening but a little light on content

I enjoy anything serious about the history of space. This book provides a good arc across the decades from rocket development in WWII to future missions to Mars and beyond. However, it is quite light on content in many places, perhaps because it is trying to be so comprehensive. As a result it lacked the detail to make it a really great book. Also the narrative is padded out by scenes played out by actors at various moments in history. They drag on a bit sometimes in the loquacious way that American speakers often labour a point. More substantive content would have been appreciated. If you know your space history well, then this might fill in the odd gaps, especially the more recent stuff involving potential issues with long range space travel. The narration by Kate Mulgrew is enjoyable and has the right pace. The fictional trip towards the end set in the future on an interstellar starship is possibly a little fanciful, though it does throw up some interesting notions of the reality of such travel. Overall an interesting listen though not the best I have heard on individual topics like the space shuttle. But a good introduction to the topics and a nice refresher of some of the headlines from Wernher von Braun working for the Nazis before being squirrelled away after WWII by the Americans through to the present time and collaborative space exploration between nations and between governments and commercial ventures.

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6 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Fascinating, intelligent and insightful

Fifty years on from the moon landing, and the subject of many Hollywood movies, early space exploration is in danger of being mythologised. The Space Race takes it back to basics with an engaging, intelligent mix of eye witness accounts, original newsreels and fact based dramatisation.

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6 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Good but frustrating

More like a documentary than an audio book. What really frustrated me was the use of actors in place of real recordings. When it can to Neil Armstrong's famous words they used an actor instead of listening to the man himself! It was this that took the edge off for me. Still happy with my purchase.

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4 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Very annoying podcast - couldn't finish it

The technical content might be somewhat good, but the format is awful!
It's not like any other audiobook I've listened to on Audible, in fact, it's more like a podcast with all that weird music and sound effects. I couldn't focus on the content and it kept annoying me to the point I removed it.

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Yes, it’s a documentary.

I’ve listened to this 3 times now, a couple of years apart each time, and I really enjoy it.
Reading some of the reviews, I can’t believe people didn’t expect this to be a documentary, what did you think it would be?
Anyway, I personally think it’s great, some wonderful stories from the people who were there, and some excellent dramatisations thrown in to tell the story.
Brilliant.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Good overview of the space program

Overall its a decent summary of the space race, with great production quality. Includes many historical figures voices, quotes, speeches, mission comms etc, only marred by a few "just too long" silences and Kate Mulgrew`s highly individual take on the pronounciation of NASA as Nasarr, which was a little irritating at times. I do enjoy these kind of Audible productions, they are a welcome break from a single narrator in the usual type of audiobooks I listen to. I`m about 75% of the way through and would recommend it to anyone wanting a refresher or good introduction to the timelines; the absolute genius of the scientists, engineers and specialists,the sheer guts, lateral thinking, and ambition to achieve is a welcome reminder of mankinds ability to reach for the stars and succeed, even though the authors were ever so slightly aggrieved they were mostly white men.

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2 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

enjoyable but nothing new

i enjoyed the book but towards the end its starts to lose steam as it enters sci fi

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Loved it

Really enjoyed this. Maybe went over some parts a bit quickly but covered a lot of ground. Highly enjoyable.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A decent listen

Not a bad overview of the race to space and beyond, it’s was easy to follow and understand

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