• Spaceflight: The Complete Story from Sputnik to Curiosity

  • Smithsonian
  • By: Giles Sparrow
  • Narrated by: Emma Hignett
  • Length: 16 hrs and 56 mins
  • 4.1 out of 5 stars (18 ratings)

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Spaceflight: The Complete Story from Sputnik to Curiosity  By  cover art

Spaceflight: The Complete Story from Sputnik to Curiosity

By: Giles Sparrow
Narrated by: Emma Hignett
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Publisher's summary

Follow the compelling epic story of mankind's exploration of the final frontier with a foreword by Buzz Aldrin.

This compelling story of exploration charts and celebrates humankind in space, from Sputnik's launch in 1957 through the Apollo moon landings and the International Space Station to future missions to Mars and beyond.

Spaceflight chronicles how, in the six decades that followed Sputnik, the world was revolutionized by space travel and exploration. The opening up of Earth's orbit to satellites led to a revolution in communications, monitoring of the environment, and materials science. For the human imagination, the impact has been even greater - the voyages of robotic space probes have transformed our view of the solar system, while Earth-orbiting satellites and missions to the Moon have forever changed our view of ourselves.

This audiobook is a celebration of human ingenuity and imagination. From the work of pioneers like Wernher von Braun, Yuri Gagarin, and Neil Armstrong to the triumphs and tragedies that followed, it reveals the people, science, and technology that have propelled us into the Space Age.

©2019 Giles Sparrow (P)2020 DK Audio

Critic reviews

"[T]his...history of interstellar exploration is rich in detail and full of incredible imagery." (Publishers Weekly)

What listeners say about Spaceflight: The Complete Story from Sputnik to Curiosity

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Narration of an Encyclopedia

It's 50% the verbal description of diagrams, It does have some narration to it, but it's pretty jarring to hear the speaker describe time lines and diagrams that we can't see.

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2 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Not a book for audio

this comes across as a book containing many pictures, tables and graphs which doesn't come across well. the orator was pleasant to listen to, but so many of the proper nouns were mispronounced

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great! But audio could use some improvement.

It's got what the title suggests and enough details to be worth your time... however there are a fair amount of repeated sentences/phrases/words that were likely supposed to be edited out. Additionally, some of the "s" syllables are quite harsh and the recording would benefit from another go at mix/master to address those frequencies. Otherwise, great though.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Overall A Good Book, But

I enjoyed listening to the narrative except she mispronounced several names and words. It may be the result of her apparent British accent.

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