Homesteading Space: The Skylab Story

Outward Odyssey: A People's History of Spaceflight

By: David Hitt, Owen Garriott, Joe Kerwin, Alan L. Bean

Narrated by: Gary L. Willprecht

Length: 21 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

As the United States and the Soviet Union went from exploring space to living in it, a space station was conceived as the logical successor to the Apollo moon program. But between conception and execution stood the vastness of space itself, to say nothing of the monumental technological challenges. Homesteading Space, by two of Skylab’s own astronauts and a NASA journalist, tells the dramatic story of America’s first space station from beginning to fiery end.

Homesteading Space is much more than a story of technological and scientific success; it is also an absorbing, sometimes humorous, often inspiring account of the determined, hardworking individuals who shepherded the program through a near-disastrous launch, a heroic rescue, an exhausting study of Comet Kohoutek, and the lab's ultimate descent into the Indian Ocean. Featuring the unpublished in-flight diary of astronaut Alan Bean, the book is replete with the personal recollections and experiences of the Skylab crew and those who worked with them in training, during the mission, and in bringing them safely home.

The book is published by University of Nebraska Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.

"Offers valuable personal recollections from those who were there." (Air & Space)

“A well-told saga of Skylab from start to fiery fall.” (Coalition for Space Exploration)

"A great read." (Ed Gibson, Skylab III science pilot and author)

©2008 Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska (P)2020 Redwood Audiobooks

I found out a lot of things I didn't know

When I was a kid, Skylab was already abandoned, and the big story was how Shuttle could go rescue it. That didn't happen. Skylab for some reason gets lost between the Apollo Moon Landings and Shuttle. I also didn't realize how Skylab 3 were affected by politics for Shuttle going on in Congress at the time. I found this book really interesting, and learned about each stay on the station. I highly recommend this book. It is a comprehensive look at this "lost program" of Apollo.

Homesteading Space Is an Excellent Book

I have read or listened to, other books about specific space missions, eg. Apollo 1, Apollo 8, Apollo 11 etc. and most of them take the reader from Sputnik to Gregarin, Mercury, and Gemini then up through the Apollo program until the writer finally gets to the Apollo mission on the book's cover. So, with those books, you get a lot of the same information you've already read. That's not the case with Homesteading Space: The Skylab Story. It is almost all about Skylab. The author does mention past flights the Skylab astronauts were on but you don't get a history lesson about those flights. I appreciate that because I have already read those books. This book is very informative. It contains commentary by individuals involved in the Skylab program and astronauts and Earth-to-ground communications from Skylab. These are read from documents by the reader with different voicings for each person. I am in my sixties and I remember the Skylab program vividly. The unfortunate thing back in the 70s was that the TV networks got bored with the space program quickly unless something went awry with a spacecraft. We didn't have the NASA channel or nasa.gov back then. Now I want to mention the reader, Gary L. Willprecht. I have read a couple of reviews that gave him a poor rating. I strongly disagree with that. He is a fine reader. I gave the performance 5 stars. I have only one negative thing to say about this book. The publisher of the audiobook should have provided a separate PDF containing the pictures from the print edition.

Great Story, Somewhat Dry Reader

But definitely worth a second listen if one is interested in the technical details of American space flight in the 1970’s. A fascinating look at one of the unfortunately more obscure space programs.
So far as I have listened, this is also the best Audible title at giving real insight into the weightless life and the logistics of long term space habitation.
There are occasional snatches of humor to lighten the mood, but this is not recommended listening for those who get bored by technical language.

Great story, weird voiceover

The story of this often overlooked part of the history of American spaceflight is well researched and engaging! I loved listening to the story. The only problem was the voiceover. I don't know if it was the voice actor or the editor but the pacing was awkward. There were pauses where the sentence structure did not call for it and some words seemed crammed together. It also sounds like the voiceover actor was not really thinking about WHAT they were saying and in some spots the emphasis was on the wrong words. It really takes you out of this otherwise amazing story.

Fascinating story ruined by the narration

A fascinating story ruined by the narration. Tried repeatedly to "get used" to the narrators monotone voice droning on and on with the emphasis often placed on the wrong word of the sentence but was unable to enjoy the story ENTIRELY due to the narration. How was this narrator chosen??? Was it random draw??? Was a dart thrown at a list of names and no one bothered to listen his previous work??? Was the producer even awake during the reading???

Apologies to the authors for returning the book, your work deserves to be heard. Just not read by Gary L. Willprecht.

Great Story, bur Content Suffers from Narration Choices

I love space exploration and history books. This one has such great content, but I finally had to abandon it because of the narrator’s performance. I know it looks (aka sounds) easier than it is, of course, but the voicing and dialect choices just weren’t for me.

Wonderful material/book. Very poor narration

If Gary L. Willprecht wasn't given a narration credit I would have thought this was AI reading. As others have said: sentence structure & emphasis is often misplaced. Not to mention badly mispronouncing Max Faget. How the narrator failed to even Google a name and a producer failed to catch that egregious error is beyond me. I love the subject that is Skylab so I'll finish this but doubt I'll ever listen to it again. A major disservice to the authors.

Good Content, Horrible Narration.

I was excited about this book because it is a part of the space program you don't hear much about. Unfortunately, the narrator Gary L. Willprecht is a terrible reader. He reads like a robot and it is as if he is not really thinking about what he is reading. His emphasis on the wrong word or syllable can drive you crazy. I found my mind wandering while he was narrating and realized I could not listen to this book at all. I returned the Audible version and bought the book off Amazon so I could read it instead.