The Ultimate Engineer

The Remarkable Life of NASA's Visionary Leader George M. Low

De: Richard Jurek, Gerald D. Griffin - foreword

Narrado por: Mike Chamberlain

Described as the "ultimate engineer" during his career at NASA, George M. Low was a visionary architect and leader from the agency's inception in 1958 to his retirement in 1976. As chief of manned spaceflight at NASA, Low was instrumental in the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs. Low's pioneering work paved the way for President Kennedy's decision to make a lunar landing NASA's primary goal in the 1960s. After the tragic 1967 Apollo 1 fire that took the lives of three astronauts and almost crippled the program, Low took charge of the redesign of the Apollo spacecraft, and he helped lead the program from disaster and toward the moon. Under Low there were five manned missions, including Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing.

Low's clandestine negotiations with the Soviet Union resulted in a historic joint mission in 1975 that was the precursor to the Shuttle-Mir and International Space Station programs. At the end of his NASA career, Low was one of the leading figures in the development of the space shuttle in the early 1970s, and he was instrumental in NASA's transition into a post-Apollo world. Afterward, he embarked on a distinguished career in higher education as a transformational president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, his alma mater.

©2019 The Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska (P)2020 Tantor

This book gives some excellent advice

Don't assume you know everything and not ask questions. The incremental increase is the Enemy of the good. Arrogance leads to disaster. Meticulous methodology helps to avoid disasters. I have witnessed recent disasters due to hubris so advice from this book has immediacy.

An Excellent Biography of an Underrated Engineer

Likes:

Finally, well researched and written book about one of the most important - and little known - men behind the success of Apollo.

Dislike:

Only one.

The narrator keeps mispronouncing “S-IVB”, the second stage of the Saturn IB, and third stage of the Saturn V.

IT’S PRONOUNCED “S-FOUR-B”, NOT “S-1-V-B”!

The difference in work ethic between the 60’s, 70’s and lack of it, now.

Great book. Very inspiring. The kind of stories children should hear constantly. Well read. I would have liked to hear a little more about the top secret stuff that has long ago been declassified. But it was still a cool story of someone who’s quest for knowledge set him apart from everyone around him.

The man behind Apollo 11 and NASA

I love books about people behind the legacy of main events in life. There is always that one person behind the scenes that have the oversight, strategic understanding, vision, passion and leadership style to galvanize the multitudes. George Low is that man and Richard Jurek brought this story to life. Five stars.

George M Low was awesome but this book wasn't

The narrator did a great job but the writer did not make this story as interesting as it could have been. it felt more like listening to a textbook.

Interesting but obsequious

If you love all things space, you will enjoy this. However, the authors one sided portrayal of Low as god-like and super human wears thin halfway through. Still, a good book for audio.