Amazing Stories of the Space Age, Rod Pyle
Amazing Stories of the Space Age, Rod Pyle
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Amazing Stories of the Space Age
True Tales of Nazis in Orbit, Soldiers on the Moon, Orphaned Martian Robots, and Other Fascinating Accounts from the Annals of Spaceflight

Author: Rod Pyle

Narrator: John Pruden

Unabridged: 9 hr 13 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 01/30/2018


Synopsis

Award-winning science writer and documentarian Rod Pyle presents an insider's perspective on the most unusual and bizarre space missions ever devised inside and outside of NASA. The incredible projects described here were not merely flights of fancy dreamed up by space enthusiasts, but actual missions planned by leading aeronautical engineers. Some were designed but not built; others were built but not flown; and a few were flown to failure but little reported:

A giant rocket that would use atomic bombs as propulsion (never mind the fallout), military bases on the moon that could target enemies on earth with nuclear weapons, a scheme to spray-paint the lenses of Soviet spy satellites in space, the rushed Soyuz 1 spacecraft that ended with the death of its pilot, the near-disaster of the Apollo 11 moon landing, the mysterious Russian space shuttle that flew only once and was then scrapped—these are just some of the unbelievable tales that Pyle has found in once top-secret documents as well as accounts that were simply lost for many decades.

These stories tell of a time when nothing was too off-the-wall to be taken seriously, and the race to the moon and the threat from the Soviet Union trumped all other considerations.

About Rod Pyle

Rod Pyle is a space historian who has worked with NASA at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Johnson Space Center. He has written nine books on the history and technology of space exploration and science for major publishers in the U.S., U.K., and Asia. As a journalist, Rod's work has appeared in Space.com, LiveScience.com, the Huffington Post, Popular Science, and many other print and online venues. Rod has also produced documentary programming on spaceflight for The History Channel as well as Discovery Communications. He has written on spaceflight and science for NASA/JPL and Caltech, and authored a guide to executive education for the Johnson Space Center/The Conference Board's Apollo Leadership Experience. Rod speaks frequently on spaceflight and executive development, and is a frequent radio guest with regular appearances on WGN/Chicago, KFI/Los Angeles, and numerous syndicated radio programs. He worked on the TV series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as a visual effects coordinator for three seasons, and spent a decade at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. Rod is a graduate of Stanford University and the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, and a member of the National Space Society, the Author's Guild, the National Association of Science Writers, and the Producer's Guild of America.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Marta on May 28, 2023

This was an interesting collection of abandoned space projects. It is a travel back to the mindset of the cold war, a good comparison between the US and Russian space programs, and the influence of German scientists, especially von Braun. I was listening and while I found it interesting, there were......more

Goodreads review by Mary on December 13, 2016

"Amazing Stories of the Space Age", by Rod Pyle, is a must for any space enthusiast! These 22 stories about historical space ideas, programs, successes, and failures, are written with the layman in mind, but they are not "dumbed down" and Pyle annotates his sources well. There are great photos and s......more

Goodreads review by John on January 17, 2017

Rod Pyle has created an excellent entry into the space-history canon! "Amazing Stories of the Space Age" is presented in bite-sized chunks ... more than enough information to hold the interest of the average reader, and lots of recently-unclassified information about programs like the Manned Orbitin......more

Goodreads review by Cav on August 27, 2024

"Amazing Stories of the Space Age is about the most mysterious and intriguing episodes of the history of space exploration—its undercover projects, grandiose dreams, odd spinoffs, and muffled dramas..." I enjoyed Amazing Stories of the Space Age; for the most part. It was a decent look into the topic......more

Goodreads review by BellaGBear on September 08, 2017

This is really an awesome book for everyone who loves the space, and who would like to know more about the lesser-known events regarding explorations into space. However, for someone like me who knows little about engines and the technology behind spacecraft, many chapters were out of my league. Sti......more