The Ultimate Engineer, Richard Jurek
The Ultimate Engineer, Richard Jurek
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

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

Author: Richard Jurek, Gerald D. Griffin

Narrator: Mike Chamberlain

Unabridged: 10 hr 49 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 05/12/2020

Synopsis

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.

About Richard Jurek

Richard Jurek is a contributor to the Smithsonian's Air & Space magazine and website and is the coauthor, with David Meerman Scott, of Marketing the Moon: The Selling of the Apollo Lunar Program.

Reviews

Goodreads review by David

The best kind of history: Surprising, engaging, and fascinating With the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 in July 2019, this year has brought a flood of books, television programs, and movies about NASA’ quest to get humans to the surface of the moon. While it’s great that the general public has a rekin......more

Goodreads review by Arthur Siemientkowski

The author Richard Jurek brings to life a fascinating subject in the history of US Space history – George Low, while a chief engineer, he evolves into the architect of the Mercury through Apollo manned flight, as well as an instrumental influence in the development of the Shuttle program. Jurek cove......more

Goodreads review by Robert

This book interested me greatly considering that I spent my entire career at JPL and experienced first-hand the exciting years of the space program from NASA’s inception thru the glory years of manned spaceflight. I witnessed the extraordinary events of the Apollo Program. I was even at the Cape in......more

Goodreads review by Tyler

Richard Jurek has written a splendid biography of one of the figures most instrumental to the success of the Apollo program: George Low. I am definitely struck by the daunting challenge he faced early in his life, as he lived in Austria for the first twelve years of his life before the Nazis threate......more

Goodreads review by Bruce

An excellent "must have" book for anyone interested in humankind's greatest achievement to date! George Low has always been an enigma to NASA’s Apollo space program. Up until this very thorough and highly enjoyable book, what little information that was made public about Low included brief accolades......more

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List