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Chasing New Horizons

By: Alan Stern, David Grinspoon
Narrated by: Alan Stern, David Grinspoon
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Summary

This audiobook is the up-close inside story of the greatest space exploration project of our time, New Horizons’ mission to Pluto, as shared with David Grinspoon by mission leader Alan Stern and other key players.

On July 14, 2015, something amazing happened. More than three billion miles from Earth, a small NASA spacecraft called New Horizons screamed past Pluto at more than 32,000 miles per hour, focusing its instruments on the long-mysterious icy worlds of the Pluto system, and then, just as quickly, continued on its journey out into the beyond. Nothing like this has occurred in a generation - a raw exploration of new worlds unparalleled since NASA’s Voyager missions to Uranus and Neptune - and nothing quite like it is planned to happen ever again.

The photos that New Horizons sent back to Earth graced the front pages of newspapers on all seven continents, and NASA’s website for the mission received more than two billion hits in the days surrounding the flyby. At a time when so many think that our most historic achievements are in the past, the most distant planetary exploration ever attempted not only succeeded in 2015 but made history and captured the world’s imagination. How did this happen?

Chasing New Horizons is the story of the men and women behind this amazing mission: of their decades-long commitment and persistence; of the political fights within and outside of NASA; of the sheer human ingenuity it took to design, build, and fly the mission; and of the plans for New Horizons’ next encounter, one billion miles past Pluto in 2019. Told from the insider’s perspective of mission leader Dr. Alan Stern and others on New Horizons, Chasing New Horizons is a riveting story of scientific discovery and of how much we humans can achieve when people focused on a dream work together toward their incredible goal.

©2018 Alan Stern and David Grinspooon (P)2018 Macmillan Audio
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What listeners say about Chasing New Horizons

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Really made me feel the action

Recently I've read books on the Voyager mission and Curiosity but Chasing New Horizons was on a different level. This book really made me feel the highs and lows of the incredibly long and difficult journey to get a mission launched, and the redemption of the final fly by. I loved it, I'd even consider listening to it again which is rare for me.

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Deep Space Revealed

An outstanding ebook, great story, well read and on one of my favourite topics Space Exploration, if you're a fan of Space Exploration you can't go wrong with this book, it has everything. Recommended!

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Fascinating insights into the New Horizons journey

This book gives a great insight into the battles a deep space mission faces in getting off the drawing board and into space - and the ones that arise once in the void. The technical and political aspects of the development of New Horizons are fascinating, and you come away with a sense of wonder as to how the mission made it launch, never mind the brilliant science it carried out. The narration is a bit flat, but the story carries itself. Looking forward to learning about the mission's next target - 2014 MU69 - at the dawn of 2019.

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Incredible

Loved the book and the story well narrated. A fantastic achievement in planetary exploration. Recommended

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a truely insperational inside account of the sheer detemination of a small team of explorers to overcome multiple trials and tribulation to bring to the world a discovery of epic proportions. an insperation and one of the most enjoyable reads of scientic discovery that ive come across

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Brilliant

This is a terrific production which enthrals from beginning to end. It's not overly long although it does cover several decades from when the idea of exploring Pluto was first contemplated right up to the fly-by and the subsequent visit to the Kuiper Belt.

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Inspiring!

This book is a must for any space enthusiast. It’s a truly inspiring story extremely well told.

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Fascinating

Very interesting audiobook and I learnt so much about the mission, mainly about the incredibly long years of fighting they had to do to have a mission at all. I did find it a bit of a long haul in places but overall well worth it.

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