Beyond: The Astonishing Story of the First Human to Leave Our Planet and Journey into Space cover art

Beyond: The Astonishing Story of the First Human to Leave Our Planet and Journey into Space

The Astonishing Story of the First Human to Leave Our Planet and Journey into Space

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Beyond: The Astonishing Story of the First Human to Leave Our Planet and Journey into Space

By: Stephen Walker
Narrated by: David Rintoul
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About this listen

‘Thrilling … High-definition history: tight, thrilling and beautifully researched’ SUNDAY TIMES

‘This book is a triumph’ DAN SNOW

9.07 a.m., April 12, 1961. A top-secret rocket site in the USSR. A young Russian sits inside a tiny capsule on top of the Soviet Union’s most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile – originally designed to carry a nuclear warhead – and blasts into the skies. His name is Yuri Gagarin and he is about to make history.

Travelling at almost 18,000 miles per hour – ten times faster than a rifle bullet – Gagarin circles the globe in just 106 minutes. While his launch begins in total secrecy, within hours of his landing he has become a world celebrity – the first human to leave the planet.

Beyond tells the thrilling story behind that epic flight on its sixtieth anniversary. It happened at the height of the Cold War as the US and USSR confronted each other across an Iron Curtain. Both superpowers took enormous risks to get a man into space first – the Americans in the full glare of the media, the Soviets under deep cover. Both trained their teams of astronauts to the edges of the endurable. In the end the race between them would come down to the wire.

Drawing on extensive original research and the vivid testimonies of eyewitnesses, many of whom have never spoken before, Stephen Walker unpacks secrets that were hidden for decades and takes the reader into the drama – featuring the scientists, engineers and political leaders on both sides, and above all the American astronauts and their Soviet rivals battling for supremacy in the heavens.

 Aeronautics & Astronautics Astronomy & Space Science Expeditions & Discoveries Freedom & Security Politics & Government Professionals & Academics Russia Science Science & Technology World Soviet Union Funny Thought-Provoking Suspenseful Inspiring Espionage US Air Force Cold War Air Force

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Critic reviews

‘This book is a triumph’
Dan Snow

‘Just a wonderful book, I can’t recommend it enough’
Giles Coren

‘The thrilling story … is not the first study of Gagarin and the Vostok missions, still less of Nasa’s “Mercury Seven” astronauts — but bringing the two stories together is a masterstroke … It is high-definition history: tight, thrilling and beautifully researched’
Sunday Times

‘Many intriguing revelations [and an] extensive, blow-by-blow account of the race to put a human in space … Tells the full story of the finest two hours of [Gagarin's] tragically short life’
Literary Review

‘Thrilling … brings a huge amount that is fresh and new to our understanding of the Space Race’
Daily Telegraph

‘Cinematic … Walker develops a colourful sense of the political theatre of space exploration’
Spectator

‘Scintillating …The thrilling ride to be the first man in space is vividly captured in this retelling of Russia’s favourite son’
Financial Times

‘A gripping story, rich in novelistic detail … Highly recommended’
BBC Sky at Night, five stars

‘Brings to life the space race and the extraordinary story of Yuri Gagarin … A history that reads like a thriller’
Anne Applebaum

‘The very best account of Yuri Gagarin’s pioneering space mission – vivid, thoughtful, and respectful … A wonderfully rendered story of an epochal event’
Asif Siddiqi

‘The exhilaration of a fine thriller’
Colin Thubron

‘Suddenly, every previous biography of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and his epic Earth-orbiting flight has been superseded … A spellbinding and completely authoritative account … The finest, best researched book ever written on the subject’
Colin Burgess

‘Dramatic and dynamic. Stephen Walker’s passion for his subject along with his exceptional research and attention to detail have brought my father’s extraordinary journey vividly to life’
Elena Gagarina, daughter of Yuri Gagarin

All stars
Most relevant
I hold now about 105 titles here on audible ( never listening any sci-fi, romance, thrillers etc. ) and this book together with Bill Bryson " short history..."
is No 1 .
And mr. David Rintoul ( the narrator ) deserves here few words of prize. In the world of audiobooks narrator is so important, his role in reading makes you love or hate named book. He is at his best.
I end up looking for more books read by him I love it so much, and now my thoughts about this book:
Don't count on me, try it yourself.
The amount of facts described in the book by interesting, funny style , ( e.g. the strong winter in New York making city utilities using flame thrower to melt the snow ) is tremendous... This is not only the book about Youri Gagarin but also about two power nations competing, Khrushchev and Kennedy, surprisingly avoiding political praising any nation, the story is said in such a good way you can feel as you would be in between cosmodrome office staff experiencing Korolev's emotions ( btw. everyone knows name of Verner Von Brown the rocket master but no one including me until this book knows his Russian equivalent Korolev, one day he looks at Verner Von Brown's picture in newspaper and say " we should be friends " in deed , theese two should work together to achieve even better goals...)
And when parades in Moscow are happy marching after Youri landing - you feel like you would be in between them. Than, the description about flat, bed, the interior , the of training centre of cosmonauts, comparison to their American competitors, is sooo great.
btw. I didn't know that soviet Was that much advanced over americans in 1961. Quote
" soviets were popping up sputniks like confetti while Americans achieved nothing... "
when soviets have sent their first man into space americans still could not send even chimpanzee up ...Than you feel Yuri's wife emotions as he risks it all, his dad, mom - when she cries in Moscow metro after some one telling her, quote: " his name is Yuri Gagarin -remember that! " o.m.g.
thank you mr. Rintoul and mr. Walker for such a great experience listening this book. I'm sure I will listen that book many times more

OMG ! what a story !

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an incredible story. absolutely incredible. Yuri Gagarin was always my hero, now even more so.

astounding.

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As a kid in the 70s, space flight was a big part of my childhood, be it games, books, TV etc. I knew exactly who Gagarin was and what he did. But this book and the excellent narration, totally breaks the man down to the human being he was and the diabolical hero he became as well as the juggernaut of support he had in becoming the first human in space. Written and narrated with enthusiasm, respect, detail and devotion, the novel literally had my jaw dropping frequently on my morning strolls. Such was the sheer incredulous nature of USSRs fledgling attempts to get a man into space at all costs. Hero is a word sadly attached to a lot of non deserving people these days, but when you read or listen to this book you are reminded of true heroics and true courage and grit. Yuri Gagarin along with his fellow Cosmonauts were a breed of men unlike any other on the planet and this excellent novel explains how, why and when these men stepped off the earth and laid the very first foundations to our inevitable departure to other planets. A fantastic read in the original and modern sense of the word. It has pace, detail, diligent fact finding, humour, horror, intensity, heart and guts. Technology, biology and physiology is there but completely absorbable and a real credit to the narrator for adding an eloquent and passionate interpretation of the events that led upto Gagarins...and Shepards monumental achievements. But ultimately its a story about a farm boy who went into space and came back. The ending had me close to tears, such was the true story of this remarkable man and his forgotten colleagues claims to a place in mankind's history books.

Astonishing insight to the heroic first few

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They say truth is stranger than fiction and in this case it certainly is! If you saw the story in this book in a film, you would say, that would never happen!! However it did and the story is superbly brought to life by the narrator either the pace and emotion he reads the story with, apart from the odd part where he whispers and makes that part quite difficult to heat.

Absolutely brilliant, a must read!

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It’s actually quite hard to put into words just how good this is. The writing is fantastic, and the narration is probably the best I’ve encountered so far. A truly fascinating insight into the early Soviet space program, and the people who made it all happen.

Utterly brilliant. The definition of a must-read.

Indescribably good

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