Ignition!
An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants
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Ignition!
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Narrated by:
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Jonathan Todd Ross
About this listen
Ignition! is the inside story of the Cold War era search for a rocket propellant that could be trusted to take man into space. A favorite of Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, listeners will want to tune into this "really good book on rocket[s]," available for the first time in audio.
Ignition! is the story of the search for a rocket propellant which could be trusted to take man into space. This search was a hazardous enterprise carried out by rival labs who worked against the known laws of nature, with no guarantee of success or safety.
Acclaimed scientist and sci-fi author John Drury Clark writes with irreverent and eyewitness immediacy about the development of the explosive fuels strong enough to negate the relentless restraints of gravity. The resulting volume is as much a memoir as a work of history, sharing a behind-the-scenes view of an enterprise that eventually took men to the moon, missiles to the planets, and satellites to outer space. A classic work in the history of science, listeners will want to get their hands on this influential classic, available for the first time in decades.
©2018 John Drury Clark (P)2018 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about Ignition!
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Bart Pander
- 12-02-20
chemistry history
Great listen but I think only fun for quite knowledgeable people both on mid 20th century history and chemistry on college level.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 28-02-22
Compelling
I build rockets for my day job, what John has done here is give us an insight into the glory days we all take for granted. Written in a candid manner, a must read/listen for any space and rocket fan.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- florekfilip
- 27-01-19
For chemists not wide audience
Overall performance, language excellent. The book is more for people who understand chemistry at the semi-pro level. I expected more insights and stories about use of the propellent.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Edward Henry
- 05-06-20
Advanced reading but far from impenetrable gem.
I delayed listening to this for a long time because of other reviews as i have no scientific education (just a layman Spaceflight fan) and was worried it may be a textbook more than a narrative. It is not. It reads almost like the biography of a rocket scientist (although it is much wider ranging than that and i found it entertaining and had a few laughs. The narrator is fantastic at conveying the writers obvious enthusiasm and levity. Large portions of it where over my head certainly but graciously it was far from being the oblivious actor drily mispronouncing his way through chemical equations and statistics charts that I'd feared. I could only name the more common propellants going in and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Thank you so much for recording such a rare and niche book.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
- tom bunge
- 04-10-19
better to read
it is an interesting book. But it would be better to read as it gets confusing with all the formulas in it
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Michael
- 25-09-19
Interesting
The history in book is great and the reading is done well. however chemical formulas may not translate well to audio book format
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- turok
- 27-11-19
Very interesting topic sailing through the history of rocket propellants.
Probably not the ideal audio book due to significant numbers of chemical and algebraic formulas. Will listen to it again with pen and paper at hand.
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1 person found this helpful