BEYOND THE BLUE
The Space Race and America's Conquest of the Moon, 1957–1972By Victoria Dunmore Forsythe
Length5h 53m
About this audiobook
On October 4, 1957, a single beeping signal from orbit changed the world forever — and terrified a nation.
For the first time, America wasn't first. The Soviets had beaten the United States into space, and overnight the sky itself looked like enemy territory. What followed was the Space Race — the greatest adventure in human history: a fifteen-year sprint of genius, courage, catastrophe, and triumph that ended with two Americans walking on the Moon.
If you know the famous moments — "one small step," Apollo 13 — but never understood how they all fit together, Beyond the Blue hands you the entire breathtaking story of the Space Race, from the shock of Sputnik to America's conquest of the Moon, told as the white-knuckle drama it truly was.
Inside, you'll discover:
* **How the Space Race was actually won** — the strategy, the rockets, and the political nerve that took America from humiliation to the Moon.
* **The people behind the missions** — the daring astronauts, the hidden figures who did the math, and the controversial genius who built the rockets.
* **The disasters that nearly ended everything** — the Apollo 1 fire, the near-loss of Apollo 13, and how NASA refused to quit.
* **Why the Space Race still shapes your life** — the technology in your pocket, the Cold War stakes, and the legacy America left on the Moon.
This isn't a dry timeline. It's a front-row seat to the moment humanity reached beyond the blue and touched another world.
If you love sweeping, character-driven history that reads like a thriller, Beyond the Blue belongs on your shelf.
Scroll up, click "Buy Now," and blast off into the greatest race ever run.
Audiobook details
GenreOther, Historical Fiction, Literary Classics
Length5 hrs 53 mins
Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices
FormateBook with Audio
LanguageEnglish
Table of contents
1Introduction
20Chapter 13: Apollo 13 — Failure Is Not an Option
2Author’s Note
21Chapter 14: The Later Apollos — Science on the Lunar Surface
3Prologue: The Beep in the Dark
22Chapter 15: Skylab — America's First Space Station
4PART ONE: SPUTNIK AND THE SHOCK (1957–1961)
23Chapter 16: Apollo-Soyuz — Cold War Détente in Orbit
5Chapter 1: Sputnik — The Beep That Changed Everything
24PART FIVE: THE PEOPLE OF THE SPACE RACE
Show all chaptersShow less
6Chapter 2: America's Response — NASA and the Race Begins
25Chapter 17: The Astronauts — Pilots, Scientists, and Public Icons
7Chapter 3: The Mercury Astronauts — The Right Stuff
26Chapter 18: Wernher von Braun — The Rocket Scientist from Nazi Germany
8Chapter 4: Yuri Gagarin — First Human in Space
27Chapter 19: The Hidden Figures — Black Women Mathematicians at NASA
9PART TWO: THE KENNEDY CHALLENGE (1961–1963)
28Chapter 20: Mission Control — Engineers, Flight Controllers, and the Ground Crews
10Chapter 5: Kennedy's Commitment — We Choose to Go to the Moon
29PART SIX: LEGACIES
11Chapter 6: Friendship 7 — John Glenn Orbits the Earth
30Chapter 21: What the Space Race Gave Us — Technology and Spinoffs
12Chapter 7: The Apollo Program — Building the Moon Machine
31Chapter 22: The Soviet Side — What America Was Competing Against
13Chapter 8: Gemini — Learning to Walk in Space
32Chapter 23: The Space Shuttle and What Came After Apollo
14PART THREE: THE ROAD TO THE MOON (1964–1969)
33Chapter 24: The Moon and the American Imagination — Science, Culture, and National Pride
15Chapter 9: Building the Saturn V — The Largest Machine Ever Made
34Epilogue: What We Left on the Moon
16Chapter 10: The Apollo 1 Fire — Tragedy and Rebuilding
35Acknowledgments
17Chapter 11: Apollo 8 — Earthrise and Christmas in Lunar Orbit
36Selected Bibliography
18Chapter 12: Apollo 11 — One Giant Leap for Mankind
37About the Author
19PART FOUR: BEYOND APOLLO 11
More from Victoria Dunmore Forsythe
The Holy Bible - 1 SamuelKing James2h 13m3 (1)$3 · $0.00
KJV Holy BibleBroadStreet Publishing Group LLC96h 16m$10 · $0.00
Book of ColossiansUnknown Author16m$8
The American Standard Bible — The Gospel of MatthewMatthew3h 56m$2 · $0.00
Everyday Chanakya | Time Management S01E08Radhakrishnan Pillai42m$4
Bad Fat Black GirlSesali Bowen6h 32m$24 · $0.00
The King James Audio Bible New Testament CompleteChristopher Glyn20h 2m5 (1)$12 · $0.00
Faiths CheckbookCharles Spurgeon12h 44m$11 · $0.00
Ten Things I Wish You Knew About Your Child's Mental HealthDr. Billy Garvey4h 53m$20 · $0.00
Be Wild Be FreeAmber Fossey26m$7 · $0.00
Designing Terry Pratchett’s DiscworldPaul Kidby3h 52m$20 · $0.00
The Chosen Book OneAmanda Jenkins, Kristen Hendricks, Dallas Jenkins3h 8m$10 · $0.00
The Lives of BrianBrian Johnson9h 45m$29 · $0.00
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the HorseCharlie Mackesy58m$11 · $0.00
Expository Thoughts on the Gospel of LukeJ.C. Ryle27h 13m$18 · $0.00
My First Beethoven AlbumNaxos1h 23m$6 · $0.00
CrossroadsKaleb Dahlgren7h 56m$26 · $0.00
Across the RiverKent Babb11h 40m$29 · $0.00
Brain Training for RidersAndrea Monsarrat Waldo5h 56m$19 · $0.00
My Effin' LifeGeddy Lee17h 11m5 (1)$40 · $0.00
Callum’s MissionDonald L. Robertson10h 23m$20
War LordBernard Cornwell13h 21m$33 · $0.00
The Complete Jaipur TrilogyAlka Joshi33h 44m$53 · $0.00
The Count of Monte Cristo (With Original Illustrations)Alexandre Dumas54h 7m$1 · $0.00
Northern ShadowsDaniel Greene12h 52m$23
The Ghost by the Billabong (The Matilda Saga, #5)Jackie French14h 58m$33 · $0.00
The Labyrinth of the SpiritsCarlos Ruiz Zafon27h 55m$53 · $0.00
MusashiEiji Yoshikawa53h 20m$30
The Things We Cannot SayKelly Rimmer13h 48m$33 · $0.00
Their Castilian OrphanAnna Belfrage14h 45m$27
With Fire and Sword, The Deluge & Pan MichaelHenryk Sienkiewicz112h 55m$1 · $0.00
The Complete 13 Novels & longer fiction: Treasure Island, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Black Arrow, Kidnapped, The Master of Ballantrae, The Wrong Box and more...Robert Louis Stevenson106h 29m$1 · $0.00
Eagles over BritainLee Jackson12h 26m$23
Rilla of InglesideLucy Maud Montgomery11h 44m$2 · $0.00
The Viennese DressmakerKathryn Gauci11h 46m$23 · $0.00
The Man in the Brown Suit & They Came to BaghdadAgatha Christie15h 43m$33 · $0.00
Under the Light of the Italian MoonJennifer Anton12h 28m$23 · $0.00
THE COMPLETE PALLISER NOVELS (All 6 Novels in One Edition)Anthony Trollope172h 46m$2 · $0.00
Jubilee, 50th Anniversary EditionMargaret Walker15h 43m$25 · $0.00
Arch of TriumphErich Maria Remarque15h 51m$28
The Complete Works of Jane Austen (Unabridged)Jane Austen88h 8m5 (1)$1 · $0.00
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Ultimate Collection: ALL 38 Plays & Complete PoetryWilliam Shakespeare152h 46m$2 · $0.00
C. S. LewisC. S. Lewis38h 55m$30
The Jeeves and Wooster Stories: The Complete Collection (33 Books)P. G. Wodehouse21h 57m$15 · $0.00
The Gulag Archipelago Volume 3Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn21h 56m$46 · $0.00
Charles Dickens: Complete WorksCharles Dickens814h 50m$2 · $0.00
Sherlock Holmes: The Ultimate CollectionArthur Conan Doyle59h 49m$5 · $0.00
The Complete Works of Fyodor Dostoyevsky: Novels, Short Stories and Autobiographical WritingsFyodor Dostoyevsky270h 59m$2 · $0.00
The Complete Works: Charlotte, Emily, Anne, Patrick & Branwell BrontëCharlotte Brontë, Anne Brontë, Emily Brontë138h 12m$1 · $0.00
L. M. Montgomery – Premium Collection: Novels, Short Stories, Poetry & MemoirsLucy Maud Montgomery155h 55m$2 · $0.00
MARK TWAIN: 12 Novels, 195 Short Stories, Autobiography, 10 Travel Books, 160+ Essays & Speeches (Illustrated)Mark Twain415h 9m5 (2)$2 · $0.00
The Great Gatsby: Original 1925 Edition (An F. Scott Fitzgerald Classic NovelFrancis Scott Fitzgerald4h 45m$18 · $0.00
The Complete Works of TolstoyLeo Tolstoy412h 44m$1 · $0.00
Louisa May Alcott: 16 Novels in One Volume (Illustrated Edition)Louisa May Alcott141h 35m$2 · $0.00
The Fire Next TimeJames Baldwin2h 25m$15
The Complete Works of Oscar WildeOscar Wilde80h 38m$1 · $0.00
The Complete Books of F. Scott Fitzgerald (all his 5 novels + all 4 short story collections published during his lifetime)F. Scott Fitzgerald86h 48m$2 · $0.00
The Count of Monte Cristo (With Original Illustrations)Alexandre Dumas54h 7m$1 · $0.00
Braving the TruthRachel Held Evans11h 31m$29 · $0.00
Richard Wagamese SelectedRichard Wagamese3h 14m$15
You may also like
Mars: Our New Home?National Aeronautics and Space Administration, U.S. Congress5h 38m$2 · $0.00
VoyageStephen Baxter24h 46m$30
Apollo 11 Goodwill MessagesNASA1h 4m$1 · $0.00
SpacefarersChristopher Wanjek12h 1m$23
The History of the TelephoneHerbert Newton Casson6h 37m$2 · $0.00
ApolloCharles Murray, Catherine Bly Cox18h 15m$30
Matthew Calbraith Perry: A Typical American Naval OfficerWilliam Elliot Griffis13h 12m$1 · $0.00
Across the Airless WildsEarl Swift10h 8m$29 · $0.00
Mission to MarsBuzz Aldrin4h 47m$17
Star SurgeonAlan Edward Nourse6h 31m$1 · $0.00
The Collected Short Stories of Murray LeinsterMurray Leinster30h 36m$1 · $0.00
American MoonshotDouglas Brinkley17h 13m$40 · $0.00
INTERGALACTIC ENTERPRISE: 60+ Space Sci-Fi Novels in One EditionJules Verne, Percy Greg, David Lindsay, Edward Everett Hale, John Jacob Astor, Murray Leinster, H. Beam Piper, Frederik Pohl, Fritz Leiber, Irving E. Cox, Philip K. Dick, Richard Stockham, H. G. Wells, E. E. Smith, Edwin Lester Arnold, Gustavus W. Pope311h 15m$2 · $0.00
For All HumankindTanya Harrison, Danny Bednar3h 45m$15
The Smell of Kerosene: Pilot's "Day at the Office"National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Donald L. Mallick, Peter W. Merlin11h 19m$2 · $0.00
Eccentric OrbitsJohn Bloom18h 47m$25
First State of the Union AddressJohn Quincy Adams1h 2m$1 · $0.00
Amazing Tales Volume 19Gardner F. Fox et al.8h 11m$2.30
The Green Hills of EarthRobert A. Heinlein6h 32m$14
Old Quebec, the city of ChamplainEmily P. Weaver1h 13m$2 · $0.00