Final Orbit
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4.5 • 20 Ratings
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
A #1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER.
From the #1 bestselling author and astronaut Chris Hadfield, an edge-of-your-seat thriller set about China's secret role in the 1970s Space Race between the US and the USSR.
Houston, 1975. A new Apollo mission launches into orbit, on course to dock with a Russian Soyuz craft: three NASA astronauts and three cosmonauts, joining to celebrate a new dawn of Soviet-American cooperation. But as NASA Flight Controller Kaz Zemeckis listens in from Earth, a deadly accident changes everything.
Meanwhile, from a remote location in East Asia, the first Chinese spacecraft secretly launches. On board is China’s first astronaut, Fang Guojun, whose mission puts him on a collision course with the Apollo crew. As Kaz races against an enemy on the ground and for answers beyond the sky, the safety of the remaining crew hangs in the balance…
Full of intrigue and real history—including the fascinating story of Professor Tsien Hsue-shen, the “Father of Chinese Rocketry” and founder of China’s space program—Final Orbit accelerates to a thrilling conclusion that captures the beauty and terror of survival 270 miles above Earth, as could only be written by one of the most experienced astronauts alive.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hadfield (The Defector) delivers a pulse-pounding adventure about a 1975 U.S.-Soviet space mission that devolves into a battle hundreds of miles above Earth. All goes well until the Apollo and the Soyuz try to dock to each other, when a critical error kills two astronauts, one cosmonaut, and destroys the Russian ship. At NASA's direction, the remaining crew diverts course to the U.S.-controlled Skylab orbiting nearby, where the bodies can be stored temporarily. When the crew, led by pilot Deke Slayton, reaches Skylab, they discover a Chinese craft already there and in the process of stealing a secret laser weapon the U.S. left behind on a previous mission. Suddenly, what began as a peaceful endeavor meant to embody cooperation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union turns into a violent confrontation with Chinese forces involving gun- and machete-wielding space explorers. A former astronaut himself, Hadfield crowds the narrative with an abundance of technical jargon, and a few of the earthbound subplots are undernourished, including the kidnapping of NASA flight controller Kaz Zemeckis in Houston and a presidential assassination attempt by the Weather Underground. Still, Hadfield maintains steady momentum from the book's opening pages, and the crackling finale is well worth the wait. This should satisfy the author's fans.
Customer Reviews
Suspense keeps you reading the next chapter
Mystery and murder blended with real life events. So many insights to the space programs.