Pat Duggins -- space correspondent for National Public Radio -- has written something that, inexplicably, never existed before: A concise, readable overview of the space shuttle program aimed at people who aren't hardcore space geeks. Final Countdown, despite a deeply misleading subtitle (the decision to wind down the shuttle program gets almost no attention), is about the whole sweep of the shuttle program, from its conception in 1969 to its final missions in the early 21st century. It traces the shuttle's origins, the conflicting design requirements that shaped it, and a thirty-year operational history in which it frequently disappointed, occasionally thrilled, and twice broke the hearts of those who watched it from the ground. Duggins, wisely, does not try to mention every shuttle mission, or even most of them. He divides the shuttle's career into eras, and discusses a few key missions from each: the first orbital test flight, the first satellite launch, the first satellite recovery and repair, the launch of the Hubble telescope, the first link-up with Mir, and so on.

Duggins' narrative has two great strengths: His ability to artfully summarize a complex story, and the fact that -- for much of the last two decades of shuttle operations -- he was there. The former becomes apparent when he's tracing the shuttle's origins: a story in which he shows how engineering, politics, and public relations created lofty expectations and vehicle that couldn't possibly fulfill them. For those readers who don't know the story it will be a revelation. The latter comes front and center when Duggins narrates the shuttle's role in constructing the International Space Station a project that, he persuasively argues, belatedly gave the shuttle a real purpose for the first time. It is even more apparent when Duggins describes the Columbia disaster. His low-key memories -- the wait beside a Florida runway, the growing worry as time passed, the text message that confirmed the worst -- are surprisingly gripping. The sentence "everyone's cell phones started going off" has never been so chilling.

The only significant flaw in this book is one largely beyond the author's control. Published in 2009, it is framed by chapters about Project Constellation, proposed during the George W. Bush administration as a follow-on to the shuttle and a stepping stone to the exploration of the Moon and, ultimately, Mars. The cancellation of Constellation in early 2010 leaves the book feeling instantly, profoundly dated. Like a book on American foreign policy published just before 9/11, the framing chapters of Final Countdown peer thoughtfully into a future that will never come to pass. The book as a whole, however, is valuable and likely to remain so. There is, simply, nothing else like it. For readers who unfamiliar with the shuttle, who want to know what it was all about, there is no better place to start.