Customer Reviews

The First Space Race: Launching the World's First Satellites (Centennial of Flight Series)

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The authors have written a fine historical synthesis of the period between the mid-1950s and the aftermath of Sputnik, focusing on the rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union to launch the first orbital satellite. This work makes an important contribution in focusing on this first satellite race, and the authors explore the mirror image nature of the two programs, how they played off of each other, and why that was necessary to the manner in which the race unfolded. By keeping the space race front and center they succeed in creating a focus that is compelling and often missed in other studies of the same era.

Bille and Lishock are at their best in probing the individuals who were the bearers of the spaceflight dream; many of whom seem to encounter obstacles (social, political, technical) at every turn, and then eventually surmount them to achieve success and plant the seeds for future accomplishment. At some level this represents a romantic narrative of transcendence, but one that is both evocative and powerful. The authors seem to suggest that it was the spaceflight true believers, rather than great nations locked in cold war rivalry or geopolitical machinations or the scientific method on each side, who were engaged in a race. Certainly they expressed frustration by the percerived foot dragging of their respective governments. Yet, Sergei Korolev in the Soviet Union and Wernher von Braun and others in the United States achieved the birth of the space age in this international race.

Everyone should realize, of course, that this work is a synthesis. It is not intended as a sophisticated theoretical work--although something taking a post-modern approach to the subject would be quite interesting. It is, instead, a narrative that seeks to create a unified discussion of the rise of the American and Soviet rocket states. That rise, as the authors show, had long antecedents going back to the very earliest years of the twentieth century in both nations and a sophisticated technological base that allowed that longstanding vision to become reality. The authors also do a credible job of explaining the development of the Soviet Sputnik and the American Vanguard and Explorer programs. These represented the major elements of the "first space race" suggested in the title. While there is little new in this discussion the authors do a good job of bringing together salient elements from a wealth of serious historical writing on the subject in the last decade. This represents the best narrative available synthesizing this story.

Before Apollo, there was Sputnik; and the events leading to the first satellites were no less dramatic than the race to land on the Moon. This fascinating account captures the world's first space race which ignited humanity's expansion into space.

The First Space Race is the inside story of the efforts to launch the world's first artificial satellite into space. While it was the following competition to land humans on the Moon which later dominated the history books, less material has been published about the events which led to that fateful day when people around the world were able to capture the beeping transmission of Sputnik in common HAM radios. The launching of a spacecraft into orbit - a feat theorized since the 16th century but never before accomplished - had profound implications to governments and people all over the globe.
The book starts its narrative in the time of Kepler and Newton, and then quickly progresses to the early efforts of German, Russian, and American rocket pioneers. It then follows the migration of German rocket scientists to both sides of the Iron Curtain after World War II, and describes the efforts within both the USSR and the USA to achieve orbital spaceflight with a wealth of detail. Not only is it clear that the authors collected a tremendous amount of source material - the foreword is written by none other than James van Allen - but in addition to facts, the book includes fascinating accounts of many historical characters. Reading how James Oberg describes the Baikonur launch complex as so desolate it is "a human settlement halfway into outer space", or how Werner von Braun proclaims that "we've firmly established our foothold in space; we will never give it up again" the story becomes one of people and characters; you can almost smell the acrid fumes of rocket-fuel coming of the pages. My favorite quote was that of rocket engineer Kurt Stehling describing the ill-fated TV-3 Vanguard rocket igniting with a "heart-rending, hoarse, whining moan like that of some antediluvian beast in birth pain". This isn't a story of esoteric rocket science theorized in pristine laboratories; it's a story of get-your-hands-dirty engineering with real people who sweat, cry, fear, err, learn, escape prisons, fight ridicule, overcome bureaucracy, and through it all never lose sight of their dreams to reach beyond planet Earth.

Aside from transporting the reader to the exciting days of humanity's first attempts at spaceflight, it also has some - still surprisingly relevant - lessons to offer. A Newsweek reporter is quoted summing up the reaction of the American public to the launch of Sputnik as follows: "There is a vague feeling that we have stepped into a new era, but people aren't discussing it the way they are football or the Asian flu." Sound familiar? Or how about Werner von Brauns complaint of "I believe something drastic must be done to raise the status of scientists in the public eye of this country," followed by his assessment that the Soviet Union had been consistently more successful in educating the next generation of young scientists and engineers. Reading these lines, comparisons with today's US / China relations are almost inescapable. However, there are positive parallels as well: considering the building momentum of commercial spaceflight entrepreneurship growing around the globe today, it's encouraging to read how the author's conclude in the final chapter that the projects which started it all had the common theme of "improvisation and the willingness to ignore proper procedure".

Whether you are a contemporary space professional trying to learn from these early pioneers, or simply a space enthusiast at heart who enjoys reading about other's who share the dream, this title definitely deserves a place on your bookshelf.