The Rocket Team: Apogee Books Space Series 36 (Hardcover)

by Frederick I. Ordway III (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"A must-have edition to space flight libraries... the DVD is certainly recommended..." -- Spaceflight, December 2003. "Here is a deep, detailed and thoroughly involving history of the early days of rocket flight through to Skylab in the early 1970s. Never less than fascinating... ...to anyone interested in the history of space flight, this is esential reading...a gold mine of new information." -- The Observatory, June 2004. Reviewed in Telescopium, Journal of the Swedish Astronomical Society, Summer 2004.

Product Description
Traveling to the Moon and the planets beyond has moved from the world of dreamers and Buck Rogers to the factual terrain of the daily papers and television news shows. This book tells the story of the men who did so much to make the impossible a reality.

From a small group of amateur rocketeers led by Wernher von Braun, his rocket team grew into one of the most influential technological forces in this or any other century.

Starting in the early 1930's with rockets whose flights were measured in feet (when they got off the ground at all), within two dozen years the von Braun team added a new dimension to warfare with the 200-mile-range V-2 bombardment missile. After World War II, the same team created the first long-range ballistic missiles for the U.S.: They worked on the Explorer program that resulted in the first American satellite to orbit the Earth. And within the decade they developed and built the huge 363-foot-tall Saturn rocket that fulfilled von Braun's life-long dream of sending man to the Moon.

The Rocket Team discloses much previously classified information, particularly involving the British intelligence effort to learn about Hitler's heralded V1 and V2 "vengeance weapons"; to delay their going into action and to minimize their effectiveness once they were developed. The U.S. and British documents, as well as information from von Braun himself, his papers, and interviews with the other members of his team, provide new insights into the wartime growth of rocketry.

For Germany, the effort was remarkable: the V-2 program costing some $3 billion - half again as much as the American Manhattan project t develop the atomic bomb. The conditions under which the team had to operate were severe. Constant Allied bombings disrupted supply lines and forced manufacturing operations underground.

Internally, the V-2 program was disrupted by Hitler's on-again, off-again attitude and Himmler's attempt to gain control of it. At one point von Braun himself was arrested by the SS!

Despite such obstacles, the scientists and engineers on the teaam refined and developed their work to the point that, when they arranged their surrender to the Americans at the end of World War II, von Braun announced that he had a rocket on the drawing board that could fly from Germany to New York. Little wonder, then, that the rivalry was so keen between the U.S., Russia, and Britain to gain the services of the von Braun group after the war. The Rocket Team tells how the men were brought to the U.S., and established first at White Sands, N.M., and then at Huntsville, Ala., where many of the team members continue to live. Included, too is a revealing chapter on the development of postwar Soviet rocketry, based on the work of the members of the von Braun team who chose to go East instead of West.

The Rocket Team is the only complete, authoritative history of the von Braun group. It is a fascinating account of how the future began - a significant contribution to the history of World War II as well as to the history of science and technology.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 328 pages
• Publisher: Collector's Guide Publishing, Inc.; Har/DVD edition (September 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1894959000
• ISBN-13: 978-1894959001
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.7 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,343,638 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This is item 36 in The Apogee Books Space Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good history, poor editing, December 14, 2003

By	Jan Vanderbruggen (Heverlee, Belgium) - See all my reviews

The author provides an interesting insider's view of von Braun's rocket team. However, the book suffers from poor editing: names of cities in Germany and Belgium are quite simply incorrect. It also seems to me that the measurements of the missiles mentioned in the book cannot possibly be correct; they are given as metric, but are no doubt recalculations of English engineering units. The results are ludicrous. Range of the A4 is given as a convenient conversion of miles; engine diameter is a conversion of 1 foot, etc. If you are interested in a good read you will find lots of hard to find historical anecdotes in this book, but for me the story is spoiled and seriously flawed due to the aforementioned inconsistencies. Unfortunately this is not atypical for these kinds of histories. Some serious editing required!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book, April 1, 2005

By	M. DeFazio (VA, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book gives an accurate account of the Development of one of Germany's secret weapond in the second world war, the V-2 rocket, from the Germans scientist's point of view that developed it. It accurately describes the experiments, the tests and shows what the scientists behind Germany's V-2 rocket program were really like.

I recommend this book to all that are intrested in the seeds of space travel or World War Two.

4.0 out of 5 stars great historical account of the development of the V-2, March 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Rocket Team (Hardcover)

This book is a retrospective account of the development of the V-2 rocket in Germany during the second world war at Peenemunde by Werner Von Braun and his rocket team. Frederick Ordway draws upon interviews with the engineers and scientists involved, many of whom came to the US under "Project Paperclip" after they were captured by American troops during the end of the war in Europe. The book's attention to detail is excellent, although at times the detailed specifications of the various technologies is why I only give it 4 stars instead of 5.

I first heard about this book in the early days of the net (before the Web when you could read all messages posted to usenet in an afternoon!). It was recommended in the sci.space FAQ as the best treatment of the early days of rocketry that culminated in the V-2 for Germany and became the seed crystal for NASA in the US.

Recommended for all space buffs.