An encyclopedic history of space exploration by an insider and
veteran reporter who has lost nothing in his enthusiasm and respect
for what humankind has wrought. But he tells it like it is, which
means constant rivalry that pitted the air force against the CIA
for control of spy satellites and saw the Department Of Defense
turn apoplectic with the anointing of a new civilian space agency,
NASA, born in 1958. Stir into this brew the science-driven egos at
Jet Propulsion Laboratory at Caltech and the rocket boys at
Huntsville who were led by the indomitable Wernher von Braun. Now
add the critical ingredient: the Cold War and nuclear threat and
the loss of face that came with Sputnik and Gagarin. To counter
that threat and restore a nation's pride, Kennedy's promise to put
a man on the moon before the end of the '60s and explore "this new
ocean" was well-nigh inevitable. It also meant that science for
science's sake would take a backseat to realpolitik and the media.
Burrows chronicles the events in authoritative if often over-rich
detail, but he is enough of a fine reporter to lace the narrative
with juicy quotes. When Air Force Chief of Staff Curtis LeMay was
told of a plan to built a rocket plane to fly into orbit, he
reportedly had only one question: "Where's the bomb bay?" Burrows
is also not one to overlook the peccadilloes of the original Right
Stuff Seven (excepting Glenn). Because of the separate tracks of
the manned space program versus the planetary fly-bys and the need
to cover Russian as well as American activities in these areas,
there is some back-tracking and redundancy in the chronologies, and
there are oft-repeated sermons on the disasters of life and science
under Communism. But overall, this is likely to be the bible for
those tracking a unique period in Earth history - the "first" space
age as Burrows terms it. (Kirkus Reviews)
It was all part of man's greatest adventure--landing men on the Moon and sending a rover to Mars, finally seeing the edge of the universe and the birth of stars, and launching planetary explorers across the solar system to Neptune and beyond.
The ancient dream of breaking gravity's hold and taking to space became a reality only because of the intense cold-war rivalry between the superpowers, with towering geniuses like Wernher von Braun and Sergei Korolyov shelving dreams of space travel and instead developing rockets for ballistic missiles and space spectaculars. Now that Russian archives are open and thousands of formerly top-secret U.S. documents are declassified, an often startling new picture of the space age emerges:
the frantic effort by the Soviet Union to beat the United States to the Moon was doomed from the beginning by gross inefficiency and by infighting so treacherous that Winston Churchill likened it to "dogs fighting under a carpet";
there was more than science behind the United States' suggestion that satellites be launched during the International Geophysical Year, and in one crucial respect, Sputnik was a godsend to Washington;
the hundred-odd German V-2s that provided the vital start to the U.S. missile and space programs legally belonged to the Soviet Union and were spirited to the United States in a derring-do operation worthy of a spy thriller;
despite NASA's claim that it was a civilian agency, it had an intimate relationship with the military at the outset and still does--a distinction the Soviet Union never pretended to make;
constant efforts to portray astronauts and cosmonauts as "Boy Scouts" were often contradicted by reality;
the Apollo missions to the Moon may have been an unexcelled political triumph and feat of exploration, but they also created a headache for the space agency that lingers to this day.
This New Ocean is based on 175 interviews with Russian and American scientists and engineers; on archival documents, including formerly top-secret National Intelligence Estimates and spy satellite pictures; and on nearly three decades of reporting. The impressive result is this fascinating story--the first comprehensive account--of the space age. Here are the strategists and war planners; engineers and scientists; politicians and industrialists; astronauts and cosmonauts; science fiction writers and journalists; and plain, ordinary, unabashed dreamers who wanted to transcend gravity's shackles for the ultimate ride. The story is written from the perspective of a witness who was present at the beginning and who has seen the conclusion of the first space age and the start of the second.
From the Hardcover edition.
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