|
Author
|
Topic: The Wrong Stuff (John Strausbaugh)
|
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 53770
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
|
posted 02-14-2024 01:21 PM
   
The Wrong Stuff: How the Soviet Space Program Crashed and Burned
by John Strausbaugh A witty, deeply researched history of the surprisingly ramshackle Soviet space program, and how its success was more spin than science.In the wake of World War II, with America ascendant and the Soviet Union devastated by the conflict, the Space Race should have been over before it started. But the underdog Soviets scored a series of victories — starting with the 1957 launch of Sputnik and continuing in the years following — that seemed to achieve the impossible. It was proof, it seemed, that the USSR had manpower and collective will that went beyond America's material advantages. They had asserted themselves as a world power. But in "The Wrong Stuff," John Strausbaugh tells a different story. These achievements were amazing, yes, but they were also PR victories as much as scientific ones. The world saw a Potemkin spaceport; the internal facts were much sloppier, less impressive, more dysfunctional. The Soviet supply chain was a disaster, and many of its machines barely worked. The cosmonauts aboard its iconic launch of the Voskhod 1 rocket had to go on a special diet, and take off their space suits, just to fit inside without causing a failure. Soviet scientists, under intense government pressure, had essentially made their rocket out of spit and band aids, and hurried to hide their work as soon as their worldwide demonstration was complete. With a witty eye for detail and a gift for storytelling, John Strausbaugh takes us behind the Iron Curtain, and shows just how little there was to find there. - Hardcover, 272 pages
- PublicAffairs (June 4, 2024)
- ISBN-10: 1541703340
- ISBN-13: 978-1541703346
 |
kyra
Member Posts: 614
From: Louisville CO US
Registered: Aug 2003
|
posted 03-07-2024 11:06 AM
With the retelling of the apocryphal tale of Voskhod-1 (in the original preview Vostok-1) I wonder whether or not this may be a spiced up retelling of the tales of "Russian Space Bluff" by Leonid Vladimirov. I hope there was some original research. While the Soviet space program was done on a shoestring budget in comparison to NASA's budget, the engineering behind the program was very impressive in many areas. (Disclaimer: This is not an endorsement of the current administration of Russia.) |
Axman
Member Posts: 666
From: Derbyshire UK
Registered: Mar 2023
|
posted 01-06-2025 09:17 AM
I've had this on pre-order since the 15th February, but today I received this message from Amazon: Due to a lack of availability, we will not be able to obtain the following item from your order. We've cancelled the item and apologise for the inconvenience. Hmm? Is this just a UK problem or worldwide? Anybody know any retailer who is selling this book? |
PeterO
Member Posts: 461
From: North Carolina
Registered: Mar 2002
|
posted 01-06-2025 11:58 AM
It must be an Amazon UK problem. Blackwell's has it in stock, and bookfinder.com shows that it is readily available from multiple sources. |
Axman
Member Posts: 666
From: Derbyshire UK
Registered: Mar 2023
|
posted 01-06-2025 12:13 PM
Thank you, I shall start shopping tomorrow... |
Axman
Member Posts: 666
From: Derbyshire UK
Registered: Mar 2023
|
posted 01-15-2025 09:28 AM
Well it's taken a while, but I finally managed to get a brand new hardback through my letterbox. No copies were distributed to UK wholesalers, all copies bought in the UK are individual imports from the USA! |
EMU
Member Posts: 14
From:
Registered: Sep 2023
|
posted 01-15-2025 12:05 PM
Interesting title, considering "the wrong stuff" put the first satellite in orbit, the first man in space, uses Sojuz' to sent astronauts to the ISS, etc. and the US only made it to the moon in time due to Nazi rocket-scientists. |
Axman
Member Posts: 666
From: Derbyshire UK
Registered: Mar 2023
|
posted 01-15-2025 12:21 PM
It's post-ironic.Just consider the question, were James Dean, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and J.D. Salinger made of the Right Stuff or the Wrong Stuff? |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 53770
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
|
posted 01-15-2025 12:54 PM
quote:
Originally posted by EMU:
...and the US only made it to the moon in time due to Nazi rocket-scientists.
That's a bit of an oversimplification. Werner von Braun and his team can be credited with putting the first U.S. satellite into space, but by the time the Saturn V came about, it was by a team that encompassed much more than the Project Paperclip members. Just one example (and quoting Wikipedia here for convenience): In the words of flight director Gene Kranz, [American engineer Bill] Tindall "was pretty much the architect for all of the techniques that we used to go down to the surface of the Moon." There's no way of knowing if the Germans had become unavailable that capable American engineers (and others) couldn't have stepped in and built the Apollo architecture on schedule, but is certainly not outside the realm of possibility.As for the Soviets, were it not the infighting between design bureaus, Sergei Korolev may have survived his surgery (to dip into a bit of conspiracy) and ultimately corrected the issues with the N-1. One might call that rivalry "the wrong stuff," just as the U.S. Navy's insistence in using Vanguard likely robbed the United States of being first to place a satellite into orbit. |
advertisement