CD-ROM and Book. Celebrating the 40th anniversary of manned spaced flight. For the first time ever available in the West a complete pictorial history of the Russian Space Program from 1946 to the present day all in full colour. On 12 April 1961 Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human into space. To celebrate this momentous event Apogee Books, in conjunction with Rocket and Space Corporation Energia, is proud to present, as part of our critically acclaimed series on space flight, the first book about the Russian Space Programme.
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Review
Review in Astro, the Swedish Amateur Astronomical Society Journal, June 2002.
About the Author
Robert Godwin, Editor
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This volume is interesting for Godwin in that it seems to be an English reprint of a Russian book. However, it is nonetheless fascinating.
The book illustrates the history of Soviet rocketry (with appropriate homage to Korolev, known only to the Russian people as the "Chief Designer") from its very early stages of reworking the V2 design, through the familiar R7`s ballistic missile heritage, and then on through Sputnik, Vostock, Voskhod, Soyuz, Salyut, Mir, etc. This is done through captioned photos, marking it apart from the other text-rich Godwin offerings. There are intersting sections on the lost project to mirror the Shuttle, Buran, and upon the more recent heavy-lift rockets for satellite and space station component launch , of which I (for one) had little knowledge.
The book shows graphically the subterfuge that the Russians were able to work by consistantly relying on the evolution of an existing design to give the impression of spectacular progress. Call a one-man Vostock capsule Voskhod and stick three cosmonauts in it and the world thinks you`re way ahead!
As a 60`s kid, the most gripping part of the book for me was the section focusing on the development of the massive multi-stage N-1, built to challenge Apollo to the moon. We have only seen such pictures recently. It is really amazing that a rocket over 105 metres long was assembled and transported on its side and then erected for launch, all in one piece!
As a counterpart source of info the book is a fine resource, if a little thinner than Godwin`s others. Perhaps the best reaction has been from friends with interest in space who have never seen anything about the Russians hardware and who have been eager to see the differences between it and the familiar kit that the Americans relied upon.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.3 out of 5 stars
6 reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
History of the Russian Space Program in Awesome Photographs
26 Oct 2001
By John R. Keller
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Unlike the NASA Mission Reports published by Apogee Books and edited by Robert Godwin which are loaded with many technical reports, other documents and crew debriefs, this latest entry about the Russian space program contains very little text, but is instead loaded with numerous photographs, technical drawings, cut-away-views, and artist sketches. Also, in contrast to the other Apogee Books publications, this book does not focus on a single aspect of space flight, but on the history of the Russian space program and specifically the Energia Corporation. While some may feel that this book is just another collection of space pictures, it is not. The photographs presented here tell the history of the Russian space program and have been chosen such that they present a great deal of general technical information. If you are interested the history of the Russian space program or the race to land a man on the moon, you can't go wrong purchasing this book.
The book opens with several small sections of text. One section is from the two editors of the book (the English and Russian) and the other section presents a brief history of the Energia Corporation. After this brief introduction, the remainder of the book presents the history of the Russian space program from its earliest days to the present. The picture section begins with the Russian space program after World War II and the use captured German hardware to begin the development of their ballistic missiles. It is quite easy to see that the Russian launch vehicles are direct descendants of the German launch vehicles. The book then moves on to the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, and the manned spaceflight program, which enabled the Russians to put the first person, Yuri Gargarin, into space. After this group of photographs, there are others that cover, planetary exploration, the development of the Soyuz capsule and its derivatives, the Soviet lunar landing program, the Russian space shuttle, Buran and of course to the Mir space station.
I found the sections of the Russian lunar landing program extremely interesting. While its easy to see the parallels between the US and Russian efforts, they developed some noticeable and unique methods to get a cosmonaut to the Moon. Additionally, the parts on the development of the Soyuz family of space vehicles and on the Buran space shuttle were equally engrossing. One interesting facet of the Russian space program that I gleaned from this book is that in the past 55 years the Russians have had only four different leaders.
This book was originally published in Russian by the Energia Corporation and translated into English. Furthermore, the photographs are not some faded Xeroxed pictures, but are high quality prints. I also feel that many of these pictures have never been released to the West or possibly never released at all.
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Long on photos, short on text.
2 Nov 2001
By Jim Kirk
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
As an avid fan of the Godwin/NASA Mission Reports Series, I was somewhat disappointed with this book. I had eagerly looked forward to an in-depth, detail-laden, fact-packed look at RSC Energia, but was dismayed to find that the book only contains approximately 20 pages of text (including the introduction by Godwin). The remaining pages are filled with photos, that are only occasionally placed in chronological order. In addition, what little text there is is very uncritical and reads like a propaganda page, neglecting any mention of the political history of RSC Energia, the impact of the loss of the "moon race" on the organization, the checkered political career or Sergei P. Korolev (who was once interned in a prison in Siberia for political crimes), or the profound social impact the space program had on the average russian citizen. Even more frustrating, despite what Godwin says in the introduction, a great many of the photographs in this book have been previously published in the west, albeit mostly online.
Overall, the book is worth purchasing for those who wish to obtain some high-quality images of Soviet/Russian space hardware, but does little to enhance the understanding of the Soviet/Russian space program. The excellent biography of Korolev by James Harford did a nice job of detailing Korolev's life, but left out many details about the entire space program that this book could have filled in.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Soviet Legacy Of Spaceflight
23 Oct 2001
By Kevin Spoering
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
This is a great book with many excellent colour and black and white photos of the Soviet space program, from it's infancy up to the Mir Space station. Korolev was the Soviet chief of spaceflight and master planner back in the 1960's when the Soviets were trying to beat us to the moon, he was truly a visionary man and a credit to the Russians. The volume here begins with a few pages of text and then continues with page after page of an amazing photo history of the Soviet space program, very well done. What I especially found interesting was the photographs of their giant Saturn 5 class N booster, designed to take cosmonauts to the lunar surface, it was an awesome moon-rocket, a shame really that it was not successful. Everything in Soviet manned space is covered here, there are even pictures and drawings of the never used manned lunar lander. This is a gem of a book, and very reasonably priced.
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4.3 out of 5 stars
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