03/18/2024

This buzzy yet unbalanced account of the Soviet space race from historian Strausbaugh (Victory City) plays on the title of Tom Wolfe’s account of American astronauts, The Right Stuff. Strausbaugh opines that the Soviets—who launched the first man-made satellite, Sputnik, into space in 1957; the first man, Yuri Gagarin, in 1961; and the first woman, Valentina Tereshkova, in 1963—relied on the “wrong stuff.” Drawing from published histories and memoirs (such as Mathew Brzezinski’s Red Moon Rising), he relates a string of near-catastrophes, deadly flukes, and cover-ups. He portrays key players in the Soviet program as hard drinkers with “reckless bravado,” who under unrelenting political pressure sent cosmonauts into orbit with glitchy equipment, and suggests the Soviet government kept its lead in the space race through subterfuge: when the first animal (a dog named Laika) was sent into orbit in 1957, “the Soviets issued false reports was doing fine”; later, when a fire broke out aboard the aging space station Mir, Russian authorities “blandly lied” about how safe the highly flammable oxygen containers were. Though captivating, these anecdotes deserve scrutiny. Strausbaugh relies heavily on secondhand sources and familiar tropes of Russian bravery teetering on madness. He also issues generic criticisms of “a society rotten with corruption and almost guaranteed to underperform,” and underassesses Soviet scientific achievements. Readers earnestly interested in the topic will want to explore elsewhere. (June)

Strausbaugh’s droll sense of humor fits well with this examination of the Soviet space program… [He] clearly enjoyed writing this entertaining book, an accessible, engaging story about an era that, for better or worse, is nearly forgotten.”

05/01/2024

Strausbaugh (Victory City) writes about the foibles, successes, and origins of the Soviet Space program after World War II. That's when the Soviet Union, while victorious over the German army, was in disarray after 27 million soldiers were killed during the war. Amid that tumultuous historical period, engineers and politicians developed the Soviet space program. Strausbaugh's book begins with the story of the flight of Voskhod 1 (also known as Sunshine 1), the first spaceflight that carried more than one crewmember into orbit; three men were aboard that spacecraft. The story of that flight and the political implications behind it will give readers a sense of just how much innovation was present in the Soviet Union during that time. Some audiences might be turned off by the caustic and glib tone that sometimes pervades the book, but the power of the material wins out and makes for fascinating reading. VERDICT Recommended for general readers who enjoy books about spaceflight, engineering innovations, and the politics of engineering.—Amy Lewontin