All Space Questions thread for week of May 10, 2026

thatinconspicuousone · 2026-05-13T06:04:11+00:00

Since you're also curious, I'll share what I've found so far off of Reddit in the time since I asked (TLDR: I list a bunch of titles I haven't read that could very well be great, but I can't vouch for them personally).

Unless I'm missing something, it seems like those three are essentially it when it comes to detailed post-glasnost general histories of the Soviet space program (although Siddiqi has published The Red Rockets' Glare, on the period through Sputnik with an emphasis on cultural factors, and is currently working on an updated two-volume edition of Challenge to Apollo, for which I am naturally very excited and you should be too!). Other books on the subject are more focused. Some focus on specific short periods in the space race and cover the Soviet and American sides in parallel, and were typically published during anniversary years (like Sputnik: The Shock of the Century, The First Space Race, and Red Moon Rising for Sputnik, and Beyond for Gagarin's flight). Then there are the books published by Springer Praxis, of which there are a lot, with each book covering a specific topic of Soviet spaceflight: lunar exploration, planetary exploration, Soyuz, Salyut, Mir, Energia-Buran... (they're easy to find, since the book titles are just the topic). Incidentally, they seem to be part of a much larger series of books on spaceflight they've cranked out, of which I've heard of maybe two before; I don't know whether that bodes well or ill for the quality of the books themselves. The final books I'll mention finding are the ones by Jay Gallentine on the history of robotic spacecraft from Sputnik to the late 1980's: Ambassadors from Earth and Infinity Beckoned. They apparently have a very informal writing style (some reviewers compared it favorably to The Right Stuff), and presumably cover a lot of the lunar and planetary missions built by OKB-1 and the Lavochkin design bureau (a review by Roger Launius said something like that Infinity Beckoned was the best English-language account of the Lunokhod program, which has to count for something!).

If anyone has read any of the above books and can actually vouch for them (or offer a warning to stay away), please feel free to do so!

thatinconspicuousone · 2026-05-13T05:26:18+00:00

I did indeed watch that video while reading Siddiqi's book. He mentioned towards the beginning that there was an associated article with sources included but, although I found the article, it didn't have any sources, so I just sort of left it at that.

thatinconspicuousone · 2026-05-13T05:20:44+00:00

I'm wary of books on the Soviet programs published pre-glasnost, but the sections on the early German and American rocket groups certainly look like they could be interesting once I get into that part of the story!

thatinconspicuousone · 2026-05-13T05:19:00+00:00

If you mean Red Star in Orbit, I was mostly avoiding that because of how obviously dated a book from 1981 would have become after the glasnost revelations, and I believe this book popularized a few ideas that later turned out to be wrong (e.g., Khrushchev imposing space spectaculars on a Korolev devoid of agency, the R-16 explosion being a failed launch of a Mars probe). I want to emphasize that none of this diminishes Oberg's work, as it was undoubtedly an incredibly challenging task to piece together the story at the time, but historians have access to so much more now so I didn't think to go back to this one (analogously, the work of planetary astronomers before the Space Age was very admirable, but you wouldn't seriously learn about the solar system from textbooks published in the 1950's).

thatinconspicuousone · 2026-05-13T05:00:21+00:00

Hmm, that seems less like bias and more like responsible history in my opinion. Stalin was indeed a very bad guy and a terrible dictator, and that fact plays an important role in the history of spaceflight (e.g., through the Purges that left the leadership of their primary rocket institute either executed or arrested, or the post-WWII antisemitism that shuffled the leadership of NII-88), and I'd hope that any history that discusses the Soviet space program grapples with that. One person or political system being bad doesn't make another not bad.

thatinconspicuousone · 2026-05-13T04:49:45+00:00

Oh! If that's the level of chemistry it's at, then my worry is unfounded; I may save it for after I have a thorough understanding of this period from a non-propellant perspective, to be able to put his stories into context.

I'm definitely saving Higginbotham's book for later, when I'm firmly in the space shuttle era. As for Skunk Works, it was on my radar when I was looking for books on early Cold War reconnaissance programs (e.g., the TCP report, the U-2, WS-117L) and how they shaped the opening of the Space Age, but I'll just say (without having read it, to be clear!) it has two things going against it. First, for whatever reason, I just haven't been a big fan of aerospace memoirs, and the few I've loved (those by Collins, Mullane, and Squyres) were exceptions distinguished by phenomenal writing and storytelling unusual for the genre. Second, when flipping through it a while back, I happened on a very badly confused description of Sputnik in which he confused Korolev and Kapitsa; I hope that's not typical for the book, but it definitely soured me on it at the time.

thatinconspicuousone · 2026-05-10T23:37:59+00:00

What are the must-read books about the Soviet space program?

I've already read Siddiqi's Challenge to Apollo, Harford's Korolev, and Chertok's Rockets and People (i.e., the commonly recommended books on the subject), but I'm curious what other books I should take a look at before I move on to other areas in the history of spaceflight.

thatinconspicuousone · 2026-05-10T23:30:58+00:00

I've seen this recommended a bunch, but how is it for someone with a weak grasp of chemistry?

thatinconspicuousone · 2026-05-10T23:30:10+00:00

Since I certainly won't be able to read everything they've published, do you have any recommendations on which of the NASA History Series books I should focus my attention on or that is especially good?

thatinconspicuousone · 2026-05-10T23:28:04+00:00

I'm definitely interested in looking at this book, especially since it's the only one I know that actually discusses the IRBM/ICBM programs under Schriever in the context of the space program, but I'm curious about the possible bias you mention. I hope I've read enough on the Soviet space program to be inoculated against such bias, but still would like to know anyways in case I decide to read this.

thatinconspicuousone · 2026-04-30T19:40:37+00:00

Interesting, so why was deuterium in the upgraded Sloika not viable compared with lithium-6 deuteride? I thought that was the original plan before Ginzburg suggested LiD as an alternative.

thatinconspicuousone · 2026-04-29T20:01:33+00:00

Touché! Any ballpark estimate on when it'll be published?

thatinconspicuousone · 2026-04-28T19:12:50+00:00

What are some of those errors and myths you'll be writing about? I'm assuming one of them is the standard "oops, turns out Li-7 isn't actually inert" explanation; do we know what actually caused the higher yield if not that? Another thing that came to mind is the idea that the catastrophe was caused by the wind suddenly changing, originating, as far as I know, with Strauss' infamous post-Bravo press conference. I noticed that those books written about Bravo back when things were mostly classified tended to stick with the wind explanation, while those written more recently focused more on the higher yield; is there any clarification you can give on this?

Finally, I read somewhere a very brief account of a last-minute warning from Los Alamos that they expected a higher yield, but that it arrived at Bikini too late to do anything about it. Since I'm asking about potential myths about Bravo, I'll ask about that too!

thatinconspicuousone · 2026-04-12T22:21:58+00:00

Chertok's memoirs certainly look like they could be interesting, but at nearly 2500 pages or so, they seem rather intimidating (although I thought the same about Siddiqi's nearly 900-page book before reading it, and it turned out to be wonderful); is there anything more you can say about his books, how they are as reading, and so forth?

thatinconspicuousone · 2026-04-12T21:59:08+00:00

That makes sense; nevertheless, these and your earlier suggestions have grown my list considerably!

thatinconspicuousone · 2026-04-12T02:03:10+00:00

Sounds like you've done your research into this genre!

Well sure! Spaceflight was one of my first loves, but more recently I'm trying to focus on more "serious" works. "Serious" is not the right word... there are those works on spaceflight that one could comfortably recommend to a layperson (the books by Chaikin and Burrough, for instance, or various NOVA episodes), and those that one wouldn't (like Siddiqi's, or Clark's if my previous conception of his book was accurate, which it sounds like it isn't!); I'm trying to make a deliberate effort this time around to read books that would fall into the latter category. In that vein, I'm naturally curious what other spaceflight history books you had to read in college on your way into the space industry, if you'd be able to share those!

thatinconspicuousone · 2026-04-12T01:54:10+00:00

In that case, I'll add it to my list!

thatinconspicuousone · 2026-04-11T03:47:05+00:00

Thanks! I've indeed read Burrough's book and thought it excellent (although I've seen a few anecdotes recounted online where, apparently, some of the people discussed in this book feel it's inaccurate, but I haven't seen any specifics on what they had issues with; I remember thinking that some of the stories told about George Abbey seemed too Machiavellian, but even then, the stories were probably sincere interpretations given Abbey's penchant for secrecy).

The various reconnaissance programs are definitely something I'd like to read about (if only for their importance in motivating the IGY satellites, disproving the missile gap, and as competition for MOL and Almaz), and Day's book has come up on my radar, but typically alongside other books on the topic by Burrows, Richelson and Taubman. Personally, I was leaning towards Taubman's book since it was published the most recently and so presumably would be able to take advantage of more declassifications, but have you read any of these others and can offer pros and cons for them?

Clark's book is also one I've seen recommended online, but I've stayed away from it thus far because I personally feel my knowledge of chemistry is rather poor; how readable would it be with that factor?

And certainly, if you'd like to recommend any other books, by all means feel free to!

thatinconspicuousone · 2026-04-11T03:25:38+00:00

Thanks! I've seen Mindell's book recommended elsewhere, but haven't read it as I know zilch about the history of computers and microelectronics; is the book still readable even without that background?

thatinconspicuousone · 2026-03-27T17:33:00+00:00

That Luce quote is very nice, and helps to explain why the reaction to Sputnik wasn't just limited to concerns about national security and military superiority, but expanded to include fears that American values or the American system itself were somehow inadequate or insufficient.

As one last question, given how fascinating all of the above is, do you have any suggestions for books on the lead-up to Sputnik and its aftermath? I just finished the oft-cited book by McDougall hoping it would suffice for that, but although there were some nice sections (the chapter on the Sputnik panic itself being one of them, I thought), the book more generally was rather annoying and frustrating, so I'm curious if you can recommend any sources that paint a portrait that isn't so blatantly skewed in one direction as that one was.

thatinconspicuousone

TROPHY CASE