The Russian Space Bluff
London: Tom Stacey Ltd., 1971. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. 192 pages. Illustrations. Maps Index. Ex-library with the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory library markings. Preface by Lord St. Oswald. Foreword by Anatoli Fedoseyev. Part One: The First Sputnik; Part Two: 'Vostok'--the East; Part Three 'Voskhod'--the Rising of the Sun; and Part Four: The Setting of the Sun. Leonid Vladimirov was a department head at a Soviet equivalent of Popular Mechanics magazine, where he introduced his readers to the glory of Soviet science and technology. In 1966, he defected to Great Britain, and since he had no other skills, he began to introduce his readers to the disgrace of Soviet science and technology, in particular space exploration. The R-7 rocket family ("Vostok", "Voskhod", "Soyuz" and so on) is the most mass-produced and the most reliable rocket in the history of space exploration; according to astronautix, by the year 2000 it had been launched over 1628 times, and 97.5% of the launches were successful. Nevertheless, Vladimirov calls this rocket "a very complicated, expensive and inconvenient solution" and spends many pages on its demerits. From the Foreword: It is the great merit of Leonid Vladimirov's book that, for the first time, he provides a complete and convincing explanation of the strange twists and turns of the Soviet space 'programme' and reveals the sad state of Russian science and technology in the field of space research. Condition: Good.
Keywords: Space Science, Space Program Rockets, Cosmonauts, Space Exploration, Sputnik, Korolyov, Yuri Gagarin, Valentine Tereshkova, Voshkod, Alexei Leonov, Vostok, Soyuz, Salt, Luna-16, Lunokhod, Space Station
ISBN: 0854680233
[Book #84063]
Price: $100.00