The First Space Race: Launching the World’s First Satellites (Volume 8)

Centennial of Flight Series

by Matt Bille, Erika Lishock, James Alfred van Allen (Foreword)

The First Space Race reveals the inside story of an epic adventure with world-altering stakes. From 1955 to 1958, American and Soviet engineers battled to capture the world’s imagination by successfully launching the world’s first satellite. The race to orbit featured two American teams led by rival services—the Army and the Navy—and a Soviet effort so secret that few even knew it existed. This race ushered in the Space Age with a saga of science, politics, technology, engineering, and human dreams.

Before 1955, the concept of an artificial satellite had been demonstrated only on paper. The first nation to transform theory into practice would gain advantages in science, the Cold War propaganda contest, and the military balance of power. Visionaries such as America’s Wernher von Braun and Russia’s Sergey Korolev knew these fields of endeavor would be affected by the launch of a satellite. Moved by patriotism, inquisitiveness, and pride, people on both sides of the Iron Curtain put forth heroic efforts to make that first satellite possible.

Some aspects of this story, like the Navy’s NOTSNIK satellite project, are almost unknown. Even some details of well-known programs, such as the appearance of America’s pioneering Explorer 1 satellite and the contributions made by its rival, Project Vanguard, are generally misremembered. In this book, authors Matt Bille and Erika Lishock tell the whole story of the first space race. They trace the tale from the origins of spaceflight theory and through the military and political events that engendered the all-out efforts needed to turn dreams into reality and thus shape the modern world.

Genres: Science

232 pages, Paperback

First published August 8, 2004

About the author

I'm a writer, naturalist, and historian living in Colorado Springs. I'm a former Air Force officer and have a career in consulting to feed my writing habit (and my family, of course). I published my first book in 1995 and claim an all-time persistence award: the fantasy Raven's Quest, originally submitted to a publisher in 1983, made it to print in 2018. I'm a longtime aficionado of space exploration, paleontology, zoology, cryptozoology, and several other things. I have a collection of figures, toys, and models of the Devonian-era armored Dunkelosteus terrelli and maintain a FaceBook site for this scary-cool predator. I wrote about it in Prehistoric Times (Summer 2018) and am bringing it to life in fiction as well.

I'm also https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...

Reviews

[Cherei · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a must read for anyone who dreams of the day mankind will eventually get off of this rock and populate the heavens. It's amazing how those who dreamed of the first rockets even though separated by distance, countries and culture.. were amazingly so close in the same scientific parallels in their development of the first rockets.

I did not realize that the USA, USSR and Germany were all using the same scientific works of one man. Just think how much further along we'd be if we could take the politicians out of the mix and make REAL science something that would actually benefit mankind. Sadly, most developments that were bought and paid for by governments are driven by the military needs.. not the need to ensure the survival of our species.

I learned a great deal of history that I was completely unaware of.. and learned the background stories of many of the bits and pieces that I already knew. This book is not geared towards any one country or government.. but, instead.. puts all of the father's of rocketry into a good light. I knew about Von Braun.. what I didn't know.. was how carefully guarded he was by the USA government once he settled here. To think, we almost lost him.. when he married. It does make you wonder.. how many others were lost to Siberian prisons that weren't as well known.

An excellent read! It does leave you chuckling about how little equipment was actually inside of Sputnik. (as most of it was battery). As one who has traveled to many museums that touch upon mankind's desire to take us as a species into unknown worlds.. this is literally Rocketry 101! And, a must for any space enthusiast!

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

This excellent addition to books on space history is devoted to the effort to launch the first satellites. Some of this information is usually included with other books on space history, but only as a chapter or two. It was quite nice to have this book devoted entirely to the subject of the early satellites. The book covers the major players and programs of the era. You get great detail on the Russian program that turned into Sputnik, the Vanguard program, Explorer program and the (usually never heard of) NOTSNIK program. You get a good sense of how much politics affected these early programs, especially on the American side. I would recommend this to anyone looking for information on the earliest satellite launches, or any space enthusiast. Definitely a worthwhile read.