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Reaching for the Moon: A Short History of the Space Race
Fifty years after the Moon landing, a new history of the space race explores the lives of both Soviet and American engineers
At the dawn of the space age, technological breakthroughs in Earth orbit flight were both breathtaking feats of ingenuity and disturbances to a delicate global balance of power. In this short book, aerospace historian Roger D. Launius concisely and engagingly explores the driving force of this era: the race to the Moon. Beginning with the launch of Sputnik 1 in October 1957 and closing with the end of the Apollo program in 1972, Launius examines how early space exploration blurred the lines between military and civilian activities, and how key actions led to space firsts as well as crushing failures.
Launius places American and Soviet programs on equal footing—following American aerospace engineers Wernher von Braun and Robert Gilruth, their Soviet counterparts Sergei Korolev and Valentin Glushko, and astronaut Buzz Aldrin and cosmonaut Alexei Leonov—to highlight key actions that led to various successes, failures, and ultimately the American Moon landing.
At the dawn of the space age, technological breakthroughs in Earth orbit flight were both breathtaking feats of ingenuity and disturbances to a delicate global balance of power. In this short book, aerospace historian Roger D. Launius concisely and engagingly explores the driving force of this era: the race to the Moon. Beginning with the launch of Sputnik 1 in October 1957 and closing with the end of the Apollo program in 1972, Launius examines how early space exploration blurred the lines between military and civilian activities, and how key actions led to space firsts as well as crushing failures.
Launius places American and Soviet programs on equal footing—following American aerospace engineers Wernher von Braun and Robert Gilruth, their Soviet counterparts Sergei Korolev and Valentin Glushko, and astronaut Buzz Aldrin and cosmonaut Alexei Leonov—to highlight key actions that led to various successes, failures, and ultimately the American Moon landing.
- GenresNonfictionSpaceScience
256 pages, Hardcover
Published June 25, 2019
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31 people want to read
About the author
Roger D. Launius
46 books5 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 23, 2024
Just finished:
"Reaching for the Moon: A Short History of the Space Race"
By: Roger D. Launius
New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2019.
A small book with a big punch.
The book charts the history of the space rase with the Soviet Union (although the latter denied that there was a competition after the moon landing). The Soviets has initial success due to the efforts of Sergei Korolev and his ability to hold the Soviet rocket bureaucracy together. When he died in 1966, the Soviets were never able to recover (there is a new book called The Wrong Stuff out about the Soviet space program)
While the United States was behind the Soviets up until the mid 1960s, the United States was behind. However, unlike the Soviet Union, the United States had a centralized bureaucracy for the space program (NASA) and the goal of making it to the moon. By the end of the decade, it was clear that the United States won the space race.
That said, I like the insights and analysis the most. Two questions were, was the Apollo program a vanity program. Something grand that wasn't the norm (like the great pyramid). Could the money have been used on more important things at home instead.
However, the best analytical point to me was Kennedy's interactions with Khrushchev. Was Kennedy a hot head when it came to the Soviets (the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis)
1. Kennedy decided to go to the moon in order to gain prestige on the world stage.
2. Kennedy's "tortured background and aggressive tendencies affected his decision making. . ." Which made him to take more combative approaches with the USSR. While it gave him "mystique" it could rise tensions.
3. Kennedy wanted to cooperation with the Soviet Union. Kennedy offered to team up with the Soviet to go into space. Khrushchev turned that offer down.
4. Kennedy was a visionary who wanted to expand the human presence in space.
The author says that the first was the most logical reason.
To conclude, I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in the space race.
"Reaching for the Moon: A Short History of the Space Race"
By: Roger D. Launius
New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2019.
A small book with a big punch.
The book charts the history of the space rase with the Soviet Union (although the latter denied that there was a competition after the moon landing). The Soviets has initial success due to the efforts of Sergei Korolev and his ability to hold the Soviet rocket bureaucracy together. When he died in 1966, the Soviets were never able to recover (there is a new book called The Wrong Stuff out about the Soviet space program)
While the United States was behind the Soviets up until the mid 1960s, the United States was behind. However, unlike the Soviet Union, the United States had a centralized bureaucracy for the space program (NASA) and the goal of making it to the moon. By the end of the decade, it was clear that the United States won the space race.
That said, I like the insights and analysis the most. Two questions were, was the Apollo program a vanity program. Something grand that wasn't the norm (like the great pyramid). Could the money have been used on more important things at home instead.
However, the best analytical point to me was Kennedy's interactions with Khrushchev. Was Kennedy a hot head when it came to the Soviets (the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis)
1. Kennedy decided to go to the moon in order to gain prestige on the world stage.
2. Kennedy's "tortured background and aggressive tendencies affected his decision making. . ." Which made him to take more combative approaches with the USSR. While it gave him "mystique" it could rise tensions.
3. Kennedy wanted to cooperation with the Soviet Union. Kennedy offered to team up with the Soviet to go into space. Khrushchev turned that offer down.
4. Kennedy was a visionary who wanted to expand the human presence in space.
The author says that the first was the most logical reason.
To conclude, I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in the space race.
July 17, 2023
I've read several different histories of Apollo and the space race, and found this one very disappointing. Two particular features stuck out for me:
1. It felt like it had been badly edited - the author repeats himself on several occasions which would have been caught by a good editor.
2. It reads less like a history of what happened as a retrospective sneer at the attitudes of 50 years ago. Everything is interpreted through the lens of 2019 and our modern cultural norms.
I would not recommend this as a starting point for anyone looking to learn about Apollo. It was a shock to see the author is a highly commended NASA historian - I would not have assumed so if this were the only piece of work I sampled. He knows his stuff, so I can only assume he was under the pressure to meet a deadline (Apollo's 50th anniversary).
1. It felt like it had been badly edited - the author repeats himself on several occasions which would have been caught by a good editor.
2. It reads less like a history of what happened as a retrospective sneer at the attitudes of 50 years ago. Everything is interpreted through the lens of 2019 and our modern cultural norms.
I would not recommend this as a starting point for anyone looking to learn about Apollo. It was a shock to see the author is a highly commended NASA historian - I would not have assumed so if this were the only piece of work I sampled. He knows his stuff, so I can only assume he was under the pressure to meet a deadline (Apollo's 50th anniversary).
August 7, 2025
The space race is one of the most fascinating parts of the cold war. For a general overview of the who, when, and where this book does an adequate job of explaining what happened. But it’s missing that feeling of amazement or awe at the accomplishment of scientists and astronauts on both sides. Through the book, but mostly at the end, there is a general air of handwringing over the racial and national background of the men who took us to the moon. Somehow, by the end of the book, I felt as if the author would much rather it not have happened at all.
August 2, 2022
Pretty good short overview of space race. I like his equal focus on American and Soviet space programs.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews