Into That Silent Sea: Trailblazers of the Space Era, 1961-1965

by Francis French, Colin Burgess, Paul Haney (Foreword)

It was a time of bold new technology, historic moments, and international jousting on the final frontier. But it was also a time of human drama, of moments less public but no less dramatic in the lives of those who made the golden age of space flight happen. These are the moments and the lives that Into That Silent Sea captures, a book that tells the intimate stories of the men and women, American and Russian, who made the space race their own and gave the era its compelling character. These pages chronicle a varied and riveting cavalcade of human stories, including a look at Yuri Gagarin’s harrowing childhood in war-ravaged Russia and Alan Shepard’s firm purchase on the American dream. It also examines the controversial career of cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, and the remarkable struggle and ultimate disappointment of her American counterparts. It tries to uncover the truth behind the allegations that shadowed Gus Grissom and Scott Carpenter and then allows the reader to share the heart-stopping suspense of Alexei Leonov’s near-fatal first space walk. Through dozens of interviews and access to Russian and American official documents and family records, the authors bring to life the experiences that shaped the lives of the first astronauts and cosmonauts and forever changed their world and ours. 

Genres: Space, History, Nonfiction, Science, Aviation, Biography

402 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Think of it; those three fuckers up there orbiting that thing."
Deke Slayton

I love space books and there's a lot of them out there to choose from, but I'd never encountered this series before, the University of Nebraska's "Outward Odyssey" series. If the caliber of this book is any indication, than it must be a fine, fine series.
Like I said, there's a shit-ton (an actual astronomical unit) of books on the space age, but this one is a little different, in to key respects that made me like it even more: 1) there is an equal focus on the Soviet space program (the chapters mostly alternate); 2) there is a focus on the "little people" involved in the early years of space exploration.
As far as 1) goes, there is much to fascinate. Gagarin (the first human in space), Tereshkova (the first woman in space), and Leonov (the first crazy fucker to spacewalk) are all featured here with some other less known Vostok and Voskhod missions. These chapters were my favorites because it is something that doesn't get covered often and the writers actually got to sit down with these surviving cosmonauts and rap about their experiences.
2) talks about the Mercury 13, the women who thought they were training for NASA, the nurse who worked with the Mercury 7, some of the lesser known astronauts, heck, even the guy who fished the astronauts out of the sea from splashdown!

[Thom · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most comprehensive look at early space programs for both the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Chapters deal with individual flights, starting with a biography of the principles and ending with their further career accomplishments. It was also fun to read!

I have read articles about Titov or Tereshkova, but this book goes into much more detail than any other source I have found. The authors speculate on the propaganda which has covered up the facts also, though in some cases we may never know more. Interviews were conducted with subjects on both sides of the former iron curtain, giving us an unprecedented look into the space race.

In the last year, I've read The Right Stuff and Gus Grissom's biography, but neither is as useful or interesting. This book is followed by In the Shadow of the Moon: A Challenging Journey to Tranquility, 1965-1969, and both are part of the Outward Odyssey series by the University of Nebraska press.

[Tina · Rating 5 out of 5]

my space nerd heart couldn't put this book down, i especially appreciated the parts on the soviet cosmonauts

[Sugarpuss O'Shea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed learning more about the personalities behind the great space race, but I picked-up this book primarily for the chapter about the Women In Space program. It filled in more pieces of the picture painted in THE MUCURY 13, because it focused on Wally Funk--one of the 12 women who took tests after Jerrie Cobb--rather then focusing on the power play between Cobb & Jackie Cochran..... And after reading about Valentina Tereshkova, who was just used as a propaganda tool, it begs the question..... What's worse? Being shut out of the space program because you were a woman? Or going into space merely to be used as a tool to promote your form of government?

[Brent M · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you like history and the space race between the USA & Russia in the late 50'sand early 60's, this is for you. Great background of the astronauts/cosmonauts and behind the scenes personal stories. The shadow women's program in the USA. Both the Americans and the Russian spacefarers. It takes you from the from Gagarin's first man to orbit earth through the suspenseful first space walk of Leonov. The intrigue of being chosen to fly, the push for propaganda that drove some decisions in Russia. An engaging read.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing stories about the first four years of the space race, deftly alternating between the Soviet cosmonauts (first at just about everything) and the seven Mercury astronauts. The authors focus on the people (with only a touch of technology) and paint a compelling portrait of the brave men and women who first went into space, orbited the Earth, and pushed the limits of science in the process. I can't wait to read the next installment in the series - the race to land on the moon!

[Joao Neto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very comprehensive account of the Mercury, Vostok and Voskhod space programs in the 60s. I was surprised by the amount of detail of the Soviet missions and thoroughly enjoyed learning about Gagarin and Tereshkova's missions and their preparations, the life threatening problem faced by Alexei Leonov's EVA, and the dangers faced by Scott Carpenter on the second Mercury Atlas.

In summary I highly recommend this 3 book series.

[Darrian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating!! While to me the authors tended to go a little too deeply into the details of the cosmonauts’ upbringing and their personal lives, the descriptions of their activities in space and accounts of what they saw and experienced there made up for it. The chapters alternated from the American to Soviet perspective and back again, which made for an interesting read.

[Alec · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good, but lengthy recount of our first space mavericks

Good recount, full of rich anecdotes from both astronauts and cosmonauts from both Nations. The author is very detailed in his anecdotes, sometimes too lengthy. It took a while to finish, but well worth reading.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

weirdly boring

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm still trying to figure out if the news in the days preceding the release of Into That Silent Sea: Trailblazers of the Space Era, 1961-1965 symbolizes irony or progress.[return][return]As the subtitle indicates, the book examines the first efforts by the U.S. and the Soviet Union to put humans into space. One of the areas in which the book excels is reminding us just how hazardous those initial steps were and how they grabbed worldwide attention. The book arrives shortly after the 46th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin becoming the first human to travel into space, an anniversary mentioned at best in passing. In addition, the anniversary came amidst the latest exchange of crew members on the International Space Station. At least in America, that event seems to have drawn attention for one reason -- celebrity Martha Stewart planned a meal for the crew because a billionaire buddy of hers is the latest to pay millions to be a space tourist.[return][return]Does the latter show how far we have come since Gagarin's flight or reflect that the media and public today are more interested in celebrity news than the persistent dangers, difficulties and achievements of space flight?[return][return]Into That Silent Sea is an excellent reminder of just what Gagarin and other trailblazers did and how they became international celebrities in their own right. We seem to have forgotten just how new the frontier of space was. Would merely orbiting the Earth produce harmful and irreversible changes in the human body? Could astronauts or cosmonauts be expected to physically control a spacecraft? What psychological effects would the darkness and isolation of space produce? While the space station allows continued study of the effects of space on humans, questions such as those seem almost naive today. Yet they were important and substantive unknowns during the time period covered by the book.[return][return]Not only does Into That Silent Sea remind us of how primitive our beginnings in space were, it does so by focusing on the astronauts and cosmonauts who risked (and some of whom lost) their lives advancing science. Unlike last year's Space Race , which looked at the entire lunar race largely from the perspective of the heads of the programs, Into That Silent Sea delves into the very first steps into space largely from the viewpoint of the astronaut/cosmonaut. (Co-authors Francis French and Colin Burgess are working on a follow-up book covering the programs from 1965 through 1969.) Although there is at times a formulaic feel to the chapter structures, we learn about the personal lives and families, the training and the missions of each of the astronauts and cosmonauts who ventured into space in those first years. Their backgrounds reveal not only what helped make them pioneers, but differences between the U.S. and Soviet programs.[return][return]Balance of review at http://prairieprogressive.com/2007/04...

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great but brief history of the first space program for the United States and Russia. For the U.S., it outlines the history of the “Mercury” program with astronauts Alan Shepard, Gus Grissom, John Glenn, Wally Shirra, Scott Carpenter, Deke Slayton, and Gordo Cooper. I have heard much of what I’ve read here through various documentaries for the most part but what the book improves upon is not only the Russian half of the early space race – which I had yet to read about – but also the personal aspects the astronauts encountered along with some technicality thrown in. It did seem like the book jumped around a lot but you didn’t find yourself losing where they were going in the end. It’s amazing how much information they could pack into this book on roughly 4 years of space history. Other parts of the book went earlier and later than 1961-1965 but for the most part covered the Vostok/Voskhod missions for the Russians and the Mercury missions for the Americans.

It also covered the as important but not often lauded about story of the women that tried to get into the space program. I found it fascinating how much crap these women had to go through only to find out they weren’t going up any time soon. Mostly that I did not know there was actually an embargo on woman test pilots that caused a good chunk of the hesitance towards putting women into space. I think down the road it would have been great to have the first woman into space having been an American, but just as they beat us with the first man/human in space, Russia has won on this front as well.

This has kindled my interest in the next few books in the series as well as others written by Colin Burgess, Francis French, and unrelated writers about the topics that were mentioned somewhat briefly in the pages of this book. I would have to say my favorite part to read was about the astronauts I had not heard as much about such as Scott Carpenter and Gordo Cooper. And while I liked the Russian bits, it didn’t have as much of a strong flow as the U.S. bits did. Not anything the writers did wrong, but more of the fact that everything was as it was in Russia. Very secretive and very coordinated. A little chaos makes a good reading and NASA has bred much chaos long before we had accidents that took human lives… The Russians would beat us to that, too, but I think I can speak for all of humanity when I say I wish neither of us had won out on that front.

My rating for this book is 4.5 out of 5 stars.

[J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really excellent book, entertaining, informative, and well-paced. I have to say, too, that this is one of the best designed covers I've seen for one of these "history of space" books (as I've said, I'm a sucker for good book design). The idea to focus on a personal story in the foreground while the history is explored in the background is a really nice approach.
Bear with me, because I think this is VERY important:
I have to say, though, that one chapter fell far below the others, and that was Chapter 7: The Two Wallys. The chapter focuses in on the stories of Mercury astronaut Wally Schirra and female pilot Wally Funk. By now, you will have heard of The Mercury 13 (especially if you're a fan of my reviews). Martha Ackmann's book about the women of the Lovelace tests is really fantastic. It explores the de-facto sexism created by the decision to include only jet test pilots in astronaut candidate pools. Was this done by men sitting around a table, laughing maniacally at how this would keep women out of the program? No. However, it DID create a sex-based barrier, and excluded women based on what Lovelace proved was 100% biologically-essentialist hogwash. Why do I bring this up? Because chapter 7 of French and Burgess' book falls away from the standard of excellence they achieve in the other chapters and instead becomes an argument that no sexism occurred. The old "we would have taken anyone who was qualified, so there was no sexism"-style horsecrap gets recycled. The writing, here, falls to cheap "nun uh" levels of white, male privilege, and it nearly made me out the book down.
Luckily enough, the rest of the book, save one more little cheap shot in the Tereshkova chapter along the same line as above, rises back to a level of excellence.
I recommend it, believe it or not--just skip chapter 7.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow.

This is by far one of the most informative books I have read on the topic of early manned space exploration.

In particular, the chapters on the cosmonauts and their missions was worth it alone. I knew next to nothing about their missions. I was familiar with some of the names and famous firsts, but I learned a lot about the people, their missions and their lives after. Right away when I read the chapter on Yuri Gagarin, I knew I was in for a good book. (In a later chapter, the story about Gherman Titov and barbecue was priceless.) Finding out more about Valentina Tereshkova was something I looked forward to reading about and was rather surprised by some of what I read. I was more familiar with Alexei Leonov, but reading about him provided more details I did not know.

This isn't to dismiss the chapters on the American astronauts. Even if you know the details of the Mercury flights by heart you will find something new here. I particularly was happy to see stories of people like Dee O'Hara and Jim Lewis told here as well. The chapter 'The Two Wallys' was of interest to me as I had read Martha Ackmann's excellent book on the Mercury 13. The chapter provided me with quite a bit of food for thought.

This book, despite not being very large, took me awhile to read because it is a very dense book. There is a lot to take in, but it is a very rewarding experience to read. I also look forward to reading the other books in this series.

[Cristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cruising along in the Outward Odyssey series - I considered myself familiar with the history of early manned spaceflight, but did not know how much I was missing until I finished this book. Portions that stood out for me were clarifications on Gus Grissom's "hatch-blowing incident" (things were, in reality, most definitely not what we saw in the movie version of The Right Stuff), stories of the Mercury 13 (women who had undergone independent testing similar to that of the Mercury astronauts, many fully believing they would go on to become Mercury astronauts, themselves), and a detailed look into the Russian side of the race to space. The authors share original research and stories from astronauts and cosmonauts that remind us that spaceflight is not only an amazing feat of technology and engineering, but something that inspires us as humans to keep exploring.

[brian andrews · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives the history to the pioneers of space flight, American and Russian trailblazzers who flew into the sky and observed the stars. You seen them on the television documentaries, Apollo13 and other films. Learn about their lives, families, joining the respective miltary services, training and challenges to be come astronauts / cosmonauts venturing into space and their lives post being space wanders. The book illustrates the technologies behind the space race, driven to surpass the achievements of the 'other', learn what made the space programs work and in somecases fail.

Chapters rotate between USA and Russian exploits in the space race, I found the stories of the Russian more interesting, perhaps that it was the first time to read in detail their exploits in achieving space travel.

[Scott Kardel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Into That Silent Sea brings the reader engaging tales of those who first ventured into space. This book, more than any other I've read on the era, synthesizes what the astronauts/cosmonauts and the other major players involved in the early years of U.S. & Soviet space programs were doing and feeling. Their stories, and those of others that never made their own voyages into space are recounted wonderfully. The authors wove together a great array of sources, from personal interviews to many other accounts, in bringing it all together.

I highly recommend this book for everyone interested in the history of the space program.

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gave a good combination of both Russian and American history related to the early space programs for both countries. The information is also provided for the most part in chronological order which is helpful. I have read many books on the history of NASA (Mercury, Gemini, Apollo for the most part) and this book offered interesting information I had not read before in other accounts. I highly recommend this book for anyone who likes learning about the general history of space exploration.

[R.J. Southworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even as a space buff, I learned a lot of new info from this book: it covers early manned space flights, both American and Soviet, from Vostok 1 to Voskhod 2, going into detail about both the missions and the people who flew them. There are all sorts of interesting background stories, such as a chapter dedicated to the Mercury 13, female pilots who underwent astronaut physical training for scientific purposes and subsequently made a case for actually flying into space. Highly recommended.

[Brent · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book because it told not only the stories of the American Astronauts but also the Soviet Cosmonauts. The authors are definitely space nerds, I have met both, and I can tell it through this book. The nice thing about the book is that it does not hit you over the head with specs about rockets but rather tells the stories of the people.

[Smh624 · Rating 5 out of 5]

I grew up near the Johnson Space Center and NASA and the space programs were a big part of my childhood. I thought I knew a lot about Project Mercury but this excellent book greatly increased my knowledge especially regarding the Soviet space program. I'm looking forward to the next two volumes in the series.

[Craig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great look at the early astronauts and cosmonauts in the U.S. and U.S.S.R. with particular insight into the lesser-known Russian trailblazers. Full of fascinating details and chronologically does a better job than The Right Stuff at looking at the important Mercury missions.

[Mike Ringtone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sigh. I would like to go to space now, please.

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating read about the pioneers of space flight

[Ken Hamner · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I’ve read. Outstanding. Highly recommended.