Book Review: Space Race by Deborah Cadbury

So let's get this out of the way first. The top nugget of knowledge mined from this book is that when Khrushchev did his tour of America in 1960, the Soviet Union timed it so they would launch a satellite in orbit around the moon (a stunning feat at the time) during the trip. When the Soviet space program contacted Khrushchev, he was in Hollywood visiting the set of a musical and complaining about how terrible the movie industry specifically and capitalism in general were to the world. He was scheduled to visit Disneyland the next day, but Eisenhower shut it down and said it would be a security risk.

I mean...didn't they do things just for the comedy effect back then? I mean, can you imagine? What I wouldn't give for a picture of a grumpy Krushchev with his arms folded against a grim gray suit frowning while riding Dumbo. I definitely would have bought that poster in college over Elvis shaking hands with Nixon.

Anyway, Space Race, as you can imagine, tells the story of the space race, from the German scientists in WWII all the way to the race to the moon. It's a very interesting read, especially for those of us who are fascinated by space travel.

The space race for both countries really began in Nazi Germany; while people around the world had experimented with rocketry prior to that, Germany was the first country to see the importance of rocketry to their missile program. Werner von Braun, the future leader of the US space program, was in charge of the scientists developing, building, and launching the V2 missiles against England. As the war was winding down and Allied troops were closing in, the German army moved the scientists around so they would not be captured, and contemplated executing them so they would not fall into enemy hands - von Braun and his scientists had to use cloak-and-dagger methods to escape the German army. After the war officially ended, the scientists had even more scrambling to do to get into American hands, as they and their testing site were within the soon-to-be Soviet zone.

For the American side of the space race, von Braun is obviously the most interesting figure. He felt driven to space all his life, and even when working on the V2 program he spoke often about how he couldn't wait until they could stop working on missiles and start working on space vehicles. He later spearheaded the American space program, proving its value to the government while also designing all the successful rockets right up through the Saturn V. On the other hand...von Braun was a Nazi. Scientists in Germany were not forced or pressured to join the Nazi party, even if they worked for the war effort, but von Braun went one step further: he joined the SS. And this was in the 1930s, before the war started. And this was not just an empty action - during the war, von Braun's V2s were built by enslaved French, Russians, and Germans in inhuman conditions with short life expectancies. Von Braun didn't directly oversee the slave labor force, but he definitely knew it was part of the equation, and made no effort to stop it. As great a height as our space program has reached, there will always be a scar from having it led by a Nazi.

While von Braun led the American space program, Sergei Korolev led the Soviet effort. Korolev had the misfortune of being a leading rocket scientist during the rise of Stalin; being wary of intelligent people, just like many strongmen (and would-be strongmen), Stalin had Korolev thrown in the Gulag.

As Korolev endured six years in a Siberian prison, Stalin was eventually convinced that the USSR needed rocket scientists (again, for missiles - they had to be convinced about the importance of space as well), and someone let him know that they had a brilliant rocket scientist who was currently doing time. Korolev was released, put to work on the Soviet program, and eventually earned the role of "Chief Designer" - although his identity was kept a secret. As Chief Designer, Korolev oversaw a program that had few resources, shoddy equipment, and no money, but was able to beat the US in every achievement all the way up to the moon: first to launch a satellite, first to put a man in orbit, first to put an object in lunar orbit, first to create a space station. Korolev was a nervous wreck with a drinking problem, and died in 1966 as the US and Russia were both building their moon programs; one of the main reasons the USSR not only lost the race to the moon but also never set foot there at all is because they could not figure out how to work Korolev's N-1 rocket.

Sidebar: I picked this book up specifically because I wanted something to go with watching For All Mankind on Apple TV. For those who watch, remember the scene in season 2 where the one astronaut is locked in the hotel room in Star City, and the old man visits her and and leaves her the knife so she can carve her name on the door? He called himself the Chief Designer. He talks about why being locked in a hotel room doesn't compare to life in the Gulag. That's Sergei Korolev. It's a small moment, but it actually changes the equation of the storyline: The hook had been "What would have happened to NASA if the USSR beat us to the moon?", but that's a pretty broad question and would have relied on a lot of variables to happen. This moment - seeing Korolev alive in 1983 - really narrows the focus - it's "What would have happened to NASA if Sergei Korolev could have handled his stress and drinking?". There is a good possibility that with that one change in one person, the Soviets would have been the first on the moon.

Cadbury does a great job of balancing the narratives of the two space programs. There is obviously a lot to describe (it is, after all, rocket science) and a lot of people to remember, but Cadbury does a great job of pushing through the major themes. This might be a slog for those not interested in the space program, but if you are this is a must-read. Recommended - seven out of ten hot dogs!