Ten Books on Astronautics
This list originated "thanks to" several overview topics on the "Astronautics" blog. Habr's love for everything cosmic led to the fact that even a frankly delusional stream of thoughts written by Shlyakhtich was taken by many at face value - and this is not the only (albeit most flagrant) example of what I'm trying to say.
Once Habr is a party of techies, people who are usually critical thinkers, this is a matter of lack of information. Therefore, I began to prepare a list of references telling about the past and present of astronautics. But in the process of preparation I had two difficulties.
First: I am only a fan of everything cosmic, and my opinion about the quality of literature is only my opinion, which can be challenged.
Second: in spite of the considerable number of books I have read, an even greater number of them remain behind, depriving me of the full review.
I tried to solve both of these difficulties by appealing to the addition and discussion of the LJ user list ___lin___ (the link leads to his LJ profile, where you can read about who he is and what is famous for). ___lin___ did not refuse to help, for which he thanks to space. I highly recommend to get acquainted with his project “The Great Coding” , dedicated to the digitization of rare books on near-cosmic topics.
')
Now the actual list.
This work has been repeatedly mentioned in the topics and comments, as a must-read for absolutely any fan of astronautics. It was mentioned not in vain: “Rockets and People” - a real literary monument of the USSR space program, created by a direct participant in all events. Boris Yevseyevich took part literally in every step of this program, ranging from the organization of the Soviet-German Rocket Institute "Rabe" to the launch of "Energia" - and his book gives us a unique chance to look at events from the first person. Plus, the books are written very fascinatingly and can be easily read even by an untrained person.
But the most important thing is that, being a technocrat, Chertok is very critical of various speculation, and tries to give only confirmed facts without making unreasonable conclusions. So, say, without giving an unequivocal answer to the question “Why we did not fly to the moon,” he cites a lot of information, adding up which the reader will make a conclusion on his own.
“Hidden Space” - posthumously published diaries of one of the first Heroes of the Soviet Union, Nikolai Petrovich Kamanin. In the 60s, Kamanin supervised the training of astronauts, and later also served as Assistant Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force for Space.
Unlike Chertok's books, these are diaries, not memoirs. Not rethinking, but thoughts recorded immediately after the events. The wrong side of the ceremonial cosmonautics of the 60s, mutual relations in the detachment, projects that were not destined to come to fruition, “dizziness from success” of the early 60s (“we will soon fly to the Moon, as we are going to the cottage now”), organizational miscalculations, dozens of marshals, generals and ministers who have their own indisputable opinion on each issue ... For this "chronicle" it is perfectly traceable how, when, what and why the USSR began to lag behind the United States, how the "lunar race" was lost.
A well-known publicist, journalist and space fan Yaroslav Golovanov, in fact, wrote a biography of the great designer, which he was going to, but Sergey Pavlovich himself could not write. Meeting with Korolev himself, the people of his environment, collecting and analyzing information from all available sources, bit by bit, Golovanov tries to create a portrait of Korolev not only as a genius who opened humanity to a new era, but also as an individual, far from ordinary, but still human. The book gives an understanding of the motives that prompted Korolyov to take this or that decision: where it can be confirmed - all conclusions are confirmed by documents or records of eyewitnesses; where you can only indicate the probability - provides a thorough analysis of all events, allowing such a probability to withdraw. Facts and myths are put to the title of the book for a reason - even the most flattering and pleasant events that did not actually occur, are referred to as fictional in the book - for example, it was concluded that Korolev’s famous meeting with Tsiolkovsky as if providing some continuity is a myth. Korolev and Tsiolkovsky did meet, but not there and not in the way that Sergei Pavlovich himself would have liked, perhaps.
The book contains a very large amount of unique photographic material, and, despite the smaller “technical” orientation, it is also definitely recommended for everyone to read.
In the Russian edition of the book they assigned a much more “catchy” name “V-2. Super-weapon of the Third Reich ". Naturally, the V-2 was not a “super-weapon”, and the book tells why.
Dornberger himself was the organizer of the working group of rocket engineers, and the immediate supervisor of Werner von Braun. On the technical side, the book is rather superficial, but some technically interesting facts are mentioned. But there is a lot of interesting information about the organization of production at Mittelwerk (only Dornberger prefers to keep silent about the slave force), and the most interesting is the description of interaction with the top management of Germany. It turns out that the bureaucratic mess was even there and then. In essence, Dornberger shifts personally the responsibility for the late work on the program to the fascist ministers and Hitler personally. They say that at first Hitler did not see any prospects for weapons, and when the project was given a green light, it was too late. And then the promising production began to pull down on themselves various ministers and generals, which in no way was work for the benefit. It also speaks of the banal short-sightedness of the military - they say, by the beginning of the war rocket planters could rivet jet planes and faustpatrons, but nobody wanted them.
This three-volume book may not be the most fascinating reading (after all, not journalism), but there are more stories and facts, and everything is described in the smallest details. The first volume describing the period from 1946 to 1996 is especially recommended for study.
This is a detailed history of the glorious (and not so) years of a great corporation. The story of the appearance of the Gagarin "Vostok", variants of the lunar expeditions developed in the 70-80s (after defeat in the "lunar race"). How the "Union" appeared and what Korolev planned in the 60s. Anti-satellite weapons and combat stations ... There is simply no more detailed description of the history of "Energy".
It is important to understand that the history of cosmonautics from Soviet books is only the tip of the iceberg, and in this folio for the first time almost the whole truth is revealed.
This classic book is an illustrated story about history, modernity (at the time of writing) and the future of astronautics. A glance from abroad, translated in the mid-80s (which is why Gagarin "still" sits in the descent vehicle, and the H-1 and the Soviet lunar manned program are completely absent).
Very interesting chapters on the pioneers of cosmonautics, on the lunar program "Apollo", told a separate story about the origin in the west of "pragmatic space" - communication, meteorological, remote sensing satellites. A slightly outdated chapter on how NASA’s future was seen in the 70s — it becomes clear from it that the shuttle was supposed to work as part of a whole system of orbital tugboats, flying mass collectors, orbital stations. Alas, both these plans and the plans of the Martian expedition of von Braun (about it, too, are told in the book) were postponed for a long time.
The distant future is perhaps not to find a book in Russian where the prospects for cosmonautics are painted in such detail and with beautiful illustrations (solar power stations, O'Neil colonies, interstellar probes) - except in the children's book “You should build starships” (but much is copied there as times from the "Space Technology" Gatland).
The two volumes describe the life of the RSC Energia through the eyes of the developer and the head of one of the areas (Syromyatnikov, as you might guess, dealt with the docking nodes). A lot of "bytovuhi" (this book is valuable), from which you can learn about the realities of the 70s-80s and even the 90s.
The first volume is almost entirely devoted to activities prior to the Soyuz-Apollo project, the development of androgynous-peripheral docking stations, and visits to the USA. The second volume is a detailed history of the assembly of “The World,” including stories about the misery of our space program of the 90s. It becomes clear that the United States actually saved our manned space then.
The books are peculiar, everyday stories in them are replaced by a detailed description of the equipment (with drawings!).
"Stories about the docking" allow you to delve into the history of the enterprise and look at it through the eyes of a direct participant in the events.
Alexander Zheleznyakov is an engineer and a journalist working for space and writing about space. Despite the fact that someone scolds his books for being secondary, I still dare to include “Secrets” in the list. This book, as the name implies, is dedicated to the different criticality of accidents that occurred throughout the history of rocket science known to mankind, and, fortunately, this is not another “work” in which most of it is devoted to Apollo 13, and the smaller to the failures of Soviet programs that were hidden by evil authorities. No newspaper jaundice, not even the mentioned Apollo accident, is given so much attention. Much more is given information about accidents in which there was no immediate danger to people: the most interesting information about launches (and accidents) of satellites with nuclear reactors, problems of interplanetary stations, history of the development of spacecraft and stations with meticulous analysis of minor deviations from the norm - in general everything that somehow was not heard. Since the book is relatively modern (2004), it also covers accidents of the Soyuz-TMA ships, and, of course, the death of the Challenger and Columbia.
There is a lot of information in the book (with some surprise I found out that I didn’t know about some accidents - I didn’t even suspect that they could happen) and it was interesting to explain it.
And, finally, two encyclopedias:
The first detailed encyclopedia of cosmonautics, published in the USSR. Everything (except for secret projects and the lunar program) that can be found out about this area of ​​human activity is collected from books in this encyclopedia. It should be read (scroll through, reading the articles) at least three times - before reading all the other books (much will be incomprehensible, but something will be remembered), while reading (figuring out incomprehensible terms and delving into technical details) and after (to understand that then they hid, how they distorted history and marvel at the Soviet ability without telling to hide the truth).
This edition is a comprehensive encyclopedia of manned space flight, describing all human flights into space, in chronological order, from the first Gagarin flight, up to the ISS. It is worth noting that the IPC also tells about little-known unrealized projects, such as, for example, the Chelomeevsky fly-around of the moon LK-1.
The book is beautifully told about the work on the Moon of the Apollo expeditions, in detail all (at the time the book was published) the flights of the shuttle.
All the stories are equipped with beautiful photographs and illustrations, and it is simply impossible to find a book about manned cosmonautics better and more accurate.
This, of course, even close is not a complete list of excellent books that can be read on the topic, and the list can be increased by two and three times (which I propose to do in the comments). But to make an intelligible idea of ​​how cosmonautics appeared, how it developed in the USSR, and why now everything is so and not otherwise possible from these books.
Once Habr is a party of techies, people who are usually critical thinkers, this is a matter of lack of information. Therefore, I began to prepare a list of references telling about the past and present of astronautics. But in the process of preparation I had two difficulties.
First: I am only a fan of everything cosmic, and my opinion about the quality of literature is only my opinion, which can be challenged.
Second: in spite of the considerable number of books I have read, an even greater number of them remain behind, depriving me of the full review.
I tried to solve both of these difficulties by appealing to the addition and discussion of the LJ user list ___lin___ (the link leads to his LJ profile, where you can read about who he is and what is famous for). ___lin___ did not refuse to help, for which he thanks to space. I highly recommend to get acquainted with his project “The Great Coding” , dedicated to the digitization of rare books on near-cosmic topics.
')
Now the actual list.
Boris Evseevich Chertok. “Rockets and People”, a monograph in four volumes.
This work has been repeatedly mentioned in the topics and comments, as a must-read for absolutely any fan of astronautics. It was mentioned not in vain: “Rockets and People” - a real literary monument of the USSR space program, created by a direct participant in all events. Boris Yevseyevich took part literally in every step of this program, ranging from the organization of the Soviet-German Rocket Institute "Rabe" to the launch of "Energia" - and his book gives us a unique chance to look at events from the first person. Plus, the books are written very fascinatingly and can be easily read even by an untrained person.
But the most important thing is that, being a technocrat, Chertok is very critical of various speculation, and tries to give only confirmed facts without making unreasonable conclusions. So, say, without giving an unequivocal answer to the question “Why we did not fly to the moon,” he cites a lot of information, adding up which the reader will make a conclusion on his own.
Quotes from the book:
The tense situation in the room of the technical management defused the unexpectedly coming Kerimov.
- As a chairman of the State Commission, I received a serious warning from Moscow. The Central Committee reported that we called the Zarya orbital station. This may offend the Chinese, who allegedly have already announced preparations for the launch of their new rocket, which we were called Zorya before. What do we do? Repaint?
- Why repaint? No one in our DOS will take pictures in space, but for a TASS message we’ll come up with a new name, I suggested.
Which one Someone suggested - "Salute". Everyone liked it. So there was a series of orbital stations under the general name "Salute".
Suddenly, Kirillov said:
“Today Chertok and I are allowed to break the“ dry law ”. We celebrate the tenth anniversary of the salvation of the human race.
Everyone looked at me inquiringly. I was confused and also could not remember myself as the savior of the human race.
“You all have a short memory,” Kirilov chuckled. - Exactly ten years ago, I received an order to install an R-7A rocket with a warhead at the launch position No. 1 and prepare it for launch by a team that could have come from Moscow. To put a combat missile, it was necessary to remove from launch a missile prepared for launching to Mars. This is how our interests intertwined with Chertok. He wanted to launch a rocket to Mars, and I was ordered to prepare a launch across America. Thank God, Khrushchev and Kennedy agreed. We then celebrated this event nicely. Now it would not be bad to remember.
Nikolai Kamanin. "Hidden Space".
“Hidden Space” - posthumously published diaries of one of the first Heroes of the Soviet Union, Nikolai Petrovich Kamanin. In the 60s, Kamanin supervised the training of astronauts, and later also served as Assistant Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force for Space.
Unlike Chertok's books, these are diaries, not memoirs. Not rethinking, but thoughts recorded immediately after the events. The wrong side of the ceremonial cosmonautics of the 60s, mutual relations in the detachment, projects that were not destined to come to fruition, “dizziness from success” of the early 60s (“we will soon fly to the Moon, as we are going to the cottage now”), organizational miscalculations, dozens of marshals, generals and ministers who have their own indisputable opinion on each issue ... For this "chronicle" it is perfectly traceable how, when, what and why the USSR began to lag behind the United States, how the "lunar race" was lost.
Quotes from the book:
In addition to combat missiles for the navy, Chelomey has a well-developed “weaving” missile (UR-100 - Ed.), The UR-200 performed well (nine starts), the UR-500 rocket (four launches with “Protons "), The UR-500K rocket is being tested, which will have to launch L-1 ships weighing 19 tons into orbit. On the basis of the UR-500 and the "weave", Chelomey developed a draft of the UR-700 rocket, which was approved by the IOM expert commission, but there is no decision on its construction yet. The country has already spent hundreds of millions of rubles on the construction of the Korolev's brainchild - the N-1 missiles, and now our leaders are not going to build the UR-700 in parallel with the N-1. The American Saturn-5 rocket will launch 130 kilometers into orbit at an altitude of 200 kilometers, 130 tons, our H-1–95 tons rocket, and the UR-700 rocket is capable of lifting 145 tons. By almost all indicators, the UR-700 is better than the Saturn-5 and significantly better than the N-1 rocket. The H-1 rocket was conceived 5–6 years ago and it’s quite natural that its design and design data is worse than that of the UR-700, but it’s impossible to stop the development of the H-1 - it must be completed. It is possible that the H-1 rocket will be honored to deliver the first people to the moon, but now it is clear that further modernization of the H-1 is impossible - you need to create a new, more powerful rocket.
Today, the “D” block has not turned on again, and we cannot send L-1 to the Moon. On this ship, there is an automatic machine, which, after turning on the acceleration engine (block “D”), shoots down a stabilizing device. When launching the second ship L-1, it was decided to turn off this machine gun and use block “D” two times: when placed into orbit and to disperse to the Moon. The order to turn off the machine gun was given personally by Tulin, but due to Mishin’s negligence it was not executed: the ship went into space with the machine gun turned on and, naturally, it worked after turning on the “D” block when placed into orbit.
The reason for the breakdown of this flight to the Moon was the gross error of Mishin and his assistants. Tyulin was infuriated and when talking to Mishin on the phone (Mishin in Evpatoria), he was rude to him, calling him m ... ohm. In the evening, Tyulin was still “boiling” and, telling me about unpleasant conversations with his superiors (Ustinov, Smirnov), gave Mishin a murderous, but true, characteristic: “Silly turkey. Honor has five times more than the Queen’s, and ten times less skill. ”
Yaroslav Golovanov. "Korolev: facts and myths."
A well-known publicist, journalist and space fan Yaroslav Golovanov, in fact, wrote a biography of the great designer, which he was going to, but Sergey Pavlovich himself could not write. Meeting with Korolev himself, the people of his environment, collecting and analyzing information from all available sources, bit by bit, Golovanov tries to create a portrait of Korolev not only as a genius who opened humanity to a new era, but also as an individual, far from ordinary, but still human. The book gives an understanding of the motives that prompted Korolyov to take this or that decision: where it can be confirmed - all conclusions are confirmed by documents or records of eyewitnesses; where you can only indicate the probability - provides a thorough analysis of all events, allowing such a probability to withdraw. Facts and myths are put to the title of the book for a reason - even the most flattering and pleasant events that did not actually occur, are referred to as fictional in the book - for example, it was concluded that Korolev’s famous meeting with Tsiolkovsky as if providing some continuity is a myth. Korolev and Tsiolkovsky did meet, but not there and not in the way that Sergei Pavlovich himself would have liked, perhaps.
The book contains a very large amount of unique photographic material, and, despite the smaller “technical” orientation, it is also definitely recommended for everyone to read.
Quotes from the book:
Korolyov told more than once that after his release from the camp he was late for the last ship going from Magadan to Vladivostok and added that this was a sign of fate, because the ship sank.
At that time, the Kulu, Dzhurma, Indigirka, Dalstroy, Nikolay Yezhov steamers worked on the Nagayeva-Vtoriya Rechka line, which transported prisoners. Korolev meant "Indigirka". But according to the documents, he arrived in Magadan no later than November 29, and the "Indigirka" went on its last flight on December 13. Then what prevented Sergei Pavlovich from getting on the doomed ship? One way or another, loading into the holds 1064 convicts who were sent from Nagaevo Bay to gossip, Indigirka in the storm strait of Laperuz strayed off course and sat on the rocks off the coast of the Japanese island of Hokkaido. Water poured into the holds, but the commander of the convoy forbade the opening of hatches, condemning people to certain death. Two members of the ship’s crew were also killed. The rest of the sailors and the convoy Japanese rescuers removed from the "Indigirka" and helped them to return to Vladivostok. Captain Lapshin was shot. The convoy commander received eight years in prison. The Japanese were told that there were fishermen in the holds. Rescuers removed the dead bodies and buried them on the shore of the Japanese island.
Overcoming innumerable technical and organizational obstacles, Korolev, on October 10, is conducting the first launch of the R-1 rocket. In less than a month, eight more missiles are launched. The results are more than modest. The military do not hide their discontent. The conflict between Ustinov and Yakovlev ripens and finally bursts at the meeting described by Stalin. Skepticism poisons the officers' minds of numerous inspectors from Yakovlev. Without concealing, defiantly glancing at the Moscow engineers, they say:
- Yes, if our brigade would give all that alcohol that we pour into it, we would have blown any city apart without any rocket ...
The alcohol really was excellent, because it was not supplied from somewhere, but from the capital, from the First Moscow Distillery ...
Walter Dornberger. “V-2. The Nazi Rocket Weapon »
In the Russian edition of the book they assigned a much more “catchy” name “V-2. Super-weapon of the Third Reich ". Naturally, the V-2 was not a “super-weapon”, and the book tells why.
Dornberger himself was the organizer of the working group of rocket engineers, and the immediate supervisor of Werner von Braun. On the technical side, the book is rather superficial, but some technically interesting facts are mentioned. But there is a lot of interesting information about the organization of production at Mittelwerk (only Dornberger prefers to keep silent about the slave force), and the most interesting is the description of interaction with the top management of Germany. It turns out that the bureaucratic mess was even there and then. In essence, Dornberger shifts personally the responsibility for the late work on the program to the fascist ministers and Hitler personally. They say that at first Hitler did not see any prospects for weapons, and when the project was given a green light, it was too late. And then the promising production began to pull down on themselves various ministers and generals, which in no way was work for the benefit. It also speaks of the banal short-sightedness of the military - they say, by the beginning of the war rocket planters could rivet jet planes and faustpatrons, but nobody wanted them.
Quotes from the book:
A recent technician draftsman in Kummersdorf suggested using graphite gas rudders instead of expensive molybdenum ones. Dr. Thiel accepted the offer and conducted several successful tests. The price for a set of steering wheels decreased from 150 marks to 1.5 marks, and graphite was put on the "A-5".
In March 1939, Hitler first became acquainted with our works on the creation of a liquid-fuel rocket. He arrived at the experimental station in Kummersdorf on a damp, cold day, when the sky was covered with low clouds, and raindrops were dripping from the wet pines. He was accompanied by von Brauchitsch and Becker. When I imagined before the station at the large wooden hangar, I immediately got the impression that his thoughts were wandering far away from here. Shaking my hand, he looked through me. His tawny face with the wrong nose, small black mustaches and thin lips showed no interest in what we were showing him. When I spoke, he stared at me. I did not understand if my words reached him. In any case, he was the only visitor who listened without asking any questions.
We walked to the old test bench, where we witnessed the verification of the rocket engine with a weight of 295 kilograms. Included horizontal combustion chamber. There was a hoarse roar, a narrow bluish jet of burning fuel struck, and in its blinding glow all colors died out and the outlines of surrounding objects were clearly outlined. The sound wave broke in the ears, although there were cotton swabs in them. But the face of the Fuhrer has not changed. He did not say a word during the next demonstration, when he saw the operation of a vertically located engine, which developed a thrust of 1000 kilograms. Hitler watched the test, standing behind a protective wall at a distance of only 9 meters.
On the way to one of the assembly towers at test stand number 3, I told him about our work in PeenemĂĽnde and the results we achieved. The leader of the German people walked alongside, looking straight ahead and not saying a word.
The history of RSC Energia from 1946 to 2011.
This three-volume book may not be the most fascinating reading (after all, not journalism), but there are more stories and facts, and everything is described in the smallest details. The first volume describing the period from 1946 to 1996 is especially recommended for study.
This is a detailed history of the glorious (and not so) years of a great corporation. The story of the appearance of the Gagarin "Vostok", variants of the lunar expeditions developed in the 70-80s (after defeat in the "lunar race"). How the "Union" appeared and what Korolev planned in the 60s. Anti-satellite weapons and combat stations ... There is simply no more detailed description of the history of "Energy".
It is important to understand that the history of cosmonautics from Soviet books is only the tip of the iceberg, and in this folio for the first time almost the whole truth is revealed.
Kenneth Gatland. "Space Technology".
This classic book is an illustrated story about history, modernity (at the time of writing) and the future of astronautics. A glance from abroad, translated in the mid-80s (which is why Gagarin "still" sits in the descent vehicle, and the H-1 and the Soviet lunar manned program are completely absent).
Very interesting chapters on the pioneers of cosmonautics, on the lunar program "Apollo", told a separate story about the origin in the west of "pragmatic space" - communication, meteorological, remote sensing satellites. A slightly outdated chapter on how NASA’s future was seen in the 70s — it becomes clear from it that the shuttle was supposed to work as part of a whole system of orbital tugboats, flying mass collectors, orbital stations. Alas, both these plans and the plans of the Martian expedition of von Braun (about it, too, are told in the book) were postponed for a long time.
The distant future is perhaps not to find a book in Russian where the prospects for cosmonautics are painted in such detail and with beautiful illustrations (solar power stations, O'Neil colonies, interstellar probes) - except in the children's book “You should build starships” (but much is copied there as times from the "Space Technology" Gatland).
Vladimir Syromyatnikov. "100 stories about docking and other adventures in space and on earth."
The two volumes describe the life of the RSC Energia through the eyes of the developer and the head of one of the areas (Syromyatnikov, as you might guess, dealt with the docking nodes). A lot of "bytovuhi" (this book is valuable), from which you can learn about the realities of the 70s-80s and even the 90s.
The first volume is almost entirely devoted to activities prior to the Soyuz-Apollo project, the development of androgynous-peripheral docking stations, and visits to the USA. The second volume is a detailed history of the assembly of “The World,” including stories about the misery of our space program of the 90s. It becomes clear that the United States actually saved our manned space then.
The books are peculiar, everyday stories in them are replaced by a detailed description of the equipment (with drawings!).
"Stories about the docking" allow you to delve into the history of the enterprise and look at it through the eyes of a direct participant in the events.
Quotes from the book:
The first manned flight on Gemini-3, which continued, as on the Mercury, only three turns, almost coincided with the release of A. Leonov into outer space. The Americans responded to this our next achievement in their own way, with a “four-floor mate”: “Damn it, these Russians again (... those damned Russians! Follow the options of four-letter words ....)”. We went around them at the last moment so many times that one can understand the emotions of ambitious American men.
The space crane's arrow (in technical documents it was called the “cargo boom”), deployed almost 15 meters, really impressed everyone who saw it for the first time on the monitor screens in the MCC and in the evening in the Vremya program of the Central Television of the then Soviet Union . The picture became even more impressive when Manarov, the first space “crane operator”, in accordance with the best traditions of real experimenters of all times and peoples in various fields of science, decided to carry out tests on himself. He became the first cargo when, having reached the very end, he asked his commander to activate the turning mechanisms.
Alexander Zheleznyakov. “Secrets of missile catastrophes. The fee for a breakthrough in space "
Alexander Zheleznyakov is an engineer and a journalist working for space and writing about space. Despite the fact that someone scolds his books for being secondary, I still dare to include “Secrets” in the list. This book, as the name implies, is dedicated to the different criticality of accidents that occurred throughout the history of rocket science known to mankind, and, fortunately, this is not another “work” in which most of it is devoted to Apollo 13, and the smaller to the failures of Soviet programs that were hidden by evil authorities. No newspaper jaundice, not even the mentioned Apollo accident, is given so much attention. Much more is given information about accidents in which there was no immediate danger to people: the most interesting information about launches (and accidents) of satellites with nuclear reactors, problems of interplanetary stations, history of the development of spacecraft and stations with meticulous analysis of minor deviations from the norm - in general everything that somehow was not heard. Since the book is relatively modern (2004), it also covers accidents of the Soyuz-TMA ships, and, of course, the death of the Challenger and Columbia.
There is a lot of information in the book (with some surprise I found out that I didn’t know about some accidents - I didn’t even suspect that they could happen) and it was interesting to explain it.
Quotes from the book:
The standard set of equipment that was delivered to the lunar surface during lunar expeditions included the SNAP-27 nuclear generator. If Apollo 13 had completed its program and the astronauts would have visited the lunar surface, then everything would be fine. But the flight turned out to be an emergency one, and the ship returned to Earth in a “complete set”, including equipment dangerous for health. The lunar cabin, where the SNAP-27 was located, was separated at the last moment, before the descent vehicle entered the earth's atmosphere. There also entered the lunar cabin. The fragile structure was almost completely destroyed in dense layers, and unburned microscopic particles of the hull sank in the Pacific Ocean. The generator also collapsed, but the active zone, apparently, withstood the load and completely went to the bottom. I say "apparently", since no traces of radioactive contamination could be found.
Soyuz-21 was launched on July 6, 1976. The flight program was designed for 60 days. The military really wanted to increase the duration of the flight up to 90 days, but the resource of the Union did not allow it. Work at the station was monotonous. It was a reconnaissance flight, and the astronauts had to regularly charge the cameras, show the film. The first month of work on board the complex was held normally. Except for the unpleasant smell in the compartments of the station. The astronauts sinned on the fumes of poisonous fuel that had entered the atmosphere of the station, on the material of the internal plating of the station. This did not affect daily work, although it was annoying.
Trouble began on the 42nd day of flight. Suddenly, the alarm signal roared, the lights went out, and many of the onboard devices went out. The siren was turned off, and the station was overwhelmed by oppressive silence. The crew could not understand what had happened, how serious it was. Every minute all new troubles opened. The air regeneration system did not work. Oxygen was becoming less. The station has lost orientation. But the crew in two hours was able to bring the "Diamond" back to normal.
And, finally, two encyclopedias:
"Cosmonautics", an encyclopedia edited by V.P. Glushko.
The first detailed encyclopedia of cosmonautics, published in the USSR. Everything (except for secret projects and the lunar program) that can be found out about this area of ​​human activity is collected from books in this encyclopedia. It should be read (scroll through, reading the articles) at least three times - before reading all the other books (much will be incomprehensible, but something will be remembered), while reading (figuring out incomprehensible terms and delving into technical details) and after (to understand that then they hid, how they distorted history and marvel at the Soviet ability without telling to hide the truth).
“World Manned Cosmonautics”, encyclopedia edited by Yu. M. Baturin.
This edition is a comprehensive encyclopedia of manned space flight, describing all human flights into space, in chronological order, from the first Gagarin flight, up to the ISS. It is worth noting that the IPC also tells about little-known unrealized projects, such as, for example, the Chelomeevsky fly-around of the moon LK-1.
The book is beautifully told about the work on the Moon of the Apollo expeditions, in detail all (at the time the book was published) the flights of the shuttle.
All the stories are equipped with beautiful photographs and illustrations, and it is simply impossible to find a book about manned cosmonautics better and more accurate.
This, of course, even close is not a complete list of excellent books that can be read on the topic, and the list can be increased by two and three times (which I propose to do in the comments). But to make an intelligible idea of ​​how cosmonautics appeared, how it developed in the USSR, and why now everything is so and not otherwise possible from these books.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/188934/
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