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Beyond: The Astonishing Story of the First Human to Leave Our Planet and Journey into Space
09.07 am. April 12, 1961. A top secret rocket site in the USSR. A young Russian sits inside a tiny capsule on top of the Soviet Union’s most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile—originally designed to carry a nuclear warhead—and blasts into the skies. His name is Yuri Gagarin. And he is about to make history.
Travelling at almost 18,000 miles per hour—ten times faster than a rifle bullet—Gagarin circles the globe in just 106 minutes. From his windows he sees the earth as nobody has before, crossing a sunset and a sunrise, crossing oceans and continents, witnessing its beauty and its fragility. While his launch begins in total secrecy, within hours of his landing he has become a world celebrity – the first human to leave the planet.
Beyond tells the thrilling story behind that epic flight on its 60th anniversary. It happened at the height of the Cold War as the US and USSR confronted each other across an Iron Curtain. Both superpowers took enormous risks to get a man into space first, the Americans in the full glare of the media, the Soviets under deep cover. Both trained their teams of astronauts to the edges of the endurable. In the end the race between them would come down to the wire.
Drawing on extensive original research and the vivid testimony of eyewitnesses, many of whom have never spoken before, Stephen Walker unpacks secrets that were hidden for decades and takes the reader into the drama of one of humanity’s greatest adventures – to the scientists, engineers and political leaders on both sides, and above all to the American astronauts and their Soviet rivals battling for supremacy in the heavens.
Travelling at almost 18,000 miles per hour—ten times faster than a rifle bullet—Gagarin circles the globe in just 106 minutes. From his windows he sees the earth as nobody has before, crossing a sunset and a sunrise, crossing oceans and continents, witnessing its beauty and its fragility. While his launch begins in total secrecy, within hours of his landing he has become a world celebrity – the first human to leave the planet.
Beyond tells the thrilling story behind that epic flight on its 60th anniversary. It happened at the height of the Cold War as the US and USSR confronted each other across an Iron Curtain. Both superpowers took enormous risks to get a man into space first, the Americans in the full glare of the media, the Soviets under deep cover. Both trained their teams of astronauts to the edges of the endurable. In the end the race between them would come down to the wire.
Drawing on extensive original research and the vivid testimony of eyewitnesses, many of whom have never spoken before, Stephen Walker unpacks secrets that were hidden for decades and takes the reader into the drama of one of humanity’s greatest adventures – to the scientists, engineers and political leaders on both sides, and above all to the American astronauts and their Soviet rivals battling for supremacy in the heavens.
512 pages, ebook
First published April 1, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 168 reviews
February 9, 2023
I have no real interest in anything space related be them non-fiction or fiction so why did I pick this book up? Simple answer. It had great reviews and my word were they correct. This is a thoroughly absorbing and well written book.
We are transported back to 1961 when both the Americans and Russians were trying to figure out a way to get a man into space and not coming back looking like a melted marshmallow. The Russians were being very secretive with their preparations (surprise) while the Americans were far more transparent (ish). The back-and-forth between the two countries is fascinating and intriguing.
The writing and stories just flow so well and it really is edge-of-your-seat stuff even though you know the outcome. On top of the space race there is the cold war which has ramped up to the extreme with the Cuban Missile Crisis.
There is a little more emphasis on the Soviet side of things as they are the ones that ‘won’. We see things through the eyes of Sergei Pavlovich Korolev. The most powerful man in the Soviet space programme. You feel that you know him and Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin very well as you read through the book.
Just wait to you get the story of Ham. The chimp that the Americans put into space. He flew for 16 minutes and went 156 miles above the earth pulling levers in his capsule like no tomorrow. It is quite heart wrenching.
We see the astronauts on the US side and the Cosmonauts on the Soviet side. One of each will be picked to fly to space. Who will it be and ultimately who will be the first that actually does it and will they survive?
I recommend this to anyone and not just nerds who watch Star Trek. It is thrilling and I learnt a lot. Storytelling at its finest.
We are transported back to 1961 when both the Americans and Russians were trying to figure out a way to get a man into space and not coming back looking like a melted marshmallow. The Russians were being very secretive with their preparations (surprise) while the Americans were far more transparent (ish). The back-and-forth between the two countries is fascinating and intriguing.
The writing and stories just flow so well and it really is edge-of-your-seat stuff even though you know the outcome. On top of the space race there is the cold war which has ramped up to the extreme with the Cuban Missile Crisis.
There is a little more emphasis on the Soviet side of things as they are the ones that ‘won’. We see things through the eyes of Sergei Pavlovich Korolev. The most powerful man in the Soviet space programme. You feel that you know him and Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin very well as you read through the book.
Just wait to you get the story of Ham. The chimp that the Americans put into space. He flew for 16 minutes and went 156 miles above the earth pulling levers in his capsule like no tomorrow. It is quite heart wrenching.
We see the astronauts on the US side and the Cosmonauts on the Soviet side. One of each will be picked to fly to space. Who will it be and ultimately who will be the first that actually does it and will they survive?
I recommend this to anyone and not just nerds who watch Star Trek. It is thrilling and I learnt a lot. Storytelling at its finest.
April 16, 2021
Beyond is the thrilling story of man’s first journey into space sixty years ago, the extraordinary solo voyage taken by the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in Vostok 1 on the 12th April 1961. Other books have been written about Yuri Gagarin but in Beyond the author Stephen Walker not only introduces new information gained from the personal interviews he conducted with many of the participants, but he also fixes the voyage of Vostok 1 firmly in time at the height of the Cold War. So, not only do we get to understand the differences between the Soviet and American space programs in terms of their respective approaches to rocket engineering and risk-taking, but also the differing political pressures that were brought to bear on those programs. I have to admit I was first baffled by the inclusion of detail, for instance, on the Cuban Bay of Pigs fiasco until I realised that it helped me to not only place the voyage of Vostok 1 at an important point of history but also to understand the decisions that would soon be taken in the White House in the aftermath of the voyage that would lead to the creation of the Apollo program and the race to put a man on the moon.
Though the engineering problems faced by the Soviet and American space programs never exactly take a back seat, this book is as much, if not more so, about the participants. It is about the similarities and contrasts between the Soviet cosmonauts and American astronauts, between the Soviet leader Khrushchev and American president John F. Kennedy, and between the Soviet rocket designer (and former gulag inmate) Korolev and the American rocket designer (and former Nazi) von Braun. It is about the difficult and moving relationship between Yuri Gagarin, the very young, always smiling, always charismatic, first choice by the Soviet program to take the first flight into space, and his back-up, the much more complicated, Pushkin quoting, Gherman Titov, who would never ever properly come to terms with not being the first man in space. It is also about the difficult and moving relationship between the much more mature and experienced Americans, the first choice, the very complicated Alan Shepard, and his back up John Glenn, the all-American hero.
What really impresses about this book is the quality of the writing, how easy it is to read, how exciting it is to read. Perhaps, this is because Stephen Walker, through the various drafts the book took to write, could never hide his own excitement, his own passion for Yuri Gagarin’s story – and what a story it is. It cannot be said that we are now truly complacent about space flight but it is hard to imagine sixty years on the huge risks that men like Yuri Gagarin – sometimes knowingly, sometimes unknowingly – were willing to take for their country, for the thrill of going where no human has gone before, for the pride to be called the first man in space. This book captures all this, as well as the tragic aftermath, the return from space by Yuri Gagarin to a very different world – a world that saw him as much more than the smiling and very brave young man that he was. He had become a symbol of Soviet prestige, someone that the whole world wanted to touch.
One final comment on this superb book: some readers unfamiliar with space exploration history may find themselves distressed by the often detailed discussions about the animals sent up into space by both the Soviet and American space programs, voyages more often than not that led to the animals’ deaths. However, these stories, though sad, are an important and very often ignored or forgotten part of the history of space exploration, and Stephen Walker gives them all their proper due.
Highly recommended!!
Though the engineering problems faced by the Soviet and American space programs never exactly take a back seat, this book is as much, if not more so, about the participants. It is about the similarities and contrasts between the Soviet cosmonauts and American astronauts, between the Soviet leader Khrushchev and American president John F. Kennedy, and between the Soviet rocket designer (and former gulag inmate) Korolev and the American rocket designer (and former Nazi) von Braun. It is about the difficult and moving relationship between Yuri Gagarin, the very young, always smiling, always charismatic, first choice by the Soviet program to take the first flight into space, and his back-up, the much more complicated, Pushkin quoting, Gherman Titov, who would never ever properly come to terms with not being the first man in space. It is also about the difficult and moving relationship between the much more mature and experienced Americans, the first choice, the very complicated Alan Shepard, and his back up John Glenn, the all-American hero.
What really impresses about this book is the quality of the writing, how easy it is to read, how exciting it is to read. Perhaps, this is because Stephen Walker, through the various drafts the book took to write, could never hide his own excitement, his own passion for Yuri Gagarin’s story – and what a story it is. It cannot be said that we are now truly complacent about space flight but it is hard to imagine sixty years on the huge risks that men like Yuri Gagarin – sometimes knowingly, sometimes unknowingly – were willing to take for their country, for the thrill of going where no human has gone before, for the pride to be called the first man in space. This book captures all this, as well as the tragic aftermath, the return from space by Yuri Gagarin to a very different world – a world that saw him as much more than the smiling and very brave young man that he was. He had become a symbol of Soviet prestige, someone that the whole world wanted to touch.
One final comment on this superb book: some readers unfamiliar with space exploration history may find themselves distressed by the often detailed discussions about the animals sent up into space by both the Soviet and American space programs, voyages more often than not that led to the animals’ deaths. However, these stories, though sad, are an important and very often ignored or forgotten part of the history of space exploration, and Stephen Walker gives them all their proper due.
Highly recommended!!
April 24, 2022
I’ve read a lot of books on the space race between the USA and the USSR. It was very cool to finally read one from the Russian point of view.
The Americans had the Gemini 7, the Russians had the Vanguard 6. The Americans had Wehrner von Braun, the Russians had Sergei Korolev - though the world didn’t know his name until well after his death.
That was the biggest difference in the two countries in the space race - the United States were completely transparent about every plan, every success, every failure, while the Russians never gave out any information unless it was to their benefit - and that’s why there have been so few books about the Russian side.
Fortunately we now have declassified files along with the fantastic (and illegally kept) diary of Nikolai Kaminin, the man who trained the cosmonauts, giving us this book on the flight of the very first man in space.
The name Yuri Gagarin should be up there with Columbus, Vespucci, and Magellan. He did something far more amazing, becoming the very first human to view the earth from space. But his name is somewhat lost to history, American history at least, partially because he was on the enemy team and partially because his achievement was overshadowed by the moon landings a few years later.
A few notes:
- It seems odd to say it, but the reason the Russians had an early lead in the space race was because their tech was so crude. The Americans had more advanced light weight hydrogen bombs, which meant that the rockets needed to lift them were smaller. The Russians had larger hydrogen bombs, so they needed bigger rockets. When the time came to start shooting heavy stuff into space, the Russians were ready.
- The book does a great job of capturing the national mood when Sputnik was launched. On one hand, there was disappointment, but on the other hand Americans were enthralled by it, soaking up all the news they could get. Just like today, it was used as a political tool. A Democratic congressman declared a “National Week of Shame and Danger” as a way of embarrassing President Eisenhower. But the average American didn’t seem to feel shame or danger.
- Wehrner von Braun has always walked an interesting line in American history. Without him there is no American space program, but he was also a Nazi during World War 2. Anytime he appears in space history books he’s kind of balanced with the good and the bad. But the author of this book is British, and he pulls no punches. WVB was, of course, the inventor of the V2 rockets that terrorized London during the war. Interesting to see his story written from a British perspective.
- I had never heard the story of the CIA stealing the Russian lunar probe from a Mexico City exhibit.
- American astronauts piloted their capsules back to earth. Cosmonauts were supposed to be passengers only. But what if the trajectory computer failed? Should cosmonauts be allowed to fly them back manually if necessary? If they were given that opportunity, what if they used that opportunity to defect, and land in the US? The Soviet resolution of this problem was one of the best parts of the book.
- The trajectory tech in the Russian capsules was a little less sophisticated than the American versions. It was always a guessing game where the capsules would end up. So cosmonauts were trained for every possibility. If you land in shark infested waters, remember to smack at the water to keep the sharks away. If you land in a forest, you can shoot at bears. But if you land in Antarctica, remember that shooting at polar bears only makes them angrier.
The Americans had the Gemini 7, the Russians had the Vanguard 6. The Americans had Wehrner von Braun, the Russians had Sergei Korolev - though the world didn’t know his name until well after his death.
That was the biggest difference in the two countries in the space race - the United States were completely transparent about every plan, every success, every failure, while the Russians never gave out any information unless it was to their benefit - and that’s why there have been so few books about the Russian side.
Fortunately we now have declassified files along with the fantastic (and illegally kept) diary of Nikolai Kaminin, the man who trained the cosmonauts, giving us this book on the flight of the very first man in space.
The name Yuri Gagarin should be up there with Columbus, Vespucci, and Magellan. He did something far more amazing, becoming the very first human to view the earth from space. But his name is somewhat lost to history, American history at least, partially because he was on the enemy team and partially because his achievement was overshadowed by the moon landings a few years later.
A few notes:
- It seems odd to say it, but the reason the Russians had an early lead in the space race was because their tech was so crude. The Americans had more advanced light weight hydrogen bombs, which meant that the rockets needed to lift them were smaller. The Russians had larger hydrogen bombs, so they needed bigger rockets. When the time came to start shooting heavy stuff into space, the Russians were ready.
- The book does a great job of capturing the national mood when Sputnik was launched. On one hand, there was disappointment, but on the other hand Americans were enthralled by it, soaking up all the news they could get. Just like today, it was used as a political tool. A Democratic congressman declared a “National Week of Shame and Danger” as a way of embarrassing President Eisenhower. But the average American didn’t seem to feel shame or danger.
- Wehrner von Braun has always walked an interesting line in American history. Without him there is no American space program, but he was also a Nazi during World War 2. Anytime he appears in space history books he’s kind of balanced with the good and the bad. But the author of this book is British, and he pulls no punches. WVB was, of course, the inventor of the V2 rockets that terrorized London during the war. Interesting to see his story written from a British perspective.
- I had never heard the story of the CIA stealing the Russian lunar probe from a Mexico City exhibit.
- American astronauts piloted their capsules back to earth. Cosmonauts were supposed to be passengers only. But what if the trajectory computer failed? Should cosmonauts be allowed to fly them back manually if necessary? If they were given that opportunity, what if they used that opportunity to defect, and land in the US? The Soviet resolution of this problem was one of the best parts of the book.
- The trajectory tech in the Russian capsules was a little less sophisticated than the American versions. It was always a guessing game where the capsules would end up. So cosmonauts were trained for every possibility. If you land in shark infested waters, remember to smack at the water to keep the sharks away. If you land in a forest, you can shoot at bears. But if you land in Antarctica, remember that shooting at polar bears only makes them angrier.
June 30, 2021
This is a really well done behind-the-scenes look at the early space race from both the USA and USSR sides. While the focus seemed to gradually hone in on our hero, Yuri Gagarin, as the book went on, there was a lot of interesting information presented regarding the USA’s Mercury program and the launches and obstacles that led up to it; and a lot of comparing and contrasting NASA operations with that of the Soviets’ Vostok space program. The Russians kept the innerworkings of their space program absolutely secret until the fall of the Soviet Union, thirty years after Gagarin’s flight. The book conveys the high level of pressure put on both space programs to get the first man in space. It was the Cold War and showing that capitalism or communism was the supreme way of life was of utmost importance for the respective nations. And as an American who has closely followed NASA his whole life I found it most interesting to see the space race from a Russian point of view.
Up until Yuri’s famous space flight, I was fascinated with the comparisons of the progress made by the two manned space programs. The Soviets always seemed to be one step ahead of the Americans and more focused, and they preferred to keep their cosmonauts sequestered. Meanwhile, the Americans were putting everything out for the world to see and publicly showing off the Mercury 7 astronauts in the national media. The Soviet space flight finalists were called the Vanguard 6 and they trained in anonymity.
Both countries used a variety of animals for their pre-human space flights. The book covers these launches and the plight of the space animals in detail. The Russians favored dogs while the American favored primates. The book should carry a trigger warning about the suffering some of these animals entailed. Cameras on board showed some of them in distress and the parts describing USA's chimp Ham’s perilous journey aboard the American Redstone rocket was hard to read.
Both countries desperately wanted to put the first man in space, and American leadership didn’t quite know how far along the Russians were so when Gagarin’s capsule was detected orbiting the globe it was an embarrassment for Kennedy and the US space program. This embarrassment along with the Bay of Pigs fiasco really lit a fuse under JFK and inspired him to attempt to win the race once and for all by putting a human on the moon, the goal which he so eloquently announced in his famous Rice University speech. (The 21 minute long speech is on YouTube and is magnificent.)
My favorite parts of the book were the behind-the-scenes look at the early Soviet space program and the life of Yuri Gagarin, subjects I knew little about, and the detailed play-by-play description of Gagarin's famous space flight and peculiar events related to his off-target landing in a plowed field. He instantly became a national hero and international celebrity. The book goes on to tell how the event shaped Gagarin’s life. The last few chapters and epilogue were hard to stop listening to.
Based on the magnitude and difficulty of Gagarin’s flight, and his intelligence, bravery, charisma, good looks, and star power of the day, I’m surprised there hasn’t been a major motion picture made of this event, or of his life for that matter. This was the first human being to travel to outer space. I mean, this guy antagonized Nazis as a pre-teen when his Russian hometown was occupied during WWII. His life is a fascinating story in itself. He went from being an unknown to the most famous person in the world in 108 minutes!
Less than a month after Gagarin's flight, Alan Shepard became the first American in space but his 15 minute flight paled in comparison to the Russian’s 108 minute flight, and Shepard did not even orbit the earth like Gagarin did. In his Mercury capsule, he splashed down in the Atlantic, only 263 miles east of Florida.
I listened to this on Audible and it was expertly narrated by David Rintoul. I will need to track down a copy of the paper book to see the pictures.
Up until Yuri’s famous space flight, I was fascinated with the comparisons of the progress made by the two manned space programs. The Soviets always seemed to be one step ahead of the Americans and more focused, and they preferred to keep their cosmonauts sequestered. Meanwhile, the Americans were putting everything out for the world to see and publicly showing off the Mercury 7 astronauts in the national media. The Soviet space flight finalists were called the Vanguard 6 and they trained in anonymity.
Both countries used a variety of animals for their pre-human space flights. The book covers these launches and the plight of the space animals in detail. The Russians favored dogs while the American favored primates. The book should carry a trigger warning about the suffering some of these animals entailed. Cameras on board showed some of them in distress and the parts describing USA's chimp Ham’s perilous journey aboard the American Redstone rocket was hard to read.
Both countries desperately wanted to put the first man in space, and American leadership didn’t quite know how far along the Russians were so when Gagarin’s capsule was detected orbiting the globe it was an embarrassment for Kennedy and the US space program. This embarrassment along with the Bay of Pigs fiasco really lit a fuse under JFK and inspired him to attempt to win the race once and for all by putting a human on the moon, the goal which he so eloquently announced in his famous Rice University speech. (The 21 minute long speech is on YouTube and is magnificent.)
My favorite parts of the book were the behind-the-scenes look at the early Soviet space program and the life of Yuri Gagarin, subjects I knew little about, and the detailed play-by-play description of Gagarin's famous space flight and peculiar events related to his off-target landing in a plowed field. He instantly became a national hero and international celebrity. The book goes on to tell how the event shaped Gagarin’s life. The last few chapters and epilogue were hard to stop listening to.
Based on the magnitude and difficulty of Gagarin’s flight, and his intelligence, bravery, charisma, good looks, and star power of the day, I’m surprised there hasn’t been a major motion picture made of this event, or of his life for that matter. This was the first human being to travel to outer space. I mean, this guy antagonized Nazis as a pre-teen when his Russian hometown was occupied during WWII. His life is a fascinating story in itself. He went from being an unknown to the most famous person in the world in 108 minutes!
Less than a month after Gagarin's flight, Alan Shepard became the first American in space but his 15 minute flight paled in comparison to the Russian’s 108 minute flight, and Shepard did not even orbit the earth like Gagarin did. In his Mercury capsule, he splashed down in the Atlantic, only 263 miles east of Florida.
I listened to this on Audible and it was expertly narrated by David Rintoul. I will need to track down a copy of the paper book to see the pictures.
October 27, 2023
Das ist das unsachlichste Sachbuch, das ich seit Jahrzehnten gelesen habe.
March 2, 2021
At last, a comprehensive, well written, extensively researched, and exciting account of the early days of the Space Race. Though other books (The Right Stuff for example) have re-counted the exploits of the first astronauts, Beyond gives the reader the full story. The scientists, the dreamers, the engineers, the politicians, and the astronauts/cosmonauts that strove, and competed, and suffered and achieved the first steps toward space exploration. Author Stephen Walker lays out the most complete story to date, especially using relatively newly disclosed Russian information. As a reader, though I knew about the most prominent names and dates, I found myself riveted by the accomplishments of the men of the Mercury Seven and the Vanguard Six programs. I was staggered by the brash, brazen, courageous, insane nature of the race to be the first to send a man into space. Each moment, when so much depended upon little tested (or untested) technology, seemingly at times held together by spit and imagination, amazing things were achieved. From the first steps by dogs, and chimpanzees, and mice into the stratosphere, until Yuri Gagarin flew into space and returned safely, and beyond, Walker manages to keep the reader engaged, nervous, and even uncertain.
Read
June 3, 2021There's probably a useful book somewhere here but the faux folksy style finished me at page 59. Do yourself a favor, avoid this, and read Asif Siddiqi's superb Challenge to Apollo instead.
August 12, 2021
The thrilling story of how we put the first man in space. Well researched. Well written. You could feel you were there as Yuri took off to space strapped on top of his rocket, into the beyond.
April 21, 2021
This is a chunky book but yet I read it in no time. Sounds like a cliche but this book is really hard to put down.
Stephen Walker manages to describe in parallell the US and Soviet efforts and competition when going for the first man in space. Lots of detail but all relevant and never boring. This is also a great lesson in history and loads of other learnings to made as well.
Highly recommended, I consider this book a masterpiece.
Stephen Walker manages to describe in parallell the US and Soviet efforts and competition when going for the first man in space. Lots of detail but all relevant and never boring. This is also a great lesson in history and loads of other learnings to made as well.
Highly recommended, I consider this book a masterpiece.
July 10, 2022
Am 12. April 1961 flog Yuri Gagarin an Bord der Vostok 1 als erster Mensch ins Weltall. Ins All erzählt die Geschichte dieses Ereignisses, die Entstehung der Rakete, das ganze Weltraumrennen im Vorfeld einmal nicht aus der Perspektive der USA mit ihrer Mercury-Rakete, in der Alan Shepard als erster Astronaut sass. Das besondere an diesem Sachbuch ist die Fokussierung auf die Seite der Sowjetunion ohne in die Falle einer verklärenden Hagiographie zu tappen.
Stephen Walker führt seine Erkenntnisse aus einer großen Vielzahl an Originalquellen und vieler eigener Interviews mit Augenzeugen zusammen. Dabei entsteht eine sehr unterhaltsame, aber auch vertrauenswürdige Erzählung, die sich ungemein packend liest. Walker bettet die Erzählung in den Verlauf des Kalten Krieges ein und lässt die Zeit wiederauferstehen.
Am faszinierendsten fand ich die Ausführung der technischen Risiken, unter denen der Flug stattfand. Nach der Lektüre glaubt man eher an ein Wunder, dass der Mensch heil landete, als an eine Meisterleistung. Dabei war Gagarin nur ein besserer Passagier, und die eigentliche Ehre sollte dem Vater des Unternehmens, Sergei Korolev, gehören. Das Buch trägt viel dazu bei, die Rolle dieses Mannes zu erklären und dem Leser nahe zu bringen. Aber auch die Persönlichkeiten der Kosmonauten und Astronauten dieser Zeit werden detailreich geschildert. Nicht zu vergessen sind dabei die Schicksale der Tiere - Schimpansen, Hunde, Mäuse - die den Menschen im All vorangingen.
Ein paar Streichungen von Wiederholungen hätten dem ansonsten ausgezeichneten Text gut getan. Das Buch ist sehr lang und ausführlich, aber ich fand es erstaunlich, wie leicht und schnell es sich liest. Bildteil, ein sehr langes Quellenverzeichnis und Referenzen runden dieses hervorragende Sachbuch ab. Auch Leser, die sonst schon viele Bücher über das Space Race gelesen haben, werden hier viel Neues erfahren! Ich kann das Buch sehr empfehlen.
Stephen Walker führt seine Erkenntnisse aus einer großen Vielzahl an Originalquellen und vieler eigener Interviews mit Augenzeugen zusammen. Dabei entsteht eine sehr unterhaltsame, aber auch vertrauenswürdige Erzählung, die sich ungemein packend liest. Walker bettet die Erzählung in den Verlauf des Kalten Krieges ein und lässt die Zeit wiederauferstehen.
Am faszinierendsten fand ich die Ausführung der technischen Risiken, unter denen der Flug stattfand. Nach der Lektüre glaubt man eher an ein Wunder, dass der Mensch heil landete, als an eine Meisterleistung. Dabei war Gagarin nur ein besserer Passagier, und die eigentliche Ehre sollte dem Vater des Unternehmens, Sergei Korolev, gehören. Das Buch trägt viel dazu bei, die Rolle dieses Mannes zu erklären und dem Leser nahe zu bringen. Aber auch die Persönlichkeiten der Kosmonauten und Astronauten dieser Zeit werden detailreich geschildert. Nicht zu vergessen sind dabei die Schicksale der Tiere - Schimpansen, Hunde, Mäuse - die den Menschen im All vorangingen.
Ein paar Streichungen von Wiederholungen hätten dem ansonsten ausgezeichneten Text gut getan. Das Buch ist sehr lang und ausführlich, aber ich fand es erstaunlich, wie leicht und schnell es sich liest. Bildteil, ein sehr langes Quellenverzeichnis und Referenzen runden dieses hervorragende Sachbuch ab. Auch Leser, die sonst schon viele Bücher über das Space Race gelesen haben, werden hier viel Neues erfahren! Ich kann das Buch sehr empfehlen.
April 16, 2021
Excellent well written book. The author has an easy to writting style which allows the reader to engage with the people in this book on a personal level. There fears and frustration as they pushed the new technology almost to the limit. The courage of these space pioneers Russian and American is shown clearly. The book alternates by chapters between the two groups which works well as it gives you the feel of the race. I started the book and finished it three days later. An amazing read.
June 24, 2022
Sometimes I think I can't possibly learn anything new about the Space race, and then a book like this comes along and teaches me an entirely new perspective of that era.
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This book was completely fascinating and thought-provoking. Incredibly well-researched, it finally gives the soviet cosmonauts the recognition and appreciation they deserve.
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This book was completely fascinating and thought-provoking. Incredibly well-researched, it finally gives the soviet cosmonauts the recognition and appreciation they deserve.
January 6, 2023
This brand-new popular history of Yuri Gagarin is reminiscent of Erik Larson's style. It reads less like a history and more like a novel. All of the dialogue spoken in the book was sourced from recordings, diaries, etc. Most of the book is told from the Soviet perspective, but Mr. Walker includes the American perspective occasionally to provide tension and conflict. Overall, the book is well-researched, entertaining, and easy to read.
I picked "Beyond" up because my father recommended we read a history of space travel from a non-U.S. perspective. Having previously read "A Man on the Moon" by Andrew Chaikin and "Apollo" by Charles Murray and Catherine Bly Cox, I was immediately interested. If "A Man on the Moon" and "Apollo" are stellar (pun intended), "Beyond" is slightly more terrestrial. It is certainly an easier read than either.
The third act was honestly incredible. The narrator picked up the tempo, his voice rising as Gagarin's fateful rocket ride neared. As Gagarin tore into the sky aboard the most powerful rocket in the world (at the time), the narrator's intensity was such that I couldn't help but get excited. It was as if I was aboard Vostok 1, streaking into space at 17,000 miles per hour. The writing and the narration combined to make the moment memorable to someone listening to the story of history made 61 years before.
The final chapter of "Beyond" was a surprisingly somber reading experience. I mourned the early deaths of Gagarin and his fellow pioneers. My heart pined for the space age when the front pages of newspapers around the globe announced new accomplishments like "first human in space" and "first human on the moon." Thankfully, I still have the Artemis II mission to which I can look forward. Until then, books like "Beyond" scratch the itch.
I picked "Beyond" up because my father recommended we read a history of space travel from a non-U.S. perspective. Having previously read "A Man on the Moon" by Andrew Chaikin and "Apollo" by Charles Murray and Catherine Bly Cox, I was immediately interested. If "A Man on the Moon" and "Apollo" are stellar (pun intended), "Beyond" is slightly more terrestrial. It is certainly an easier read than either.
The third act was honestly incredible. The narrator picked up the tempo, his voice rising as Gagarin's fateful rocket ride neared. As Gagarin tore into the sky aboard the most powerful rocket in the world (at the time), the narrator's intensity was such that I couldn't help but get excited. It was as if I was aboard Vostok 1, streaking into space at 17,000 miles per hour. The writing and the narration combined to make the moment memorable to someone listening to the story of history made 61 years before.
The final chapter of "Beyond" was a surprisingly somber reading experience. I mourned the early deaths of Gagarin and his fellow pioneers. My heart pined for the space age when the front pages of newspapers around the globe announced new accomplishments like "first human in space" and "first human on the moon." Thankfully, I still have the Artemis II mission to which I can look forward. Until then, books like "Beyond" scratch the itch.
January 14, 2023
If I had six stars to give, this book would have earned them.
The entire Cold War is wrapped up into this one mesmerizing story.
I had no idea Kennedy’s Bay of Pigs, his sponsorship of the Mission to the Moon, Khruschev’s building of the Berlin Wall, and the 1960s fever pitch of the nuclear arms race and the otherwise prohibitively costly space race shared anything except a tenuous Cold War timeline. It was WAY more. All these major world events of during Cold War and many others are tightly interwoven and weaved into Yuri Gagarin’s frightful 112-min trip once around the globe on 12 April 1961.
Magnificently performed and compellingly written. The story is well known; but most of the details are not. Until this book. The chapters about the launch of the Vostok 1 were white knuckle. Such bravery, so mesmerizing.
A strong recommendation for all who love to learn about history, the Cold War, engineering, international politics, or military history.
6 stars!
The entire Cold War is wrapped up into this one mesmerizing story.
I had no idea Kennedy’s Bay of Pigs, his sponsorship of the Mission to the Moon, Khruschev’s building of the Berlin Wall, and the 1960s fever pitch of the nuclear arms race and the otherwise prohibitively costly space race shared anything except a tenuous Cold War timeline. It was WAY more. All these major world events of during Cold War and many others are tightly interwoven and weaved into Yuri Gagarin’s frightful 112-min trip once around the globe on 12 April 1961.
Magnificently performed and compellingly written. The story is well known; but most of the details are not. Until this book. The chapters about the launch of the Vostok 1 were white knuckle. Such bravery, so mesmerizing.
A strong recommendation for all who love to learn about history, the Cold War, engineering, international politics, or military history.
6 stars!
December 19, 2022
Excellent book about the first man in space, and the events leading up to, and following that feat.
May 30, 2022
An in depth review of a key chapter in the history of the 20th century (and of science, though this is not the focus of this book). The first half is slow moving, but as we approach the actual flight it becomes a gripping tale. The protagonists truly come to life. It was fascinating to go back in time to those first years of the 60s when the Soviet Union appeared to be "winning" in its competition for technological supremacy with the US/the West. But "it's a marathon, not a sprint"... and ultimately democracy + free markets proved economically and technologically superior to the centrally managed autocracy. Perhaps some useful read-across for our tumultuous times...
September 5, 2022
I knew very little about Gagarin’s flight, and it’s not for lack of interest. There are just so little resources available, compared to what’s known about the US side of the space race.
This story is insane. Another one of those delicious “life is stranger than fiction” books.
This story is insane. Another one of those delicious “life is stranger than fiction” books.
April 6, 2021
My thanks to NetGalley and to Harper for an advanced copy of this book.
In Beyond The Astonishing Story of the First Human to Leave Our Planet and Journey into Space, Stephen Walker takes us back to the middle of the Cold War where the Soviet Union and the United States fought for every opportunity to be thought of as superior, be it on the ground, in the press, in the hearts and in the sky.
The Soviets took the lead with Sputnik, but soon both nations were shooting a Noah's ark of animals, dogs, chimpanzees, mice, hoping that with each launch the knowledge gained would aid in being the first nation to escape the Earth's gravity. My favorite parts were about the men of both nations chosen watching animals and dummies being fired into the sky, wishing it were themselves, and knowing that firing another chimp meant the opposition could get ahead and win. Mr. Walker has a great gift of you are there for this moments from his extensive research and interviewing everyone he could, with clear explanations of the science and the politics. The people though really are given their time on the stage a very interesting well written history about a time where science and doing things had a way of uniting people, and how reaching your dream of soaring high might not be worth it in the end.
In Beyond The Astonishing Story of the First Human to Leave Our Planet and Journey into Space, Stephen Walker takes us back to the middle of the Cold War where the Soviet Union and the United States fought for every opportunity to be thought of as superior, be it on the ground, in the press, in the hearts and in the sky.
The Soviets took the lead with Sputnik, but soon both nations were shooting a Noah's ark of animals, dogs, chimpanzees, mice, hoping that with each launch the knowledge gained would aid in being the first nation to escape the Earth's gravity. My favorite parts were about the men of both nations chosen watching animals and dummies being fired into the sky, wishing it were themselves, and knowing that firing another chimp meant the opposition could get ahead and win. Mr. Walker has a great gift of you are there for this moments from his extensive research and interviewing everyone he could, with clear explanations of the science and the politics. The people though really are given their time on the stage a very interesting well written history about a time where science and doing things had a way of uniting people, and how reaching your dream of soaring high might not be worth it in the end.
May 24, 2022
Wie erzählt man die Geschichte einer Raumfahrtnation, die im Wettstreit mit einer anderen raumfahrenden Nation steht? Richtig, die Geschichten, wie die UDSSR und die USA den Weg ins All gingen, sind eng miteinander verwoben.
Vor diesem Hintergrund ist der Untertitel, der die Geschichte vom ersten Flug ins All verspricht, also dem Flug des Russen Juri Gagarin, ein wenig in die Irre führend. Dieses Buch erzählt tatsächlich parallel beide Geschichten, die der Kosmonauten hinter dem Eisernen Vorhang und von den Astronauten in den USA.
Doch während die Geschichte der Mercury Seven, der ersten amerikanischen Astronauten, nahezu auserzählt ist und inzwischen auch schon Gegenstand zahlreicher Filme und Fernsehserien war, blieb die sowjetische Seite des Wettlaufs ins All oft anekdotenhaft. Viele aus amerikanischer Sicht geschriebene Darstellungen des „Space Race“ hangeln sich, sobald es um das Kosmonautenprogramm geht, an Fixpunkten wie dem Sputnik oder der Weltraum-Hündin Laika entlang, bis zum ersten Menschen im All, Juri Gagarin, über den man in der freien Welt – aber auch in der Sowjetunion – nur die Informationen bekam, die der kommunistische Staat sorgsam filterte.
Stephen Walker ist es gelungen – nicht zuletzt weil er ursprünglich für ein nie realisiertes Filmprojekt bislang unbekanntes Filmmaterial in Russland sichten konnte – viele bislang unbekannte Fakten über das sowjetische Raumfahrtprogramm, den Kosmonauten Juri Gagarin, aber auch über Sergei Koroljow, den Gegenspieler von Wernher von Braun, ans Licht zu bringen.
Wer bereits viel über das us-amerikanische Raumfahrtprogramm gelesen hat, wird in den sich abwechselnden Kapiteln, in denen es um die Mercury Seven geht, vielleicht ein wenig gelangweilt sein. Siehe oben: Anders lässt sich die Geschichte der beiden Raumfahrtprogramme, die ihre jeweilige Existenz dem Kampf der Systeme zu verdanken haben, aber auch nicht wirklich erzählen.
Wer wie ich, das Buch als eBook gelesen hat, wird vielleicht enttäuscht sein, dass die eigentliche Geschichte bei 75% endet. Ein Viertel des Buches ist angefüllt mit Referenzen, technischen Erklärungen und einem umfangreichen Bildteil.
Fazit: Von mir gibt es sehr gute vier von fünf Sternen. Der Abzug ist dem Umstand geschuldet, dass die Beschreibung des us-amerikanischen Raumfahrtprogramms keine wirklich neuen Einsichten bringt.
Vor diesem Hintergrund ist der Untertitel, der die Geschichte vom ersten Flug ins All verspricht, also dem Flug des Russen Juri Gagarin, ein wenig in die Irre führend. Dieses Buch erzählt tatsächlich parallel beide Geschichten, die der Kosmonauten hinter dem Eisernen Vorhang und von den Astronauten in den USA.
Doch während die Geschichte der Mercury Seven, der ersten amerikanischen Astronauten, nahezu auserzählt ist und inzwischen auch schon Gegenstand zahlreicher Filme und Fernsehserien war, blieb die sowjetische Seite des Wettlaufs ins All oft anekdotenhaft. Viele aus amerikanischer Sicht geschriebene Darstellungen des „Space Race“ hangeln sich, sobald es um das Kosmonautenprogramm geht, an Fixpunkten wie dem Sputnik oder der Weltraum-Hündin Laika entlang, bis zum ersten Menschen im All, Juri Gagarin, über den man in der freien Welt – aber auch in der Sowjetunion – nur die Informationen bekam, die der kommunistische Staat sorgsam filterte.
Stephen Walker ist es gelungen – nicht zuletzt weil er ursprünglich für ein nie realisiertes Filmprojekt bislang unbekanntes Filmmaterial in Russland sichten konnte – viele bislang unbekannte Fakten über das sowjetische Raumfahrtprogramm, den Kosmonauten Juri Gagarin, aber auch über Sergei Koroljow, den Gegenspieler von Wernher von Braun, ans Licht zu bringen.
Wer bereits viel über das us-amerikanische Raumfahrtprogramm gelesen hat, wird in den sich abwechselnden Kapiteln, in denen es um die Mercury Seven geht, vielleicht ein wenig gelangweilt sein. Siehe oben: Anders lässt sich die Geschichte der beiden Raumfahrtprogramme, die ihre jeweilige Existenz dem Kampf der Systeme zu verdanken haben, aber auch nicht wirklich erzählen.
Wer wie ich, das Buch als eBook gelesen hat, wird vielleicht enttäuscht sein, dass die eigentliche Geschichte bei 75% endet. Ein Viertel des Buches ist angefüllt mit Referenzen, technischen Erklärungen und einem umfangreichen Bildteil.
Fazit: Von mir gibt es sehr gute vier von fünf Sternen. Der Abzug ist dem Umstand geschuldet, dass die Beschreibung des us-amerikanischen Raumfahrtprogramms keine wirklich neuen Einsichten bringt.
August 3, 2021
Fantastic history! Eminently readable, a total page-turner. I learned lots about the Russian space program, and Walker does a good job integrating some well-written and well-curated stories about the American program in as well.
> ‘I got on the project because it will probably be the closest to heaven I’ll ever get,’ he joked, and the room dissolved. Glenn was an instant star.
> approximately one twentieth of the Mercury astronauts’ salaries along with their Life monies. At one point Tamara Titova and two other wives found themselves polishing other people’s floors just to make ends meet. And while Alan Shepard and some of his fellow astronauts were racing their latest-model Corvettes up and down Cocoa Beach, Gagarin and his fellow cosmonauts were taking the bus or train in Chkalovsky. None of them could afford a car.
> ‘The men were doing some very complicated exercises on these trampolines, not up to circus standards, perhaps, but their performance was neat, bold and certain.’
> unlike the Mercury capsule, the Vostok was too heavy to land safely beneath its own parachute with a human inside. The only way for them to get home was therefore to eject from the Vostok in the final minutes of descent and parachute independently to the ground.
> ‘I got on the project because it will probably be the closest to heaven I’ll ever get,’ he joked, and the room dissolved. Glenn was an instant star.
> approximately one twentieth of the Mercury astronauts’ salaries along with their Life monies. At one point Tamara Titova and two other wives found themselves polishing other people’s floors just to make ends meet. And while Alan Shepard and some of his fellow astronauts were racing their latest-model Corvettes up and down Cocoa Beach, Gagarin and his fellow cosmonauts were taking the bus or train in Chkalovsky. None of them could afford a car.
> ‘The men were doing some very complicated exercises on these trampolines, not up to circus standards, perhaps, but their performance was neat, bold and certain.’
> unlike the Mercury capsule, the Vostok was too heavy to land safely beneath its own parachute with a human inside. The only way for them to get home was therefore to eject from the Vostok in the final minutes of descent and parachute independently to the ground.
May 26, 2021
This book is a scintillating page-turner on the first ever human mission to space in 1961. After already having read the author’s book on the 1945 Hiroshima atomic bombing, I knew he was an engaging writer of non-fiction.
However, this book is even better. It gives the reader a real sense of the race between the two sides- the Americans or ‘Gemini Seven’ and the Soviets or the ‘Vanguard Six’. Many of the people involved may not be familiar to Western readers- especially the head of the Soviet space agency and rocket engineer Sergei Korolev.
It is Brilliantly researched as well- the author carried out numerous interviews with surviving members of the Soviet space missions & their relatives. This allows for a fascinating insight into not just the events, but the emotions of the people involved in the Vostok mission. Highly recommended.
However, this book is even better. It gives the reader a real sense of the race between the two sides- the Americans or ‘Gemini Seven’ and the Soviets or the ‘Vanguard Six’. Many of the people involved may not be familiar to Western readers- especially the head of the Soviet space agency and rocket engineer Sergei Korolev.
It is Brilliantly researched as well- the author carried out numerous interviews with surviving members of the Soviet space missions & their relatives. This allows for a fascinating insight into not just the events, but the emotions of the people involved in the Vostok mission. Highly recommended.
June 21, 2022
It's a solid 3.5 for me. The author has done an impressive amount of primary research (interviews, digging through recently opened archives) that allows him to dig into the Soviet side of the Space Race, and contrast the Soviet and US space programs. He does a great job of making the technical details accessible to the lay person. I was fascinated with the Gemini and Apollo space flights growing up. This book gave me the history and context behind those flights.
However, it felt like the author wanted to use every bit of his impressive amount of research, which bogged down the book halfway through as he takes us through every minor activity leading up to Gargarin's flight. Tighter writing and a stronger editor would've made this a 4-star book for me.
However, it felt like the author wanted to use every bit of his impressive amount of research, which bogged down the book halfway through as he takes us through every minor activity leading up to Gargarin's flight. Tighter writing and a stronger editor would've made this a 4-star book for me.
May 6, 2021
This spring marks sixty years of human space flight, which began on a spring morning with the launch of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin into orbit aboard Vostok 1. What led to that historic flight and the launch of American astronaut Alan Shepard weeks later has been the subject of much mythmaking and propaganda in the decades since. Telling the incredible story of Gagarin's flight and the events surrounding it is the new book Beyond by author Stephen Walker.
In telling the story of the first human space flight, Walker takes his readers on a journey through some of the chilliest years of the Cold War. Opening on the morning of Gagarin's launch, the book then makes its way forward, introducing the various figures whose lives and fates intertwined with the launch of Vostok 1. They include Gagarin and the "Chief Designer" of the Soviet space program Sergei Korolev, a victim of the Stalinist gulags now leading the Soviet leg of the space race, with Walker exploring the father-son relationship that sprung up between the two men. There are the witnesses to history, such as the filmmaker Vladimir Suvorov and Gagarin's American rival Shephard, as well as the back-ups to the men vying to be first into space: Gherman Titov and John Glenn. Walker also takes readers into the halls of power in Washington and Moscow, examining the differing views of the space race in these early days and how the events that would follow would reshape the leadership of both John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev. In doing so, Walker presents them as characters worthy of a great novel, men both common and powerful, in places high and low, shaped by and shaping titanic events that will change their world.
That almost novelistic touch extends to the rest of Beyond as well. Drawing on a wealth of new interviews, archival materials, and even the illicit journals of some of the Soviet participants, such as cosmonaut training chief Nikolai Kamanin, Walker also paints such vivid images in words of the events taking place. Whether it's capturing the debates between Korolev and the KGB about carrying a bomb aboard the Vostok should it end up landing outside the Soviet sphere of influence to the arguments inside NASA about how to deal with issues surrounding the Redstone rocket, Walker's prose keeps the book moving. He also engages in some much-needed myth-busting, taking apart the legends and propaganda about how Gagarin became the first cosmonaut to fly, for example, or seeking out the origins of the "phantom cosmonauts" supposedly launched before Gagarin.
All of this building up, of course, to the flight itself. Walker's presentation of the countdown and then Gagarin's 108-minute space flight captures the tension of those moments and the incredible but true details worthy of a Hollywood movie. Who could believe that the first man launched into space spent part of his last minutes on Earth listening to folk songs, or how close he came to death plummeting back down to Earth, say? All presented with an eye for detail, yet also in telling what occurred as accurately as possible. Indeed, those pages covering much of Beyond's last act is a master class of non-fiction writing: engaging, informative, and accessible to even those with a modicum of interest in the topic.
Whether you are interested in the space race or simply seeking a good history read, Beyond comes highly recommended. From a wealth of research to prose worthy of a novel at its best, Walker takes readers back to the days when the roar of rockets could make the world stand in awe as the path to the stars first opened up for humanity. At this moment in time when the stars call to us again, and it seems like more of us might one day make the journey Gagarin first made sixty years ago, Walker's Beyond reminds us of where it all began with one incredible and risky leap into the beyond.
In telling the story of the first human space flight, Walker takes his readers on a journey through some of the chilliest years of the Cold War. Opening on the morning of Gagarin's launch, the book then makes its way forward, introducing the various figures whose lives and fates intertwined with the launch of Vostok 1. They include Gagarin and the "Chief Designer" of the Soviet space program Sergei Korolev, a victim of the Stalinist gulags now leading the Soviet leg of the space race, with Walker exploring the father-son relationship that sprung up between the two men. There are the witnesses to history, such as the filmmaker Vladimir Suvorov and Gagarin's American rival Shephard, as well as the back-ups to the men vying to be first into space: Gherman Titov and John Glenn. Walker also takes readers into the halls of power in Washington and Moscow, examining the differing views of the space race in these early days and how the events that would follow would reshape the leadership of both John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev. In doing so, Walker presents them as characters worthy of a great novel, men both common and powerful, in places high and low, shaped by and shaping titanic events that will change their world.
That almost novelistic touch extends to the rest of Beyond as well. Drawing on a wealth of new interviews, archival materials, and even the illicit journals of some of the Soviet participants, such as cosmonaut training chief Nikolai Kamanin, Walker also paints such vivid images in words of the events taking place. Whether it's capturing the debates between Korolev and the KGB about carrying a bomb aboard the Vostok should it end up landing outside the Soviet sphere of influence to the arguments inside NASA about how to deal with issues surrounding the Redstone rocket, Walker's prose keeps the book moving. He also engages in some much-needed myth-busting, taking apart the legends and propaganda about how Gagarin became the first cosmonaut to fly, for example, or seeking out the origins of the "phantom cosmonauts" supposedly launched before Gagarin.
All of this building up, of course, to the flight itself. Walker's presentation of the countdown and then Gagarin's 108-minute space flight captures the tension of those moments and the incredible but true details worthy of a Hollywood movie. Who could believe that the first man launched into space spent part of his last minutes on Earth listening to folk songs, or how close he came to death plummeting back down to Earth, say? All presented with an eye for detail, yet also in telling what occurred as accurately as possible. Indeed, those pages covering much of Beyond's last act is a master class of non-fiction writing: engaging, informative, and accessible to even those with a modicum of interest in the topic.
Whether you are interested in the space race or simply seeking a good history read, Beyond comes highly recommended. From a wealth of research to prose worthy of a novel at its best, Walker takes readers back to the days when the roar of rockets could make the world stand in awe as the path to the stars first opened up for humanity. At this moment in time when the stars call to us again, and it seems like more of us might one day make the journey Gagarin first made sixty years ago, Walker's Beyond reminds us of where it all began with one incredible and risky leap into the beyond.
February 10, 2022
This is the best account I have read of the first ever human spaceflight, undertaken by Yuri Gagarin on April 12, 1961. Any author researching this event must cope with the veil of secrecy that the Soviet Union created around its details and the lives of the cosmonauts and their families. Yet Stephen Walker went to great lengths in reconstructing the flight of Vostok 1, as he interviewed eyewitnesses and found sources such as film clips and the confidential report that Gagarin made to the Soviet State Commission after his landing. This allows Walker to recapture much of the emotion of the event that one could not have gathered at the time the flight happened, given the intense secrecy. For instance, the reader witnesses the nerves of the flight controllers as launch draws near and the anxiety of family members thanks to the interviews that Walker conducted nearly six decades later. He also delves into the sometimes harrowing details that the Soviets did not reveal at the time of the flight, such as the initial failure of the two Vostok modules to separate as intended. We are in a much better position now to appreciate the risks that Gagarin took in 1961 and to understand the participants of the flight as human beings, because of books like Walker's.
October 1, 2021
I’ve become really interested in the 50s/60s space race recently. This is the first book I’ve read that provides more than a passing reference to the Soviet (and animal!) story. It’s a compelling and sensitive blend of drama and factual account that switches seamlessly between historical documentary and breathless action. Walker presents a well-rounded and considered story, providing access to both personal and (previously) hard-to-find official records.
It did a great job of bringing the story to life.
It did a great job of bringing the story to life.
September 28, 2021
Excellent nonfiction book about the little-known rush to space by the Soviets and the first man to reach space, Yuri Gagarin, who amazingly returned unscathed despite technological limitations. Great details such as his mother living in a museum dedicated to him in her final days and giving the occasional tour.
May 7, 2022
Absolutely fantastic! Audio version. The details of the story are exquisitely presented with wit and careful craft. I loved the writing and the narration was sublime!
The story of the origins of the space race is fascinating. Walker reveals the various characters with aplomb, sharing emotional intrigue and mind boggling details: like how Yuri’s team painted CCP on his helmet just before he was driven to the platform for launch (so he would not be mistaken for a spy and shot if he landed somewhere out of reach).
The description of the launch into space and the first human look at the world from orbit gave me tingles and made my eyes well.
Loved this book. Five stars plus plus plus.
The story of the origins of the space race is fascinating. Walker reveals the various characters with aplomb, sharing emotional intrigue and mind boggling details: like how Yuri’s team painted CCP on his helmet just before he was driven to the platform for launch (so he would not be mistaken for a spy and shot if he landed somewhere out of reach).
The description of the launch into space and the first human look at the world from orbit gave me tingles and made my eyes well.
Loved this book. Five stars plus plus plus.
January 30, 2024
Uf, to bola jazda! Silný adept na knihu roka! Skvelé detaily a okolnosti prvého letu do vesmíru ma totálne pohltili! Až tak, že som nad knihou neustále rozmýšľal a debatoval o nej s každým, kto bol ochotný počúvať 😉
October 26, 2021
5 star, because it was exactly what I wanted to read about the space race!!
Lots of small, but telling anecdotes
Lots of insight
Really captivating writing
Brilliant
Lots of small, but telling anecdotes
Lots of insight
Really captivating writing
Brilliant
February 13, 2023
The book got bogged down in detail throughout which sucked the excitement out.
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