Les Fusées soviétiques

Passé, présent, avenir

Michael Stoiko
Year1971
PublisherHachette
PlaceParis
LanguageFR
Pages272
Rating★★★★☆ (4/5)
AudienceGeneral, Specialist, Student
LevelIntermediate
Keywords
proto-astronauticsSputnik ProgrammeLuna ProgrammeVostok ProgrammeVoskhod Programme
ThemesSoviet Cosmonautics, Launchers & Propulsion

A survey of the history of Soviet astronautics, from primitive powder rockets and Tsiolkovsky's early intuitions to the manned flights and lunar and planetary probes of the late 1960s. The American engineer Michael Stoiko traces the institutional genealogy of the Soviet design bureaus (GDL, GIRD, RNII), the role of Korolev, the appropriation of the German V-2 legacy, and the unfolding of the Sputnik, Vostok, Voskhod and Soyuz programmes. The French edition is completed by Robert Clarke's "1970-1971 update" (Soyuz 9, Salyut, Luna 16 and 17) and by two appendices listing launches since 1957.

📖 Editorial Review

Written in the immediate aftermath of the American Moon victory, Michael Stoiko's book remains one of the period's most thorough attempts to reconstruct, from the outside, a still largely opaque Soviet space programme. …