August 5, 2013 at 09:20Ten books on astronautics
This list arose “thanks” to several review topics on the Cosmonautics blog. Habr's love for everything cosmic has led to the fact that even the frankly delusional stream of thoughts written by Shlyakhtić was taken by many at face value - and this is far from the only (albeit the most egregious) example of what I'm trying to say.
Since Habr is a party of techies, people who, as a rule, think critically, it means the lack of information. Therefore, I set about preparing a list of literature telling about the past and present of astronautics. But in the process of preparation, I had two difficulties.
First: I’m just a fan of everything cosmic, and my opinion on the quality of literature is just my opinion, which can be challenged.
Second: despite the considerable number of books I read, an even greater number of them are left overboard, depriving me of the entire completeness of the review.
I tried to solve both of these difficulties by attracting to the supplement and discussion of the list of the LJ user ___lin___ (the link leads to his LJ user profile, where you can read about who he is and what he is famous for). ___lin___ did not refuse help, for which space thanks to him. I highly recommend that you familiarize yourself with his project, The Great Coding , dedicated to digitizing rare books on the subject of space.
Now the actual list.
This work has been repeatedly mentioned in topics and comments, as a must-read for any astronautics fan. It was not in vain that it was mentioned: “Rockets and People” is a real literary monument of the USSR space program, created by a direct participant in all events. Boris Evseevich took part literally at every step of this program, from the organization of the Soviet-German missile institute Rabe to the launches of Energia - and his book gives us a unique chance to look at events from the first person perspective. Plus, the books are written very excitingly and read without difficulty even by an unprepared person.
But the most important thing is perhaps that as a technocrat, Chertok is very critical of various speculations, and tries to give only confirmed facts, without making unjustified conclusions. So, let’s say, without giving an unambiguous answer to the question “Why didn’t we fly to the moon”, he gives 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 led the training of astronauts, and a little later also served as assistant to the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force in space.
Unlike Chertok’s books, these are diaries, not memoirs. Not rethinking, but thoughts recorded immediately after the events. The wrong side of the parade cosmonautics of the 60s, relations in the squad, projects that were not destined to be realized, “dizziness from successes” of the early 60s (“we’ll soon fly to the moon, as we are going to the summer cottage”), organizational miscalculations, dozens of marshals, generals and ministers who have their own indisputable opinion on each question ... According to this "chronicle" one can clearly see how, when, in what and why the USSR began to lag behind the USA, how the "moon race" was lost.
The famous 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, people of his entourage, collecting and analyzing information bit by bit from all available sources, Golovanov is trying to create a portrait of Korolev not only as a genius, who opened a new era for humanity, but also as a person who is far from ordinary, but still human. The book gives an understanding of the motives that prompted Korolev to make one or another decision: where this can be confirmed, all conclusions are confirmed by documents or eyewitness accounts; where it is only possible to indicate the probability, a thorough analysis of all events is given, allowing such a probability to be derived. Facts and myths are included in the title of the book for a reason - even the most flattering and pleasant events that did not actually occur are attributed to the category of fictitious books - for example, it was concluded that the famous meeting between Korolev and Tsiolkovsky, as if provided some continuity is a myth. Korolev and Tsiolkovsky really met, but not there and not as we would like, perhaps, to Sergei Pavlovich himself.
The book contains a very large amount of unique photographic material, and, despite the smaller "technical" orientation, it is also definitely recommended for reading to everyone.
In the Russian edition of the book was given a much more "catchy" name "FAU-2. The superweapon of the Third Reich. " Naturally, the V-2 was not a “superweapon”, but the book tells why.
Dornberger himself was the organizer of a working group of rocket engineers, and the immediate supervisor of Werner von Braun. On the technical side, the book is quite superficial, but some technically interesting facts are mentioned. But there is a lot of interesting information about the organization of production at Mittelwerk (Dornberger prefers to remain silent only about slave power), and the most interesting is a description of interaction with the top leadership of Germany. It turns out that the bureaucratic mess was even there and then. In fact, Dornberger transfers to the fascist ministers and Hitler personally all responsibility for the delay in the work on the program. Like, at first Hitler did not see prospects for weapons, and when the project was given the green light - it was too late. And then various ministers and generals began to pull promising production towards themselves, which did not work in any way to the benefit. It also speaks of the banal shortsightedness of the military - they say that by the beginning of the war the rocket launchers could rivet jet planes and faustpatrons, but nobody needed them.
This three-volume edition is probably not the most fascinating reading (after all - not journalism), but there are more stories and facts there, and everything is described in great detail. The first volume, which describes 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 "East", variants of lunar expeditions developed in the 70-80s (after the defeat in the "moon race"). How the “Union” appeared and what Korolev planned in the 60s. Anti-satellite weapons and battle stations ... There is simply no more detailed description of the history of Energy.
It is important to understand that the history of astronautics from Soviet books is only the tip of the iceberg, and in this folio almost the whole truth is revealed for the first time.
This classic book is an illustrated story about the history, the present (at the time of writing) and the future of space exploration. A look from abroad, translated in the mid-80s (that is why Gagarin "still" sits in the descent vehicle, and the N-1 and the Soviet lunar manned program are completely absent).
Very interesting chapters about the pioneers of astronautics, about the Apollo lunar program, a separate story is told about the origin in the West of “pragmatic space” - communication satellites, meteorological, Earth remote sensing. A slightly outdated chapter on how NASA saw the future in the 70s - it makes it clear that the shuttle was supposed to work as part of an entire system of orbital tugs, flying mass intakes, orbital stations. Alas, these plans, and the plans of the von Braun’s Martian expedition (which is also described in the book), were put aside.
The distant future - perhaps you can’t find books in Russian where cosmonautics perspectives (solar power plants, O`Neill colonies, interstellar probes) are described in such detail and with beautiful illustrations - unless in the children's book “You Build Starships” (but much has been copied there times from Gatland's Space Technology).
Two volumes describe the life of RSC Energia through the eyes of the developer and leader of one of the directions (Syromyatnikov, as you might guess, was involved in docking nodes). A lot of “everyday life” (this book is valuable), from which you can learn about the realities of the 70s-80s and even 90s.
The first volume is almost entirely devoted to activities before the Soyuz-Apollo project, the development of androgynous-peripheral docking nodes, and visits to the United States. The second volume is a detailed history of the assembly of the World, including stories about the misery of our cosmonautics of the 90s. It becomes clear that the United States actually saved then our manned space.
The books are original, in them everyday stories are replaced by a detailed description of the technique (with drawings!).
“Tales of docking” allows 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 journalist working for space and writing about space. Despite the fact that someone scolds his books for being secondary, I still dared to include “Secrets” in the list. This book, as the name implies, is devoted to different criticality of accidents that have occurred over the entire history of rocket science known to mankind, and, fortunately, this is not yet another “work”, in which most are devoted to Apollo 13, and the lesser to Soviet failures programs that were hidden by evil authorities. No newspaper jaundice, not even the Apollo accident mentioned, has received much attention. Much more information is given about accidents in which there was no immediate danger to people: interesting information about launches (and accidents) of satellites with nuclear reactors, problems of interplanetary stations, the history of the development of spaceships and stations with a 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 considers the accident of Soyuz-TMA ships, and, of course, the death of Challenger and Colombia.
There is a lot of information in the book (I found with some surprise that I didn’t know about some accidents, I didn’t even suspect that they could have happened) and it was presented interestingly.
And finally, two encyclopedias:
The first detailed encyclopedia of astronautics published in the USSR. Everything (except for secret projects and the lunar program) that can be learned about this area of human activity from books is collected in this encyclopedia. It needs to be read (flipped through, reading through the articles) at least three times - before reading all the other books (much will be incomprehensible, but something will be remembered), while reading (clarifying incomprehensible terms and delving into technical details) and after (to understand that then they hid how they distorted history and marveled at the Soviet ability not to lie to conceal the truth).
This edition is a comprehensive encyclopedia of manned astronautics, in chronological order describing all manned flights into space, from the first Gagarin flight, and up to the ISS. It is worth noting that the IPC also talks about little-known unrealized projects, such as, for example, the Chelomeevsky moon around LK-1.
The book perfectly describes the work of the Apollo expeditions on the Moon, and all (at the time of the book's release) shuttle flights are detailed.
All stories are equipped with beautiful photographs and illustrations, and better and more accurate books about manned astronautics simply can not be found.
This, of course, is not even a close complete list of excellent books that can be read on the topic, and the list can be doubled and tripled (which I suggest doing in the comments). But to make a clear idea of how cosmonautics appeared, how it developed in the USSR, and why now everything is just that, and not otherwise, is possible from these books.
Since Habr is a party of techies, people who, as a rule, think critically, it means the lack of information. Therefore, I set about preparing a list of literature telling about the past and present of astronautics. But in the process of preparation, I had two difficulties.
First: I’m just a fan of everything cosmic, and my opinion on the quality of literature is just my opinion, which can be challenged.
Second: despite the considerable number of books I read, an even greater number of them are left overboard, depriving me of the entire completeness of the review.
I tried to solve both of these difficulties by attracting to the supplement and discussion of the list of the LJ user ___lin___ (the link leads to his LJ user profile, where you can read about who he is and what he is famous for). ___lin___ did not refuse help, for which space thanks to him. I highly recommend that you familiarize yourself with his project, The Great Coding , dedicated to digitizing rare books on the subject of space.
Now the actual list.
Boris Evseevich Chertok. “Rockets and People,” a monograph in four volumes.
This work has been repeatedly mentioned in topics and comments, as a must-read for any astronautics fan. It was not in vain that it was mentioned: “Rockets and People” is a real literary monument of the USSR space program, created by a direct participant in all events. Boris Evseevich took part literally at every step of this program, from the organization of the Soviet-German missile institute Rabe to the launches of Energia - and his book gives us a unique chance to look at events from the first person perspective. Plus, the books are written very excitingly and read without difficulty even by an unprepared person.
But the most important thing is perhaps that as a technocrat, Chertok is very critical of various speculations, and tries to give only confirmed facts, without making unjustified conclusions. So, let’s say, without giving an unambiguous answer to the question “Why didn’t we fly to the moon”, he gives a lot of information, adding up which the reader will make a conclusion on his own.
Quotes from the book:
The tense atmosphere in the technical management room was defused by the unexpectedly visiting Karimov.
- As the 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 have allegedly already announced preparations for launching their new rocket, which we previously called the "Dawn." What do we do? Repaint?
- Why repaint? Nobody will photograph our DOS in space, and for the 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 Prohibition.” We celebrate the tenth anniversary of the salvation of the human race.
Everyone stared questioningly at me. I was confused and also could not remember myself in the role of the savior of the human race.
“But all of you have a short memory,” Kirillov grinned. - Exactly ten years ago, I received an order to install a R-7A missile with a warhead at launch position No. 1 and prepare it for launch on a command that could come from Moscow. To put a combat rocket, it was necessary to remove from the launch the rocket prepared for launch on Mars. This is how our interests with Chertok are intertwined. He wanted to launch a rocket to Mars, and I was ordered to prepare a launch in America. Thank God, Khrushchev and Kennedy agreed. We then gloriously celebrated this event. Now it would not be bad to recall.
Nikolay 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 led the training of astronauts, and a little later also served as assistant to the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force in space.
Unlike Chertok’s books, these are diaries, not memoirs. Not rethinking, but thoughts recorded immediately after the events. The wrong side of the parade cosmonautics of the 60s, relations in the squad, projects that were not destined to be realized, “dizziness from successes” of the early 60s (“we’ll soon fly to the moon, as we are going to the summer cottage”), organizational miscalculations, dozens of marshals, generals and ministers who have their own indisputable opinion on each question ... According to this "chronicle" one can clearly see how, when, in what and why the USSR began to lag behind the USA, how the "moon race" was lost.
Quotes from the book:
In addition to combat missiles for the navy, Chelomey’s strategic missile “weaving” (UR-100 - Ed.) Works well, the UR-200 (nine launches) performed well, the UR-500 missile (four launches with Protons proved to be good) »), The UR-500K rocket is undergoing tests, which is to launch 19-ton L-1 spacecraft into orbit. On the basis of the UR-500 and Sotka, Chelomey developed the UR-700 missile project, which was approved by the IOM expert committee, but there is no decision to build it 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 daring to build the UR-700 in parallel with the N-1. The American Saturn-5 rocket will put 130 tons into orbit 200 km high, our N-1–95 tons rocket, and the UR-700 rocket is capable of lifting 145 tons. In almost all indicators, the UR-700 is better than Saturn-5 and significantly better than the N-1 rocket. The N-1 rocket was conceived 5-6 years ago and it is natural that its design and engineering data are worse than that of the UR-700, but it is no longer possible to stop the development of the N-1 - it must be completed. It is possible that it is the N-1 rocket that will have the honor of delivering the first people to the moon, but it is now clear that further modernization of the N-1 is not possible - it is necessary to create a new, more powerful rocket.
Today block “D” did not turn on again, and we cannot send L-1 to the moon. On this ship there is an automatic machine that, after turning on the acceleration engine (block “D”), shoots off the stabilizing device. When launching the second ship L-1, it was decided to turn off this machine and use the “D” block two times: when launching into orbit and to disperse to the moon. The order to turn off the machine was personally given by Tyulin, but due to negligence, Mishin was not executed: the ship went into space with the machine turned on and, of course, it worked after turning on block “D” when it was put into orbit.
The reason for the failure of this flight to the moon was the blatant mistake of Mishin and his assistants. Tulin was furious and when talking to Mishin on the phone (Mishin in Yevpatoriya) rude to him, calling m ... ohm. In the evening, Tyulin was still “seething” and, telling me about unpleasant conversations with his superiors (Ustinov, Smirnov), he gave Misha a murderous, but true characterization: “Silly turkey. He’s got five times more ambition than the Queen’s, and ten times less skill. ”
Yaroslav Golovanov. "Korolev: facts and myths."
The famous 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, people of his entourage, collecting and analyzing information bit by bit from all available sources, Golovanov is trying to create a portrait of Korolev not only as a genius, who opened a new era for humanity, but also as a person who is far from ordinary, but still human. The book gives an understanding of the motives that prompted Korolev to make one or another decision: where this can be confirmed, all conclusions are confirmed by documents or eyewitness accounts; where it is only possible to indicate the probability, a thorough analysis of all events is given, allowing such a probability to be derived. Facts and myths are included in the title of the book for a reason - even the most flattering and pleasant events that did not actually occur are attributed to the category of fictitious books - for example, it was concluded that the famous meeting between Korolev and Tsiolkovsky, as if provided some continuity is a myth. Korolev and Tsiolkovsky really met, but not there and not as we would like, perhaps, to Sergei Pavlovich himself.
The book contains a very large amount of unique photographic material, and, despite the smaller "technical" orientation, it is also definitely recommended for reading to everyone.
Quotes from the book:
Korolev repeatedly said that after his release from the camp, he was late for the last ship going from Magadan to Vladivostok and added that it was a sign of fate, because this ship sank.
At that time, the steamships “Kulu”, “Dzhurma”, “Indigirka”, “Dalstroy”, “Nikolay Ezhov”, which were engaged in transporting prisoners, worked on the Nagaev-Second Rechka Bay line. Korolev meant the Indigirka. But according to the documents, he arrived in Magadan no later than November 29, and the Indigirka departed on its last flight on December 13. Then what prevented Sergei Pavlovich from getting onto the doomed ship? One way or another, loading 1064 convicts into the holds that were sent from Nagaevo Bay for gossip, the Indigirka in the stormy strait of Laperuza lost its course and sat on stones off the coast of the Japanese island of Hokkaido. Water poured into the holds, but the head of the convoy forbade the opening of hatches, dooming people to certain death. Killed and two crew members of the ship. The rest of the sailors and the convoy were removed by the Japanese rescuers from the Indigirka and helped them return to Vladivostok. Captain Lapshin was shot. The head of the convoy received eight years in prison. The Japanese were told that there were fishermen in the holds. Rescuers recovered the dead bodies and buried them on the shores of the Japanese island.
Overcoming countless technical and organizational obstacles, Korolev October 10 conducts the first launch of the R-1 rocket. In less than a month, eight more missiles will launch. The results are more than modest. The military does not hide their discontent. The conflict between Ustinov and Yakovlev ripens and, finally, bursts at the described meeting with Stalin. Skepticism poisons the officers' minds of numerous inspectors Yakovlev. Without hiding, glancing fervently at the Moscow engineers, they say:
“Yes, if we give all the alcohol we pour into our brigade, we would smash any city to smithereens without any rocket ...
Alcohol was really excellent, because it was delivered from nowhere Something, but from the capital, from the First Moscow Distillery ...
Walter Dornberger "V-2. The Nazi Rocket Weapon »
In the Russian edition of the book was given a much more "catchy" name "FAU-2. The superweapon of the Third Reich. " Naturally, the V-2 was not a “superweapon”, but the book tells why.
Dornberger himself was the organizer of a working group of rocket engineers, and the immediate supervisor of Werner von Braun. On the technical side, the book is quite superficial, but some technically interesting facts are mentioned. But there is a lot of interesting information about the organization of production at Mittelwerk (Dornberger prefers to remain silent only about slave power), and the most interesting is a description of interaction with the top leadership of Germany. It turns out that the bureaucratic mess was even there and then. In fact, Dornberger transfers to the fascist ministers and Hitler personally all responsibility for the delay in the work on the program. Like, at first Hitler did not see prospects for weapons, and when the project was given the green light - it was too late. And then various ministers and generals began to pull promising production towards themselves, which did not work in any way to the benefit. It also speaks of the banal shortsightedness of the military - they say that by the beginning of the war the rocket launchers could rivet jet planes and faustpatrons, but nobody needed them.
Quotes from the book:
Recently, a drawing technician who came to us in Kummersdorf suggested using graphite gas rudders instead of expensive molybdenum ones. Dr. Thiel accepted the offer and conducted several successful trials. 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 efforts to create a liquid fuel rocket. He arrived at the experimental station in Kummersdorf on a damp, cold day, when the sky was obscured by low clouds, and raindrops dripped from wet pines. He was accompanied by von Brauchitsch and Becker. When I introduced myself to the entrance to the station near a large wooden hangar, I immediately had the impression that his thoughts were wandering somewhere far away from here. Shaking my hand, he looked through me. His tan face with an irregular nose, small black antennae and thin lips did not express any interest in what we showed him. When I spoke, he looked at me point blank. I still did not understand whether my words reached him. In any case, he was the only visitor who listened without asking any questions.
We went to the old test bench, where we witnessed a test of a rocket engine with a thrust of 295 kilograms. A horizontally located combustion chamber turned on. There was a hoarse roar, a narrow bluish stream of burning fuel hit, and in its dazzling glow all the colors faded and the contours of the surrounding objects were clearly outlined. From a shock of a sound wave it was twisted in ears, though in them there were cotton swabs. But the expression of the face of the Fuhrer has not changed. He did not say a word during the next demonstration, seeing the operation of a vertically located engine, which developed a thrust of 1000 kilograms. Hitler watched the progress of the tests, standing behind the protective wall at a distance of only 9 meters.
On the way to one of the assembly towers at test bench number 3, I told him about our work in Peenemuende and the results that we have 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 edition is probably not the most fascinating reading (after all - not journalism), but there are more stories and facts there, and everything is described in great detail. The first volume, which describes 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 "East", variants of lunar expeditions developed in the 70-80s (after the defeat in the "moon race"). How the “Union” appeared and what Korolev planned in the 60s. Anti-satellite weapons and battle stations ... There is simply no more detailed description of the history of Energy.
It is important to understand that the history of astronautics from Soviet books is only the tip of the iceberg, and in this folio almost the whole truth is revealed for the first time.
Kenneth Gatland. "Space technology."
This classic book is an illustrated story about the history, the present (at the time of writing) and the future of space exploration. A look from abroad, translated in the mid-80s (that is why Gagarin "still" sits in the descent vehicle, and the N-1 and the Soviet lunar manned program are completely absent).
Very interesting chapters about the pioneers of astronautics, about the Apollo lunar program, a separate story is told about the origin in the West of “pragmatic space” - communication satellites, meteorological, Earth remote sensing. A slightly outdated chapter on how NASA saw the future in the 70s - it makes it clear that the shuttle was supposed to work as part of an entire system of orbital tugs, flying mass intakes, orbital stations. Alas, these plans, and the plans of the von Braun’s Martian expedition (which is also described in the book), were put aside.
The distant future - perhaps you can’t find books in Russian where cosmonautics perspectives (solar power plants, O`Neill colonies, interstellar probes) are described in such detail and with beautiful illustrations - unless in the children's book “You Build Starships” (but much has been copied there times from Gatland's Space Technology).
Vladimir Syromyatnikov. "100 stories about docking and other adventures in space and on earth."
Two volumes describe the life of RSC Energia through the eyes of the developer and leader of one of the directions (Syromyatnikov, as you might guess, was involved in docking nodes). A lot of “everyday life” (this book is valuable), from which you can learn about the realities of the 70s-80s and even 90s.
The first volume is almost entirely devoted to activities before the Soyuz-Apollo project, the development of androgynous-peripheral docking nodes, and visits to the United States. The second volume is a detailed history of the assembly of the World, including stories about the misery of our cosmonautics of the 90s. It becomes clear that the United States actually saved then our manned space.
The books are original, in them everyday stories are replaced by a detailed description of the technique (with drawings!).
“Tales of docking” allows 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 the Gemini 3, which continued, like on the Mercury, only three turns, almost coincided with the release of A. Leonov into outer space. The Americans reacted to this next achievement in our own way, with a “four-story mat”: “Damn, these Russians again (... those damned Russians! - followe by options of four-letter words ....)”. We went around them so many times at the last moment that you can understand the emotions of ambitious American men.
The arrow of the space crane (in technical documents it was called the “cargo arrow”), deployed almost 15 meters, really made a great impression on everyone who saw it for the first time on the monitor screens in the Central Control Center and in the evening in the program “Time” 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 time and people in different fields of science, decided to conduct tests on himself. He became the first cargo when, reaching its very end, he asked his commander to activate the rotary mechanisms.
Alexander Zheleznyakov. “Secrets of rocket disasters. Breakthrough Fee "
Alexander Zheleznyakov is an engineer and journalist working for space and writing about space. Despite the fact that someone scolds his books for being secondary, I still dared to include “Secrets” in the list. This book, as the name implies, is devoted to different criticality of accidents that have occurred over the entire history of rocket science known to mankind, and, fortunately, this is not yet another “work”, in which most are devoted to Apollo 13, and the lesser to Soviet failures programs that were hidden by evil authorities. No newspaper jaundice, not even the Apollo accident mentioned, has received much attention. Much more information is given about accidents in which there was no immediate danger to people: interesting information about launches (and accidents) of satellites with nuclear reactors, problems of interplanetary stations, the history of the development of spaceships and stations with a 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 considers the accident of Soyuz-TMA ships, and, of course, the death of Challenger and Colombia.
There is a lot of information in the book (I found with some surprise that I didn’t know about some accidents, I didn’t even suspect that they could have happened) and it was presented interestingly.
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 completed its program and the astronauts visited the lunar surface, then everything would be fine. But the flight turned out to be emergency, and the ship returned to Earth in a "complete set", including equipment hazardous to health. The lunar cabin, where SNAP-27 was located, was separated at the last moment, before the descent vehicle entered the earth's atmosphere. The lunar cabin also entered there. 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 core, apparently, withstood the load and the purposeful went to the bottom. I say "apparently"
Soyuz-21 started on July 6, 1976. The flight program was designed for 60 days. The military really wanted to increase the flight duration to 90 days, but the Soyuz resource did not allow this. Work at the station was monotonous. It was a reconnaissance flight, and the astronauts had to regularly charge their cameras and show the film. The first month of work on board the complex was regular. Except for the unpleasant smell in the compartments of the station. The astronauts sinned on the fumes of toxic fuel that got into the station’s atmosphere, on the material of the station’s inner lining. This did not affect everyday work, although it was annoying.
Troubles began on the 42nd day of the flight. Suddenly, an alarm roared, the lights went out, and many on-board devices turned off. The siren was turned off and a depressing silence enveloped the station. The crew could not understand what had happened, how serious it was. Every minute more and more new troubles opened up. The air regeneration system did not work. Oxygen was getting smaller. The station lost orientation. But the crew after two hours was able to bring "Diamond" back to normal.
And finally, two encyclopedias:
"Cosmonautics", an encyclopedia edited by V.P. Glushko.
The first detailed encyclopedia of astronautics published in the USSR. Everything (except for secret projects and the lunar program) that can be learned about this area of human activity from books is collected in this encyclopedia. It needs to be read (flipped through, reading through the articles) at least three times - before reading all the other books (much will be incomprehensible, but something will be remembered), while reading (clarifying incomprehensible terms and delving into technical details) and after (to understand that then they hid how they distorted history and marveled at the Soviet ability not to lie to conceal the truth).
“World Manned Cosmonautics”, encyclopedia edited by Yu. M. Baturin.
This edition is a comprehensive encyclopedia of manned astronautics, in chronological order describing all manned flights into space, from the first Gagarin flight, and up to the ISS. It is worth noting that the IPC also talks about little-known unrealized projects, such as, for example, the Chelomeevsky moon around LK-1.
The book perfectly describes the work of the Apollo expeditions on the Moon, and all (at the time of the book's release) shuttle flights are detailed.
All stories are equipped with beautiful photographs and illustrations, and better and more accurate books about manned astronautics simply can not be found.
This, of course, is not even a close complete list of excellent books that can be read on the topic, and the list can be doubled and tripled (which I suggest doing in the comments). But to make a clear idea of how cosmonautics appeared, how it developed in the USSR, and why now everything is just that, and not otherwise, is possible from these books.