The Superpower Space Race : An Explosive Rivalry Through the Solar System

Booknews

When the USSR launched the first unmanned satellite into orbit on October 4, 1957, the world was awed and shaken. This book details the competition between the US and the USSR to reach the moon and planets beyond: not merely a scientific quest but a struggle for political supremacy during a fascinating and politically charged era. The author focuses both on political and scientific strategies and decisions and on technical information of interest to astrophysicists and astronomers. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Roland Green

Both this book's title and subtitle are a trifle misleading, for Reeves covers only U.S. and Soviet planetary exploration of the Moon, Mars, and Venus. He covers that quite comprehensively, however, from the earliest probes (unsuccessful for the U.S., qualified successes for the USSR) up to the Mars and Venus probes of the 1980s, in thorough but not excessive detail, making a vast mass of data comparatively accessible to anyone with even a modest degree of scientific literacy and interest in the subject. Particularly noteworthy is his use of a large amount of Russian material made available in the post-cold war era. Readers will be left feeling rather better informed and hoping Reeves will turn his talents to a companion volume on exploration of the outer solar system, even though that has been largely a U.S. undertaking.