1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910857782903321

Autore

Capaccioli Massimo

Titolo

Red Moon : The Soviet Conquest of Space / / by Massimo Capaccioli

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cham : , : Springer Nature Switzerland : , : Imprint : Springer, , 2024

ISBN

3-031-54760-8

Edizione

[1st ed. 2024.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (207 pages)

Collana

Popular Astronomy, , 2626-8779

Disciplina

629.4

Soggetti

Astronautics

Physicists - Biography

Astronomers - Biography

Physics - History

Space Exploration and Astronautics

Biographies of Physicists and Astronomers

History of Physics and Astronomy

Outer space Exploration

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di contenuto

Ballad of the Moon Moon -- The Dawn -- An Introverted Genius -- The Nibelung Saga -- The Unnamed -- Dog’s Heart -- The Red Icarus -- Flag of the Soviets, Lead us to Victory -- The Swan Song -- Fly Me to The Moon.

Sommario/riassunto

The book is about the “space race”, starting from the earliest steps of astronautics to the Moon landings of Armstrong and Aldrin. The conquest of space began as a by-product of an exquisitely military project, the rapid, and efficient delivery of explosives, conventional and then nuclear, over great distances into enemy territory. It happened at the turn of World War II, first with the V2s, the Wunderwaffen that von Braun had created for his Führer, and, after the surrender of Germany and Japan, with the intercontinental ballistic missiles that the Russians and Americans built to serve as cabs for atomic bombs. Restrained by the fear of nuclear holocaust, the two great powers that had momentarily divided the government of the world turned the risky muscular confrontation into an unusual race to climb the sky: a stage



race with a conventional finish line marked by the human landing on the Moon. Under the constant guidance of Sergei Korolev, the mysterious “chief designer”, the Soviets got off to a surprise start and stayed in the lead until almost the end, with the Sputniks, the orbital flights of Gagarin and Tereshkova, the first spacewalk, and the unmanned soft landings on the Moon and Venus, only to be caught up and overtaken by the Americans at the very edge. An adventure that lasted a total of twelve years, marked by brilliant and courageous men, by astute and far-sighted politicians, by patriotism and ambition, and, as always, regulated by luck, which profoundly affected our world and the design of its future.