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    Red Moon Rising: Sputnik and the Hidden Rivals That Ignited the Space Age
    Red Moon Rising: Sputnik and the Hidden Rivals That Ignited the Space Age
    Red Moon Rising: Sputnik and the Hidden Rivals That Ignited the Space Age
    Audiobook11 hours

    Red Moon Rising: Sputnik and the Hidden Rivals That Ignited the Space Age

    Written by Matthew Brzezinski

    Narrated by Charles Stransky

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    The first book to capture both the Soviet and American sides of the event that started the space race and changed our world.

    On October fourth, 1957, a time of Cold War paranoia, the Soviet Union secretly launched the Earth's first artificial moon. No bigger than a basketball, the tiny satellite was powered by a car battery. Yet, for all its simplicity, Sputnik stunned the world.

    Based on extensive research in the US and newly opened archives in the former USSR, Red Moon Rising tells the story of five extraordinary months in the history of technology and the rivalry between two superpowers. It takes us inside the Kremlin and introduces the Soviet engineer Korolev, the charismatic, politically-minded visionary who motivated Khruschev to support what others dismissed as a ridiculous program. Korolev is virtually unknown to most Americans, yet it is because of him that NASA exists, that college loan programs were started in the US, and that Kennedy and Johnson became presidents.

    Character driven, suspenseful, and dramatic, Red Moon Rising unveils the politics, people, science, and mindset behind a critical and transformative world event.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHighbridge Company
    Release dateSep 18, 2007
    ISBN9781598875287
    Red Moon Rising: Sputnik and the Hidden Rivals That Ignited the Space Age
    Author

    Matthew Brzezinski

    Matthew Brzezinski is an author and journalist. He worked for the NYT in Warsaw in the early 1990s, and was Moscow correspondent for the WSJ. He is the author of CASINO MOSCOW (2002) and FORTRESS AMERICA (2004).

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    Reviews for Red Moon Rising

    4/5

    64 ratings6 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Informative, well written and interesting book that contains many facts that are overlooked about this early time in the space race
    • 4/5
      I liked this book. It had enough history, personal stories and scientific explanation to make it a nice read, without getting too bogged down.
    • 4/5
      A thrilling read. I previously read the more voluminous book "Cold War: For 45 years, the world held its breath" published in the same series, and enjoyed it a lot. Hence, it was an obvious opportunity that arrived when I spotted this tome in a bargain bin. It took me a few weeks to get around to reading it, but once I did, I could not put it down. It is simply smashing. Well-written, impeccably researched, and with a very rational portrayal of both sides of the struggle. Brzezinski has done excellently with his portrayal of the power struggles, the political theatrics and the day-to-day trials and tribulations that built up to the succesful launch of the Sputnik - and the failure of the US Navy's "Kaputnik". The testimony from Sergei Khruschev, who experienced the whole debacle first-hand while studying engineering at the behest of his father, makes it all the more worthwhile.A definite must-read.
    • 4/5
      After being hugely impressed by Matthew Brzezinski's Isaac's Army I thought I'd try his earlier book about the history of the development of the first ICBM's (ie. space-going) - from the V2 in WWII up to the first US satellite in 1958. The book weaves back and forth between the US and USSR as technology and events progress, the Soviets are new territory since much was kept secret until recently. It covers a lot of interesting events and people such as Sputnik, U2, Sergei Korolev, Wernher von Braun, the first ICBM the R2, the failed Vanguard program, etc.. Interesting perspectives include the strategic mistake the USA made to presume that the USSR's centralized government couldn't succeed at large science projects. How the USA put rocket and space development on hold after WWII as mere "Buck Rogers" science fiction, then were rudely awakened by Sputnik, with Eisenhower seeming out of touch and old school. How Sputnik had no purpose other than testing, it took the newspapers of NY and London for the Soviet leadership to realize they had done something historically important. It goes on like this, many great perspectives and information for those of us who didn't live through it. Sputnik was a watershed moment culturally and politically, this book puts it into perspective.
    • 4/5
      Fascinating; breaks new ground with lots of inside information from Sergei Khrushchev.
    • 5/5
      What a great read! This is a popular history of the space race from 1945 to 1958 written at a brisk pace and vibrant with colorful detail. It would appeal especially to modern history buffs and those interested in the stories of developments in science and engineering in the 20th century.The Chief Designer of rockets for the Soviet Union, Sergei Korolev, whose identity was a state secret in the race for missiles and satellites between the USSR and the USA, at last receives a deserving portrayal. And just as punchy a picture is painted of the seamless passage of Wernher von Braun from Nazi to to Disney star to US head rocket honcho.One of the many clearly detailed facts to emerge from this book is the nearly complete falsification of the state of military capabilities put out by the US military in the 1950s, when the US public was frightened into supporting unlimited military spending on the basis that the US was far behind the Soviet Union. This was at a time when US bombers and spy planes had the Soviet Union surrounded and routinely overflew its airspace, knowing the Soviets could not retaliate.Another memorable observation to emerge from the book is the way US pride was stunned by the Sputnik achievement of 1957. Americans had assumed that a country that was unable to provide decent and sufficient consumer goods for its own people could not possibly achieve technical superiority over the US. The lesson is that a state apparatus focusing massive resources on a single-minded project, even to the detriment of the well-being of its citizens, can create extraordinary results. It was true with the Manhattan Project of World War 2, the Russian bomb and rocket drive of the 1950s, and even in the North Korean nuclear and missile industry of today.The launch of Sputnik was an historical turning point--in the USSR, in the USA, in the history of humankind--and this book dramatizes it well. The author is to be congratulated.