Just Finished Reading: Red Moon Rising – Sputnik and the Rivalries that Ignited the Space Age by Matthew Brzezinski (FP: 2007) [278pp] 

I have long thought that the launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik (which just means satellite in Russian) was a carefully planned event to both embarrass the United States and prove that the Soviet Union was light-years ahead in an emerging technology. There is some truth to that but, as I learnt in this fascinating book, there was much, much more going on here. 

After the war in Europe came to an end in 1945 both the Soviets and the West (both the Brits and the Americans) grabbed as many German scientists & technicians as possible to speed up their own missile programmes. Oddly both sides of the Iron Curtain failed to invest either the time or the money to make this a quick reality. The US was more interested in the closing the non-existent ‘bomber gap’ and the Soviets just didn’t have the resources to maintain their enormous military, race ahead with nuclear weapon development AND build a functioning rocket force. With knowledge of the ever-expanding US bomber force in the shape of the SAC (Strategic Air Command) the Russians knew that it would be impossible to out-build them for decades. Their embryonic rockets however where barely functional and would crash or blow up just as often as they would fly a few hundred miles down range (the American’s were having similar issues some of which were VERY public). It was Khruschev who decided, much to the annoyance and protests of his generals, that the ONLY way that the Soviets could possibly compete was better and, more importantly, bigger rockets. The pressure was on to build a rocket big enough and reliable enough to launch the (comparatively) huge nuclear weapons at intercontinental distances.  

After much work and MANY failures, the Russians finally managed to launch two consecutive missiles that landed roughly where they were aimed. But there was a problem – the heatshield responsible for protecting the warhead on re-entry repeatedly failed to work. The missile was essentially useless. But what if, the Chief Engineer mused, the ‘warhead’ didn’t need to come back down? This is the idea he sold to Khruschev – show the Americans what they COULD do without actually having the ability to DO it. On October 4th 1957 they did exactly that and the Space Age blazed a trail across the night sky. 

This was, to be honest, a fascinating and gripping read of the early Cold War. I did have SOME idea of the story going in but had no idea that the circumstances on both sides of the Iron Curtain were so complicated and so messy – almost random in nature. The political situations in both the Soviet and American establishments came as something of a shock to me as I had imagined that both sides had at least SOME stability and plan for forging ahead (with their technology or economy). The in-fighting – often quite vicious – on BOTH sides was quite the revelation. But I think the thing that really stuck out for me was the historical context. What I wasn’t aware of – or at least hadn’t made the connection – was the fact that during this time we had the Suez Crisis where France, Britain and Israel tried to take control of the Suez Canal from Egypt MUCH to the annoyance of the US, we had the Hungarian Uprising and the subsequent violent suppression by Soviet tanks (it was only reading this book where I realised that the political upheavals of the time inside the Soviet Union where related to Khruschev’s “Secret Speech” where he denounced Stalin much to the shock of just about everyone else), and in the US we had the fallout of Brown Vs The Board of Education and the military enforcing desegregation – much to the political capital of the Soviets. It was a BUSY time! 

I’m not going to go through everything here, but needless to say I found it both very interesting indeed and highly educational. Split roughly 50-50 between the Soviets and the US this really embedded the very early Space Race in its historical and political context. It also opened several new lines of enquiry that I’ll be following up – eventually! Definitely recommended for anyone interested in the Cold War, space technology, the 1950’s or just looking for a damned good read. Another highlight of the year.