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Challenge to Apollo: The Soviet Union and the Space Race, 1945-1974 (NASA History Series SP-2000-4408) Hardcover – March 1, 2011

by Asif a Siddiqi (Author), Nasa History Office (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 36 ratings
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Taking advantage of the Soviet archives, which were opened in the 1990s, Siddiqi has written a groundbreaking work that examines why the Soviet Union fell behind in the space race of the 1960s after changing the course of human history with the first artificial satellite launch, Sputnik, in 1957.
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  1. Print length
    1030 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Military Bookshop
  4. Publication date
    March 1, 2011
  5. Dimensions
    6.14 x 2.13 x 9.21 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1780393016
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1780393018
  8. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Military Bookshop (March 1, 2011)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 1030 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1780393016
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1780393018
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.5 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.14 x 2.13 x 9.21 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 36 ratings

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
36 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Jim
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book!
Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2018
Verified Purchase
This has got to be one of the most interesting books I have ever read that deals with the space race. Given all the early accomplishments of the Soviets, I would have thought that their prowess would have been so much the better. The author has done his homework and when you get done with this tome, you'll probably have the same question that I had. How did they manage to even get Sputnik up, much less their later exploits. A real eye opener as to failures of Soviet top level planning and also an eye opener as to misread intentions from the US side. The Soviets had some very smart people in the trenches, but it was all so overshadowed by infighting and intrigue at the upper levels. The modern US space efforts are about as dysfunctional as they were then, but when compared to the Apollo Project of the time, the disparity is so stunning. A great book on the subject!
4 people found this helpful
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John P.
3.0 out of 5 stars You cannot change font size--you expand the page with your fingers like most screens
Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2016
Verified Purchase
5 stars for the book. 1 star for the Kindle format. It's not a true Kindle--it's basically a pdf. You miss many of the Kindle features--percent remaining, table of contents, etc. You cannot change font size--you expand the page with your fingers like most screens, but it goes off the screen. I ended up reading it in landscape and scrolling. Don't buy it in Kindle.
18 people found this helpful
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Charlie Chernoff
5.0 out of 5 stars Most well researched and documented story detailing Russian Space effort.
Reviewed in the United States on June 20, 2014
Verified Purchase
Secure packaging and quick ship are appreciated as it let me review the Space Race without a break and wait for well researched material. It is a pleasure to realize that booksellers make every effort to describe their books properly.
2 people found this helpful
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Charles W. Donaldson
5.0 out of 5 stars The Definitive History of the Soviet Race to the Moon
Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2014
Siddiqi's book, Challenge to Apollo, should be considered the definitive book on the Soviet's attempt to beat the American's to the moon. There is no other book that covers in such detail all of the individuals, industrial associations, and "manufacturers" that were involved with the soviet space program. You will meet everyone, know their thoughts, desires and positions within the communist hierarchy that made them a key player or a side issue.
It is not just a history of the Soviet space race. This is a book on the intrinsic failures of communism when put in charge of technology. You will see what happens when a totalitarian system determines what is best for the state, which enterprises are to be used to glorify the communist party and how petty corruption literally destroys the best within that society.
You will see that the communist party was its own worst enemy in trying to beat American technology in the race to the moon.
I cannot recommend this book enough if you are interested in the "space race."
5 people found this helpful
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Charles E. Bouldin
4.0 out of 5 stars Extremely detailed. Valuable insights. Corrects myths and misperceptions.
Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2020
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As other reviewers have noted, the big takeaway from this book is how in the world the Soviets did as much as they did with poor funding, inferior technology and a byzantine structure of Design Bureaus, competing personalities, and capricious government and military control with shifting priorities.

The early successes they had---and in fact nearly all the successes they've EVER had---boil down to this: The R7 ICBM. The Americans considered, and rejected, a heavy booster of that scale, but they didn't need it because: (1) they had an enormous bomber fleet which could already devastate the Soviet Union, and (2) they recognized that much lighter warheads were in the offing, so they decided to wait. Early proposals from Convair, the company that built the Atlas ICBM, were almost the same size as the R7, but were never built because of the considerations above. Of course, the R7 turned out to be worthless as a weapon, but it could put a heavy payload into orbit.

The "spectaculars" that the Soviets managed from 1957-65 were all from that ability to put crude, unsophisticated, but massive payloads into space. The US had to manage with boosters of less than half the payload capability and made compromises to do so. There was never a "living module" on US spacecraft, you lived in the reentry module, period. The US used low pressure pure O2 in the cabin to save weight. And, of course, as things got rolling, the electronics on US spacecraft were vastly superior.

Once the limits of the R7 were reached, the Soviet effort faltered. The N1 was doomed at the outset. Who does an all up launch on a rocket with 30 first stage engine without ever static testing that stage with all 30 engines? Well, you do the launch, with fingers crossed, if your budget never allowed for such tests, and they paid the price for it.

This book also makes it clear what a marginal undertaking it was to do a one-launch-Apollo-style lunar orbit rendezvous mission on a booster lacking the throw weight to do it properly. The fall back was the "Proton" booster that proved to be horribly unreliable, so much so that it was never man-rated. In fact, the Soviet/Russian program has never produced any man-rated follow on to the R7.

The other very interesting point is that the "free society" in the US managed to declare a clear goal, subordinate other priorities, and then run top-down government management using private contractors, with a laser focus to achieve that goal. The supposed "command and control" autocracy in the USSR was splintered under competing bureaus, turf wars, shifting and unclear priorities. It also didn't hurt that the Americans had a much bigger budget.

This is a very interesting book, and an amazing look inside the chaos that characterized the Soviet space program. Despite technical and funding issues, they could have done much better if the program had been managed better.
8 people found this helpful
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Wade
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book, better price
Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2011
Not sure if this is the kind of thing that the powers that be at Amazon would like people to share in a review, but I thought that I'd mention that this book can be downloaded for free from NASA in pdf format. Just google it and save yourself about $90.
34 people found this helpful
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Pat A.
3.0 out of 5 stars Everything you ever wanted to know about the Soviet Space Program and a lot of things you didn't care about knowing.
Reviewed in the United States on April 6, 2018
Overall, very interesting, just a little tedious.

I liked the technical details and the parallel time line with the American program. Also liked the early history of the Soviet program, that I had never heard before.

Lease liked was all the political history, though I know this was necessary. A lot of time was spent talking about people and their relationships. I skipped most of that.
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Richard L. Tyson
5.0 out of 5 stars A Wealth of Information on the Soviet Space Program
Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2014
I actually bought this book years ago and have read it twice. If you want to know anything about the Soviet space program this is the book to get. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
One person found this helpful
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