Space Race: The Battle to Rule the Heavens
From the author of ‘Seven Wonders of the Industrial World’, the ebook edition of the TV tie-in charting the shocking but true story behind the space race – and the ruthless, brilliant scientists who fuelled it.With the end of the Cold War it is now possible to reveal its generation of secrets and cover-ups, bringing an historical opportunity: the unmasking of the true heroes and villains behind the race to be the first to conquer space.This is one of the greatest stories in history, beginning in the throes of the Second World War and spanning through to the moon landings. With the US and Russia pitched against one another during the Cold War, it was the race to create the most powerful rocket and dominate the world, culminating in 1969's 'giant leap for mankind'. The most pioneering and high-risk experiments ever undertaken cost untold millions – and hundreds of lives, as mistakes were made, some too horrific to be made public.It is a tale that plays out against a backdrop of communism and espionage. Buried within this multi-million-dollar battle between nations, are the dramatic accounts of the individuals who seek to be the winners at any cost. With ex-Nazi Wernher von Braun on the American side pitted against the enigmatic Sergei Korolev on the Soviet side, this revealing new history shows the extent to which politics and personal ambition combined to create an explosive race for the glory of victory.Note that it has not been possible to include the same picture content that appeared in the original print version.
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DEBORAH CADBURY
SPACE RACE
The Battle to Rule the Heavens
CONTENTS
PART ONE: The Race for Secrets
2 âThe Germans have set up a giant grillâ
3 âKill those German swineâ
4 âFirst of all, to the moonâ
PART TWO: The Race for Supremacy
5 âWeâve not got the right Germansâ
7 âGet dressed. You have one hourâ
8 âDid you understand about the warrant?â
10 âClose to the greatest dream of mankindâ
12 âAmerica sleeps under a Soviet moonâ
13 âWe really are in a great hurryâ
14 âWhy arenât you dead?â
15 âWhich one should be sent to die?â
PART FIVE: The Race for the Moon
16 âThe Soviets are so far aheadâ
17 âFriends, before us is the moonâ
18 âI just need another ten yearsâ
20 âHow can we get out of this mess?â
The Canvas Emerging Louise Tucker talks to Deborah Cadbury
Making Space Race by Deborah Cadbury
As the two great superpowers, America and the Soviet Union, confronted each other during the Cold War, the race to the moon became a defining part of the struggle for global supremacy. Victory in this race meant more than just collecting moon rocks or planting flags on a barren wasteland. The development of missiles and rockets went hand in hand with the struggle to develop the capacity to deliver nuclear weapons, to spy on the enemy and to control space. Above all, the space race became an open contest between capitalism and communism. Victory was not just a matter of pride. National security and global stability were at stake.
The architects of this race were two extraordinary men destined to operate as rivals on two different continents at the height of the Cold War. Both were passionate about transforming their dreams of space travel into a reality yet both were cynically used and manipulated by their political paymasters as pawns in the wider conflict between the two superpowers. Both were men of their times but with visions that are timeless. Both were hampered by the legacy of a past which returned to haunt them, threatening to destroy the achievement of their dreams. One had collaborated with the Nazis to produce rockets in slave-labour camps during the Second World War. The other had been denounced as âan enemy of the peopleâ, swept up in Stalinâs purges and incarcerated in the Gulag in appalling conditions. Yet their ingenuity and vision would inspire the greatest race of the twentieth century: the race for the mastery of space.
For much of his life, the Russian Sergei Pavlovich Korolev was obliged to live in almost complete obscurity. Referred to as simply the âChief Designerâ, his name was obscured in the official records, never mentioned in the press and was virtually unknown to the public in his native country during his life. Such was the paranoia in the Soviet Union that this brilliant scientist might be assassinated by Western intelligence, he was shadowed constantly by his KGB âaideâ. When his bold exploits in space produced national celebrations in Red Square, he rarely appeared on the balcony beside the Soviet leaders and received none of the national acclaim for his achievements. Often working in harsh conditions deep within the Soviet Union, short of resources and at times challenged by jealous rivals, he pursued his quest relentlessly, with no regard for the enormous toll this took on his personal life. In the early years as Chief Designer of the Soviet Unionâs missile programme, Korolev understood that Stalin controlled his fate. Lavrenti Beria, Stalinâs notorious Chief of Secret Police, was watching. False rumours, repeated failures or simply incurring displeasure could finish him at any moment. His family life destroyed by his long sentence in the Gulag, and with the loss of friends and colleagues during Stalinâs purges, Korolevâs future held no certainty. But now, with the release of classified information in Russia, for the first time the true story of this extraordinary man can at last be pieced together.
From his place in the shadows, Sergei Korolev was well aware of his rival in America, the charismatic Wernher von Braun. With his film-star good looks, his aristocratic manner, his brilliance in inspiring others, von Braunâs smiling face often appeared in the American press and his ideas were studied closely by Korolev. Yet through all his glory years of success at NASA designing rockets that came to symbolize the might of America, von Braun carried a secret from his work as a Nazi during Hitlerâs Germany. During the Second World War, thousands of slave labourers had died of disease, starvation and neglect, or had been executed at the slightest whim of their SS guards while building the rockets that von Braun had designed to win the war for Nazi Germany. Sinister details of his assignment to save the Third Reich as Hitlerâs leading rocket engineer were classified after the war by the US authorities under the codename Project Paperclip â so called because a paperclip was allegedly attached to every file which was to be whitewashed. Von Braunâs own secrets have only recently been unravelled.
