I am reading an exciting book entitled SpaceRace by D. Cadbury, Harper Collins, 2006. If you are interested in the space program, enjoy historical suspense, then this is a book for you.

The book weaves the story of the German rocket scientist Wernher von Braun and the Soviet rocket expert Sergei Korolev. The story begins with von Braun and scientists who built the V-2 rocket used against London during WWII, and the secret development of the rocket at Peenemunde research facility, and the underground assembly facility manned by slave labor numbering in the thousands. The race the Americans, British and Soviets was on to capture von Braun and his team, and any of the rockets and blueprints (hidden by von Braun). The Soviet researcher, Korelev, who was convicted of trumped up charges that he was involved in anti-Soviet activities in the 1030’s, and then sent to the Gulag in Siberia for a ten year sentence, later reduced to 8 years. Korelev was recruited by Soviet leaders to head up the Soviet rocket program, and was sent to Germany in 1945 (one day after von Braun was on his way to America).

The book provides glimpses into the political and scientific struggles that the American and Soviet space programs endured, and how the German rocket research provided the baseline for further development.

Having traveled to the Soviet Union (and now Russia) for more than 20 years, and having a long time interest in the space program, the book is providing a unbelievable account of the struggle created by the political regime in Russia, and how the Soviets and Americans depended on the German program (in the beginning).