Soviets in Space: Russia's Cosmonauts and the Space Frontier - Hardcover

by Colin Burgess (Author)

A beautifully illustrated history of the Soviet Union's leading role in the space race.

In this deeply researched chronology, Colin Burgess describes the then Soviet Union's extraordinary success in the pioneering years of space exploration. Within a decade, the Soviets not only launched the world's first satellite, Sputnik, in 1957, but they also were the first to send an animal and a human being into Earth orbit. In the years that followed, their groundbreaking missions sent a woman into space, launched a three-man spacecraft, and included the first person to walk in space. Six decades on from the historic spaceflight of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, Burgess guides us through the amazing achievements of Russia's spaceflight program through to the present day, introducing the men and women who have flown the missions that drive us to delve ever deeper into the wonders and complexities of the cosmos.

Author Biography

Colin Burgess is the author or editor of many books on the military and spaceflight, including Selecting the Mercury Seven: The Search for America's First Astronauts and, most recently, The Greatest Adventure: A History of Human Space Exploration, the latter also published by Reaktion Books. He lives in Sydney, Australia.