Author Topic: Race For Space  (Read 3735 times)

Offline Jason Davies

  • Regular
  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1089
  • Liked: 66
  • Likes Given: 75
Race For Space
« on: 11/03/2010 06:20 pm »
Anyone got this? http://www.raceforspace.co.uk/ advert in the right hand side of the forum. Looks impressive.

Offline Blackstar

  • Veteran
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 15287
  • Liked: 7822
  • Likes Given: 2
Re: Race For Space
« Reply #1 on: 11/03/2010 07:22 pm »
Also looks expensive.  Calculate the cost for the entire set.

They got Anatoly Zak to write for them, so the Russian stuff will be good.  The layout looks nice.

Offline Skylab

  • Member
  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 477
  • Liked: 71
  • Likes Given: 55
Re: Race For Space
« Reply #2 on: 11/03/2010 09:57 pm »
Although I greatly enjoy Anatoly Zak's contributions here (and his site), I fear this will be yet another series which champions Apollo while ignoring the Soviet side. Getting Asif Siddiqi in there for the Soviet part of the Moon race might be a better idea (I've got the book here, good read).

On another note, hasn't 'perestrojka' happened long enough ago for a decent documentary on the Soviet manned lunar efforts?

Offline savuporo

  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5152
  • Liked: 1002
  • Likes Given: 342
Re: Race For Space
« Reply #3 on: 11/03/2010 11:31 pm »
PBS Red files :Secret Soviet Moon Mission
Orion - the first and only manned not-too-deep-space craft

Offline Blackstar

  • Veteran
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 15287
  • Liked: 7822
  • Likes Given: 2
Re: Race For Space
« Reply #4 on: 11/04/2010 12:10 am »
Although I greatly enjoy Anatoly Zak's contributions here (and his site), I fear this will be yet another series which champions Apollo while ignoring the Soviet side. Getting Asif Siddiqi in there for the Soviet part of the Moon race might be a better idea (I've got the book here, good read).

That's ultimately up to the editors.  Just looking at their choices of covers, I thought they over-emphasized the US side and should have included at least one more Soviet space cover.

If you poke around the website a bit, you see that they have published three issues and you can see some previews of those issues.  It looks like the V-2 article has some great photos.  A really good photo editor could do a great job with this by going beyond the usual photos.  There's a lot of stuff that has not been widely used.

But I've also concluded that if you want to tell the story of the space race, you really have to work hard to be new and original.  There's a lot of stuff done that is pretty good, and it requires a lot of effort to get a new angle.

Offline Launchpad911

  • Member
  • Posts: 61
  • Colorado
  • Liked: 1
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Race For Space
« Reply #5 on: 11/04/2010 12:59 am »
"Rare archive pictures and
stunning illustrations"
 
In an illustrated publication like this one, I think the emphasis on the American side may be due to the better selection, quality and availability of pictures of the American space program of the 1960's.

Offline Skylab

  • Member
  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 477
  • Liked: 71
  • Likes Given: 55
Re: Race For Space
« Reply #6 on: 11/04/2010 01:00 am »
But I've also concluded that if you want to tell the story of the space race, you really have to work hard to be new and original.  There's a lot of stuff done that is pretty good, and it requires a lot of effort to get a new angle.
Either the authors/editors we know have been work-shy, or the information has been too hard to get (though I'd say that's the same thing, based on what I have in my archive).

But I thank you, Blackstar, as you seem to have the same interest in getting the full story out!

Offline Blackstar

  • Veteran
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 15287
  • Liked: 7822
  • Likes Given: 2
Re: Race For Space
« Reply #7 on: 11/04/2010 01:51 am »
But I've also concluded that if you want to tell the story of the space race, you really have to work hard to be new and original.  There's a lot of stuff done that is pretty good, and it requires a lot of effort to get a new angle.
Either the authors/editors we know have been work-shy, or the information has been too hard to get (though I'd say that's the same thing, based on what I have in my archive).

What it really requires is both knowledge of what exists, and a good eye. 

As examples, I'd point to several publications in the last decade:

-the illustrated edition of The Right Stuff
-the illustrated 3-volume edition of A Man on the Moon
-the recent book Another Science Fiction

All three had photos and art that has not been used in a lot of places.  In some cases, that's because the photos are from Time-Life and they're not cheap, so the publisher has to be willing to spend the cash to get them.  But in other cases, it was because the person doing the work was clever.  Another Science Fiction, for instance, tapped into advertising art that was last seen in trade magazines in the early 1960s.  That was new.  And the Man on the Moon series had a photo editor who did not simply go for the obvious--the same picture of Buzz on the Moon, or the other handful of Moon photos that had appeared in dozens of previous books.  They realized that they needed to avoid the cliched, overused pictures and look for rarer stuff.  And they succeeded.

But that's just photos.  If you really want to tell a story that has not been told before, you have to have a good understanding both of the literature (what's been published) and the holes that can still be filled, and the stories that can be told in an engaging way.  That's tough to do.  I think there's a few ways to still do that.  And there are more opportunities to do it on the Russian side.  But it takes effort.  Unfortunately, we end up with more Apollo astronaut interviews.  There's just not a lot left in those stories that is new.

« Last Edit: 11/04/2010 01:54 am by Blackstar »

Offline pargoo

  • Lifelong space fan
  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 691
  • Australia
    • Buran - wait, the Russians had a Space Shuttle?
  • Liked: 95
  • Likes Given: 1
Re: Race For Space
« Reply #8 on: 11/04/2010 05:30 am »
     Every time I see one of these 'new' wondrous/awe-inspiring/whizz-bang things appear I ask myself one simple question: new Soviet color photos????  Salyut 1,4,5,6,7 in orbit?  Hi-res N1 launch/explosion pics?  Pics of Vostok launches other than the same one/s we've been seeing for the past 50 years - eg, film frames?   And so on...
     Yes - investigate further..!
     No - turn over and go back to sleep...
     Guess which one I get to do most often.

Offline Blackstar

  • Veteran
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 15287
  • Liked: 7822
  • Likes Given: 2
Re: Race For Space
« Reply #9 on: 11/04/2010 01:07 pm »
Well, some of that stuff does exist.  But it requires a lot of work for somebody to acquire it.  And money.

Offline Terry Rocket

  • Veteran
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 325
  • Birmingham, England
  • Liked: 1
  • Likes Given: 2
Re: Race For Space
« Reply #10 on: 11/06/2010 03:05 pm »
I've got this and it's very good. Looks like they've spent a lot of time putting it together as it's packed.

Offline Prospero

  • Member
  • Posts: 31
  • Hampshire, UK
  • Liked: 0
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Race For Space
« Reply #11 on: 11/14/2010 11:26 am »
I recently ordered the first three myself after spotting the ad on here - if these are any good then I'll buy the rest, if not then I won't. Simples ;) I'm hoping that they will turn out to be good though, and will post up a quick review as and when I get them if anyone's interested.

Mark
"Floodlit in the hazy distance
The star of this unearthly show
Venting vapours, like the breath
Of a sleeping white dragon"

RUSH - Countdown

Offline AS-503

  • Full Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 494
  • Orion Fab Team
  • Colorado USA
  • Liked: 317
  • Likes Given: 251
Re: Race For Space
« Reply #12 on: 11/15/2010 06:25 pm »
The first three volumes arrived today.

The art, cutaway drawings and presentation are all first rate!

The content, although concise, is very good.

I have most of this information already in other books, but the layout is excellent and I would highly recommend it.

A seven page letter to Johnson from Von Braun dated April 29 1961, in response to Kennedy's "five questions" is re-printed in full.

Full photographs and bio.s of Cosmonaut group #2.

The best illustration I have ever seen of Leonov's Voskhod airlock.

The significance of Rocketdyne's H-1 in relation to future designs.

Uncommon (amazing) photos of many things like a complete V2 tail assembly with carbon steering vanes and fins in London wreckage from V2 strike during the war. I had thought the only thing known from recovered V2 debris was from the relatively intact combustion chambers.
Also isn't this odd for the tail section to have survived because of the V2's tail first re-entry and susequent tail first impact?
This photo would give away the fact that the Von Braun team were using Goddards idea of steering by way of exhaust vains before the war was over.
« Last Edit: 11/15/2010 06:32 pm by AS-503 »

Offline Blackstar

  • Veteran
  • Senior Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 15287
  • Liked: 7822
  • Likes Given: 2
Re: Race For Space
« Reply #13 on: 11/15/2010 06:54 pm »
Thanks for that summary.  It's very interesting and useful.  Given the cost of obtaining the entire set, I'm really wary of buying it.  But it does sound like they did a good job with the graphics/visuals/layout (of course, British publications are generally better at this than American ones--dunno why, but the Brits can occasionally do magazine layout that is just amazing.  Take a look at the magazine How Things Work and it's incredible, although the text is sparse).

Reprinting the von Braun letter in full is an odd choice.  You can get stuff like that on the internet.  But I am pleasantly surprised that they included it.  I'm a big advocate of showing the interested public primary source documents to give them a sense of the history.

Tags:
 

Advertisement NovaTech
Advertisement Northrop Grumman
Advertisement
Advertisement Margaritaville Beach Resort South Padre Island
Advertisement Brady Kenniston
Advertisement NextSpaceflight
Advertisement Nathan Barker Photography
0