Rockets and People, Volume 3: Hot Days of the Cold War by Boris Chertok (Repost)

This work is an example of some of the fine publications emanating from federal history programs. Several years ago the NASA History Division undertook to translate and publish a four-volume memoir of Soviet spaceflight that spanned the period between the 1930s and the 1980s. Boris Chertok was a close associate of the leaders of the Soviet program and worked his entire career in it. His memoir provides a striking and unique perspective on a history veiled in secrecy. Chertok is one of those rare actors who not only played a critical role in the program but has also been able to convey with grace and eloquence his experiences. This work was translated and edited with an introduction and explanatory notes by senior Soviet space historian Asif A. Siddiqi and published in the NASA History Series. Produced as it was under the auspices of one of the best federal history program, it is no wonder that this work was well done. Most importantly, it records the history of the mirror image twin on which NASA based its activities during the space race.

This particular volume of the series of four deals especially with the space race of the 1960s. Here, Chertok describes his impressions of the apex of Soviet achievements in space exploration, from the halcyon days of the launch of Yuri Gagarin into orbit in 1961 to the first piloted Soyuz mission in 1967.