Boris Chertok's Rockets and People, in NASA translation

[DDE]

So, this 1200-page monster covering Soviet rocketry from 1941 to late 1980s is actually available in English!

http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4110/vol1.pdf

http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4110/vol2.pdf

http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4110/vol3.pdf

http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4110/vol4.pdf

Edited December 12, 2016 by DDE

[FleshJeb]

Here's the description, because I had no clue what it was:

http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/9-12/features/F_Rockets_and_People.html

[James Kerman]

Thanks for this @DDE- great find.

[radonek]

Yeah, that is one of best sources on soviet space program in english. Well, most of it is boring description of intricacies of organization and bureaucracy, useful only for historians. But some parts are absolutely golden, from detailed description of N1/L3 program to hilarious quick fix of LoX leak.  BTW do you guys know of english translation of marshal Kamanin memoirs?
 

[MaxwellsDemon]

Just received a set of used hardcopies-- because my old eyes can't stand to read a .pdf for long, but the beginning material of the .pdf indicated I was almost certainly going to be interested in the contents.

I'm only into his schoolboy days yet, but I can already tell I am going to like these books.  I can't help but mentally compare him to my grandpa, who was born not quite two years earlier than Chertok, seems to have had very similar experiences and interests growing up (I still remember him telling me about a group of friends that gathered together to make and operate a crystal radio set, and how his own grandmother didn't believe in radio waves), though in Ohio rather than Russia.

[MaxwellsDemon]

Beginning Volume 2.  Very detailed, still good and very interesting, though he mentions so many other people I'm grateful for Asif Siddiqi's footnotes helping to identify them...

Edited September 2, 2017 by MaxwellsDemon
spelling correction

[DDE]

@MaxwellsDemon, space programs have a thing for that.

[MaxwellsDemon]

Indeed.

Into Volume 3!  Poyekhali!

 

ETA:  I'm becoming a real fan of the Soviet/Russian space program.  There's a story that an American general, when hearing about early Soviet space achievements, declared, "We got the wrong Germans!"  Whereas in reality, it was because they didn't have the right Russians, as it were...  if the Soviet Union had followed America's course, their rockets would have been designed by Göttrup's people instead of Korolëv's.

The supreme irony of the 60's "space race" is that the U.S. "won" it by creating a government agency (NASA) with complete control over astronautics, whereas in Russia, destructive competition between companies (design bureaus) wrecked most of the good chances they had.  (Just don't dare call what the US did "socialistic"-- horrors!)   

 

Edited September 5, 2017 by MaxwellsDemon
Further thoughts

[MaxwellsDemon]

My personal library on the topic (thus far):

Baker, David. Soyuz Owners' Workshop Manual: 1967 Onwards (All Models) : an Insight into Russia's Flagship Spacecraft from Moon Missions to the International Space Station. 2014.

Chertok, Boris Ye. (Siddiqi, Asif. ed.) Rockets and People. (4 vols.) Washington, D.C.: NASA, 2005.

Clark, Phillip. The Soviet Manned Space Programme: An Illustrated History of the Men, the Missions, and the Spacecraft. London: Salamander, 1988.

Harford, James J. Korolev: How One Man Masterminded the Soviet Drive to Beat America to the Moon. New York: Wiley, 1997.

Johnson, Nicholas L. Handbook of Soviet Manned Space Flight. San Diego, Calif: Univelt, 1988.

Johnson, Nicholas L. The Soviet Reach for the Moon: The L-1 and L-3 Manned Lunar Programs and the Story of the N-1 "Moon Rocket". [Washington, D.C.]: Cosmos Books, 1995.

Matson, Wayne R. Cosmonautics, A Colorful History. Cosmos Books, 1994.

Newkirk, Dennis.  Almanac of Soviet Manned Space Flight.  Houston:  Gulf Publishing, 1990. 

Oberg, James Edward. Red Star in Orbit. New York: Random House, 1981.

Portree, David S. F. Mir Hardware Heritage. [Washington, DC]: [National Aeronautics and Space Administration], 1995.

Siddiqi, Asif A. Sputnik and the Soviet Space Challenge. Gainesville, Fla: University Press of Florida, 2003.

Siddiqi, Asif A. The Soviet Space Race with Apollo. Gainesville, Fla: University Press of Florida, 2003.

Zak, Anatoly. Russia in Space: The Past Explained, the Future Explored. 2014.

 

Closely related/relevant:

Baker, David. Rocket, 1942 Onwards: An Insight into the Development and Technology of Space Rockets and Satellite Launchers. 2015.

Ezell, Edward Clinton, and Linda Neuman Ezell. The Partnership: A NASA History of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. Newburyport: Dover Publications, 2013.

Furniss, Tim. The History of Space Vehicles. San Diego, CA: Thunder Bay Press, 2001.

Launius, Roger D., and Andrew K. Johnston. Smithsonian Atlas of Space Exploration. Piermont, N.H.: Bunker Hill, 2009.

 

Now maintaining this list at   https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/index.php?/topic/166794-sovietrussian-spaceflight-bibliography-english/

 

Edited October 23, 2017 by MaxwellsDemon
Update

[MaxwellsDemon]

Beginning volume 4.

Volume 3 was a more difficult read than volumes 1 or 2.  For one thing, it's longer (the longest of the four), but also it's not as chronologically organized-- there are extended chapter-length digressions on particular topics, which, interesting and useful as many of them are, tend to break up the narrative flow.  It's also a rather depressing read at times due to the actual events (i.e., the deaths of Korelev, Komarov, and Gagarin).  Still, I value the chance to read Chertok's story of his experiences.

[MaxwellsDemon]

Finished volume 4...   Chertok wraps up with some interesting observations on the current state of affairs, demonstrating that he was still very mentally sharp right up to the end of his days.

His description of the movie "Taming of the Fire," fictionalizing the early Soviet space program, was very interesting; unfortunately, if there's an English-dubbed or -subtitled version anywhere, I haven't yet been able to find it.

And we'll never know if the next N1 would have successfully flown or not.

All in all, a good read, and a vitally important memoir for the understanding of the Soviet space program from the beginning through the mid 1970s.   

[MaxwellsDemon]

:: grumble ::   It's annoying that "Red Star in Orbit:  The Russian Right Stuff" doesn't seem to be available anywhere for purchase.  Parts 2 and 3 are on Youtube, but you also have to be careful to avoid a version of Part 2 that's been altered by wingnuts.      I bought the DVD of "The Red Stuff" (including "Starman," the Gagarin bio) and it's pretty good, but I think "Red Star in Orbit" was much better-- the two parts I've seen, anyway.  Episode 3 in particular follows Soyuz TM-9 (Mir EO-6) from training through their mission and recovery back on Earth, and is a great profile of a space flight in the heyday of Mir (Kvant 2 having been recently added and Kristall being added during their mission).

Episode 1:  ?

Episode 2:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y31EeHap44g

Episode 3:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29xi4QFeZ04

 

(links current as of 9/24/17)

(Despite the title and despite James Oberg's popping up in it in a couple of places, the series is not just a filming of his book of the same name.)

Edited September 24, 2017 by MaxwellsDemon
correction

[RedKraken]

Also working my way thru Chertok.

Good stuff.

The Kamanin Diaries by Bart Hendrix might also be worth a look. 

Also the Mishin Diaries, but i have not found an english translation. Only a summary.

[MaxwellsDemon]

20 hours ago, RedKraken said:

The Kamanin Diaries by Bart Hendrix might also be worth a look. 

So far, I've only found four articles by Bart Hendrickx from the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society summarizing (albeit at some length) the Kamanin diaries.  Did he publish a full translation as well?

[RedKraken]

I don't know about a full translation. I have not found one yet.

The Mishin diaries report from Dmitry Payson in Acta Astronautica 2016

Edited September 25, 2017 by RedKraken

[MaxwellsDemon]

There is this at the good ol' Encyclopedia Astronautica:  http://www.astronautix.com/k/kamanindiaries.html

Pretty extensive summary, though not an actual translation.