Available unsigned copy and copies autographed and notared by cosmonauts Alexander Poleshuk (Soyuz TM-16/MIR-13) and Anatoliy Berezovoy (Soyuz T-5/Salyut-5).Berezovoy signed/notared copy includes signed photo showing him with this book.Such copy is not just a good information source, but also collectible item notared by commander of world's record flight 211 days back in 1982. Three colorful posters are included with each book:Cosmonauts-a poster featuring all the cosmonauts that flew from first man in space Gagarin to first Russian on American shuttle Krikalev, Space ships and stations, Launch vehicles.Book covers entire history of Soviet/Russian space from Pioneers and Sputnik to MIR-Shuttle.Detailed coverage of The Pioneers and founders of Space Exploration (Tsiolkovskiy, Korolev, Tsander),First Sputniks and first manned flights, all manned flights Vostok, Voskhod, Soyuz.Soviet Moon manned program,unmanned flights to Moon, Venus, Mars ASTP,Energia-Buran, Soviet/Russian space ships, stations Salyut and MIR, rockets; cosmonaut training etc. Book has over 500 colour unique photos in addition to detailed description based on materials of over 100 Soviet/Russian cosmonauts and space officials. This book is `authorized` history of Cosmonautics.A must reference book for every space enthusiast.
This book provides an awareness of the remarkable achivements of the Soviet/Russian space program and a better understanding of the full potential of exploring space"working in cooperation with Russians.Book is unique in that it was written and photographed by the Russians and then edited by American experts of Cosmonautics.
Even after 50 years of First Sputnik still so little is known about Soviet/Russian space program that readers of this book will "know" more about cosmonautics than 99% of the world's "space experts".Readersn will discover that the Russians were "first in space"-first satellites, first to the moon and the planets, first men and women in space, first space ships and first space stations.Soviet Union/Russia had the Earth's only space stations Salyut and MIR for 20 years and they also had the only real (long-term) experience living and working in space.This experience helped International partners to learn to live and work in space first on Russian station MIR and now on the ISS, which based on Russian key elements with Russian life support systems.Russia now is continue to share its experience with all other spacefaring nations.Russia led the way in promoting international cooperation in space.During only Salyut-MIR period in 70-80's more than 20 representatives from other nations have already flown in Russian space ships and space stations.
February 1994 Sergei Krikalev became a first Russian to fly on American shuttle making a beginning of a new space age.Same cosmonaut already spent 803 days living and working on orbit in 6 flights (Soyuz-MIR-ISS-Shuttle).In 1995 American astronauts began cosmonaut training in Russia for a flight to the Russian space station, starting a new era in American space exploration-learning to live and work on orbit in long duration flights.
Many of Western space enthusiasts still have little or no knowledge of the achivements of the Russian space program.For many years of contacts with space enthusiasts and space memorabilia collectors I've "discovered" that many were not even aware the Russians had space stations.Many Americans believed that space shuttle was flying to an American space station.Also it was clear to see that American media were not much better informed.News reports were often wrong.In addition to being unaware of the "facts", some reporters presented stories with a "negative" slant towards Russian achivements.The most often "quoted line" was that the Russian space program was in a state of disarray when, in fact, it was the American space program that was in "disarray" until began to "re-invent" itself in a new era of international cooperation with Russia.
Russia played a key role in space exploration beginning from 1957 and still a key to the future of all world's space programs.Now it's over 50 years since first Sputnik launched and it is a time for everyone to gain better understanding of the past, present and future of space program.This book hopefully will help fulfill this goal.
This product was added to our catalog on Friday 13 December, 2002.
