Challenge to Apollo: The Soviet Union and the Space Race, 1945-1974 (NASA SP-2000-4408)
by Asif A. Siddiqi · NASA History Series
Asif Siddiqi's 1,000-page history of the Soviet space program, published free by NASA. Built from post-Soviet archives, it documents Korolev's design bureaus, the N1 lunar rocket failures and the political decisions behind Sputnik, Vostok and Soyuz. Corrects the US-centric picture.
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