It is "the" all-time legendary rocket, the one that sent the first satellite and the first man into space - and the first woman, too! With a unique track record of over 1,700 flights, it suffers from the syndrome of the legend that hides the true story. And what a fascinating story! Fortunately, Christian Lardier and Stefan Barensky, two reputed space journalists, have written a book (in French) that plunges the reader back into a wonderful adventure dating back to the Soviet era and the beginnings of space conquest. The title refers to two lives because the first part of the book takes a precise look at the genesis and the Soviet career of this emblematic rocket, before guiding us through its "move to the west" in the second part, describing the commercial career of what was, at the outset, a war weapon. As we know, a Soyuz rocket will soon blast off from the Space Centre in French Guiana; "Les Deux Vies de Soyouz" helps us fully grasp how important this event is in historic terms and why, for a long time, it was quite simply unthinkable. Essential reading!
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Soyuz in Guiana
This is the mythical rocket par excellence, the one that launched Sputnik, the first satellite and Gagarin, the first man in space. The CSG, Guiana Space Centre, is now one of its launch bases: a historic achievement.
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Star Trek and NASA
The first episode of this famous science-fiction series was broadcast in September 1966. NASA has often made references to these programmes, as in the case of the space shuttle Enterprise, which had the same name as the spaceship in the series.
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Alan Shepard, from suborbital to the Moon
50 years ago on 5 May 1961, a few weeks after Gagarin, American Alan Shepard reached space. Several years later, he was to walk on the Moon, summarising as it were the race in which the Soviet Union and the United States were competing.
ATHLETE’s dance |
The sci-fi film that’s embarrassing NASA |
Homage to Boris Chertok |
Disney at war against Mars |
