Rockets and People

By Boris Chertok

Edited by Asif Siddiqi with a foreword by Lt. Gen. Thomas P. Stafford, USAF (Ret.)

NASA-SP2005-4110, 2005,432p, $45.00

New... in the NASA History Series:

The NASA History Division is pleased to announce the availability of a landmark new book, "Rockets and People" by Boris Chertok. This memoir by a towering figure in Soviet/Russian space history was originally published in Russian and has now been specially translated and edited for publication in the NASA History Series. This book is the first of four volumes of Chertok's insightful reminiscences on his 60-year career in aviation and space.

Image to right: 'Rockets and People' is the first of four volumes about Soviet/Russian space history. Credit: Steve Garber, NASA History Division

Much has been written in the West on the history of the Soviet space program, but few Westerners have read direct first-hand accounts of the men and women who were behind the many Russian accomplishments in exploring space. The memoir of academician Boris Chertok, translated from the original Russian, fills that gap.

Chertok began his career as an electrician in 1930 at an aviation factory near Moscow. Thirty years later, he was deputy to the founding figure of the Soviet space program, the mysterious "Chief Designer" Sergey Korolev. Chertok's 60-year-long career and the many successes and failures of the Soviet space program constitute the core of his memoirs, Rockets and People. In these writings, spread over four volumes (volumes two through four are forthcoming), academician Chertok not only describes and remembers, but also elicits and extracts profound insights from an epic story about a society's quest to explore the cosmos.

This book was edited by Asif Siddiqi, a historian of Russian space exploration, and General Tom Stafford contributed a foreword touching upon his significant work with the Russians on the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. Overall, this book is an engaging read while also contributing much new material to the literature about the Soviet space program.