My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher PublicAffairs for an advance copy of this history of the Soviet space program and how these men and women were far, far more braver going into the heavens than most of the world ever thought.

What comes up must come down. In the exploration of space, l that is sometimes part of the mission, sometimes not. Going into the heavens and returning to Earth takes a lot of work, a melding of math, engineering, skill, communication, and luck that can have tremendous results, or tremendous tragedies. The Soviet Union was first into space, with a satelitte, a dog, and a man. To do this they ignored all that was previously written, except for the luck, and accomplished amazing things. Things that were unsustainable, and led to many people losing their lives. The Wrong Stuff: How the Soviet Space Program Crashed and Burned by John Strausbaugh is a sometimes scary, sometimes funny, sometimes just plan weird history of the efforts made by the Soviet Union to control space, and even more control the message of how they got there.

The book begins with as seemed the case in Russia at the time, with a mission to put three people into space, beating the Americans to the punch. To do this, there was no special rocket built, no new capsule, the Soviet scientists just took what they had, stripped it to the bone and sent three men into space, sans space suits, or extra oxygen. And somehow they succeeded. This runs through the book. Readers learn of the start of the Soviet rocket program, that was to launch nuclear missiles into America, and at the same time, launch a Soviet citizen into space. The scientists were drawn from the gulags, most of them battling illness, diseases, or in many ways broken in mind and body by there treatment in the camps. While America was a check three times kind of space program, run by ex-Nazis, the Soviets was a now, now now. Mistakes could be hidden, even there launch areas were given fake name and locations. People killed, could be denied, their families told another story, another fate. Strausbaugh looks at the astronauts, Yuri Gagarin, the first person in space, whose life was changed in many many ways. Even the animals, a dog who was trained to flick switches in a space capsule, who escaped the night before he was to be launched into space. Also, the book covers the slow decline, when mistakes, a lack of interest, and a lack of backing began to drain the space program of its mission.

John Strausbaugh has written a very complete and often humourous book about space, that makes one wonder about luck and about taking anything safe and slow. The humour is black in many ways, as the astronauts all seemed to have problems, either dying on the job, or losing their luster due to excessive partying, and lots and lots of drinking. Though I do have to give these people my respect for what they accomplished and did. The book is fascinating, with a real strong narrative the keeps the reader flipping pages, sometimes in incredulity at one is reading, especially when it came to the lack of safety. There are a lot of what seems like Homer Simpson moments, putting tape over a warning light, bathroom habits before launch and more. Strausbaugh has done a lot of research, and makes complicated science easy to understand, be interesting and even more entertaining. Each page has facts, or something that really should have killed a lot more people. And yet.

Recommended for space fans without a doubt. History fans and science fans will enjoy this also, with again a lot of how did they do this. How did they not die? Fiction writers might enjoy this book as it proves that real life is odder than fiction, and there are quite a few events that could really be made into novels. This is the second book I have read by John Strausbaugh, and I am really enjoying his style and craft. I can't wait to read what Strausbaugh's has next.

A fun romp through the Soviet space program, featuring jokes and anecdotes, along with a fast-moving narrative. It serves as a healthy does to the narrative that the Soviets did everything better except for landing on the moon. Recommended for any fans of space history!

I found the book delightfully one-sided. It definitely focused on the failures of the USSR space program but that was the point. NASA spoke to its successes and failures. And certainly, the USSR spoke to the successes of its space program. But what was missing are the failures of the USSR space program. And John Strausbaugh did a brilliant job of discussing these. The book is thorough and well-paced. The storytelling is great and funny. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you to Netgalley and PublicAffairs for the advance reader copy.

I really respect this book for the facts and details. This is one of the only books I have ever seen give the actual pronunciation of Khrushchev's name. It has lots of new-to-me information and I love it!

The author is *occasionally* a little lacking in compassion. For instance, in the introduction he calls the three cosmonauts in the unsafe capsule three communist stooges, in a pun on the Three Stooges and "communist stooge." Which is a really good pun. However, these guys were in a death trap that their dictator created by prioritizing speed over safety and at least two of them volunteered to go, which means they quite possibly did that to spare their coworkers from risk of death. Calling them communist stooges is a bit unkind.

However, in terms of story and new details, this book is top quality.

This reads like a good survey of the existing popular literature on the subject. The author does a decent jobg summarizing it all into a reasonable history of major events in the Soviet space program, with a focus on the sensational (the scandalous and the disatrous). It's all true, much of it was only revealed when the USSR fell, and it's quite a story. I can't help but wonder if the program was really all bad, though. What I mean by that is they did get to space - they did so before us, and set many milestones that took us longer. Yes, the American space program is very risk-adverse, which is why we're seeing a shift to the commerical sector which is more risk-accepting. Could the Soviet program really be as slipshod as the book suggests? It certainly had major issues almost every step of the way, but I wonder what a sympathetic, non-Soviet study would read like.

I found it a quick, entertaining, and informative read. It seems like a good place to start reading up on the subject.