The Wrong Stuff: How the Soviet Space Program Crashed and Burned

The Wrong Stuff: How the Soviet Space Program Crashed and Burned by John Strausbaugh

The Soviet Union built up its space program primarily by making crude copies of western technology. There focus was more on embarrassing the west than on technological innovation. They hid their failures while exaggerating their successes. They lacked some of the advanced technology, so they would over-engineer heavy machines. The program did send people to space and made celebrities out of initial cosmonauts. However, they never did get a man to the moon. After Khrushchev lost power, the USSR shifted resources away from the space race. This book is a very snarky take on the Soviet program, with an emphasis on the structural problems and ineptitude of the space program.