The Space Race

Having a dog who requires long and frequent walks, I have begun listening to audiobooks. Often, if the book is a good one, I continue listening after our walks. I tend to rotate the selections between historical non-fiction and Scandinavian murder mysteries.

The last book falls into the former category. The Space Race is a documentary-drama series released to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the 1969 moon landing. The ten episodes cover the space program focusing on the relationship between the Soviet Union and the United States, from competition to the eventual collaboration. It covers rocket development after WWII through current private-sector space programs.

There are many interviews with the people who were instrumental in developing both countries' space programs, including Buzz Aldrin, Gene Cernan, Sergei Krikalev, Tim Peake, and numerous key players at mission control. There are only a few women interviewed. However, they give a striking portrayal of the limitations they endured in the workplace and the pride they feel having been a part of history.

I seem to have either forgotten or never really knew that there were other astronauts besides the original Mercury 7. Mercury 13 was comprised of 13 women who went through all the same training and testing the men had. A private group, not NASA, funded them, and in 1962, NASA decided it would not include them in the astronaut program. All the women were pilots; however, NASA claimed they did not qualify for the program as they were not military jet test pilots. This meant the first woman in space was Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova.

Many other stories brought back memories I have of watching launchings, spacewalks, and the first moonwalk. That summer night in 1969, I watched the moon landing with my grandmother, born in the late 1800s. She had seen so many things discovered and invented in her life, and I was fortunate to share this moment with her.

The audiobook is not just a reading of a previously written book. It is a creation produced by Audible.com. The story is told through narration by Kate Mulgrew, the actress who played Captain Janeway from Star Trek Voyager, actual audio, original interviews, and dramatic reconstructions. The acted portions were my least favorite, hard to hear anyone impersonate Richard Nixon without thinking of Rich Little. I know that is a reference lost on anyone younger than I am. Overall, I would highly recommend this audiobook. It brings back a time when the country pulled together to make something so improbable become something commonplace.