|
Description:
|
In "Star-crossed orbits", space veteran and best-selling author James Oberg combines riveting personal memoir with top-notch investigative journalism to tell the complete untold story of the U.S.-Russian space alliance, describing the strengths and weaknesses of each side and revealing, for the first time, the full story of Russia's decaying space program, the dangerous secrets it kept from its American partners, and the ultimate cost of NASA's all-too-often self-imposed ignorance about its "space partner."
A space sleuth with unparalleled access to official Russian archives, facilities, and key individuals, Oberg leads the reader through the attics of the Russian space program to uncover the greed, corruption, and covered-up setbacks that have nearly brought the program to virtual collapse. He describes the U.S.-Mir venture and NASA's reluctance to learn from its lessons. He explores the "jewel in the crown" of the alliance, the International Space Station, a project begun with the best intentions, but which is now in danger of running aground on reefs of self-delusion. Finally, in an impassioned plea, Oberg urges the alliance to "break free of the star-crossed orbits of misperception that bind us to the ground." Only then, insists the author, will we be truly allied, with a reach that can grasp the stars.
|
