Korolev: How One Man Masterminded the Soviet Drive to Beat America to the Moon

Korolev: How One Man Masterminded the Soviet Drive to Beat America to the Moon

By James Harford. John Wiley & Sons; 1999; 432 pp., $17.95.

Reviewed by Harry Tollerton

So much has happened since NASA landed the first man on the lunar surface thirty years ago that the space race between the United States and the now-defunct Soviet Union seems a distant memory. No human being has set foot on the moon since 1972, and until recently, our knowledge of the great contest was largely limited to the winning American team of space scientists, engineers, and astronauts.

But now, at last, James Harford, executive director emeritus of the American Institute of …