In the Shadow of the Moon

by Amy Cherrix

  “Fruit was in . . . abundance”: ibid.

  “vodka, vodka, vodka”: ibid.

  “Around one a.m. . . . ended.”: Chertok, Rockets and People, Vol. 1, 366.

  “The Russians are . . . away”: Irmgard Gröttrup, quoted in Harford, 76, 348 (note 36).

  Irmgard believed it was a prank: ibid.

  arriving . . . hundreds.: Chertok, Rockets and People, Vol. 1, 366.

  “The dazed, half-asleep . . . was an order”: ibid.

  Approximately five thousand rocket specialists: Harford, 75. Note that there is some debate about the total number of German scientists deported by the Soviets. Siddiqi suggests the number could have been as high as six thousand. See Sputnik and Soviet Space Challenge, 43.

  abducted and transported . . . Moscow: Harford, 75.

  Chapter 8: Back to the USSR

  “we were horrified”: Chertok, Rockets and People, Vol. 2, 29.

  something out of the Stone Age: ibid.

  “There was dirt . . . ransacked”: ibid.

  overcrowded barracks: Siddiqi, Sputnik and the Soviet Space Challenge, 44.

  1,700 cities . . . dead: Statistics as reported in Siddiqi, Sputnik and the Soviet Space Challenge, 23.

  lasted nearly a decade: Harford, 94, 151.

  leaky roofs. The engineers didn’t . . . desks: Siddiqi, Sputnik and the Soviet Space Challenge, 44.

  “did not offer his hand”: Korolev in a letter to his wife, quoted in Siddiqi, Sputnik and the Soviet Space Challenge, 60.

  silently at first . . . questions: ibid.

  Kapustin Yar test range described: ibid., 54.

  Chapter 9: Space Cowboys

  POPs (prisoners of peace): Ward, Dr. Space, 63.

  fire hoses, sandbags . . . pillows: ibid., 64.

  “Frankly, we were . . . so”: Wernher von Braun quoted in McGovern, 200.

  “We were distrusted . . . land”; “Nobody seemed to . . . ridiculous”; “We had been coddled . . . pennies”: Wernher von Braun quoted in Ward, 67.

  Operation Paperclip . . . program: Nature of Operation Paperclip as discussed with Neufeld, October 4, 2019.

  War Department’s decision to keep von Braun’s membership in the SS classified: discussed with Neufeld, October 4, 2019.

  “the brains behind . . . enemies”: Art Leibson, “118 V-2 Experts Stationed in E.P.”

  Public disclosure of Operation Paperclip, as discussed with Neufeld, October 4, 2019.

  “I have never thought . . . synonymous”: John Dingell in Sarah McClendon, “German Scientists in El Paso Blasted,” El Paso Times, July 1, 1947.

  Visitors drove . . . future: Daniel Lang, “A Reporter at Large: White Sands.”

  nearly seventy V-2 rockets: Hardesty and Eisman, Epic Rivalry: The Inside Story of the Soviet and American Space Race, 30.

  “I had secretly hoped . . . down”: von Braun, “Space Man,” American Weekly, August 3, 1958, 9.

  “subtlety of a bulldozer”: ibid.

  “I’d never thought of marrying anyone else”: Maria von Braun’s letter to Wernher von Braun, “Space Man,” ibid, 14.

  He was . . . died: As discussed with Michael Neufeld in a telephone interview with the author, December 20, 2019.

  Summary of Rickhey’s trial: ibid.

  “I am not acquainted with . . . Mittelwerk”: Typescript of von Braun’s sworn testimony in the trial of Georg Rickhey, October 14, 1947, Dachau Trials of 1947, 2018-0026, Collection: von Braun Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War [Neufeld], Box Number 6, Folder “WvB/MvBJr-Dora Trial 1947.

  370 miles from . . . site. Cadbury, 127.

  “We can dream . . . dice”: Wernher von Braun quoted in Ordway and Sharpe, 361.

  Chapter 10: The Cold War

  forced each other to . . . rival: “Brinkmanship,” Encyclopedia Britannica, www.britannica.com/topic/brinkmanship.

  “War will come . . . radiation”: Earl Reichert quoted in “Protection Shelter for Storms and War.”

  Dimensions and materials composing Reichert’s bomb shelter: ibid.

  “You buy life . . . alive”: ibid.

  an American officer in civilian clothes; everything had been . . . officers; eighteen dollars in cash; He answered . . . Mexico: Neufeld, Von Braun, 245.

  “was the most valuable . . . spent.” Wernher von Braun quoted in Ward, 74.

  Chapter 11: Welcome to the Watercress Capital of the World!

  “a bunch of . . . men”: Robert Searcy quoted in Ward, 76.

  first large-scale . . . fuel: “V-2 Missile.”

  “Free to move around . . . America”: Ernst Stuhlinger quoted in Laney, 94.

  which automatically . . . 1950s: ibid., 127.

  without assets or a credit history: Ordway and Sharpe, 364.

  four million subscribers: Hardesty and Eisman, 39.

  four miles per second . . . sound: von Braun, Collier’s, March 22, 1952, 25.

  “From this platform . . . step”; “The job would . . . bomb”; “if we can . . . mankind”: ibid., 24.

  “The US must . . . Union.” ibid., 23.

  Chapter 12: The Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM)

  “Stalin dies after . . . says.” New York Times, late city edition, front page, March 6, 1953.

  Korolev grieved Stalin’s death: Harford, 234.

  Abramov describes Korolev’s eating habits in Siddiqi, Sputnik and the Soviet Space Challenge, 118.

  R-7 dimensions: Zak, “The R-7 Interconinental Ballistic Missile.”

  three-to-five megaton . . . device: ibid.

  travel at a . . . world: Siddiqi, The Red Rockets’ Glare, 241.

  Exchange of Christmas cards between Korolev and Glushko, Siddiqi, interview with the author, March 1, 2019.

  constant bickering: Chertok, Rockets and People, Vol. 2, 302.

  “general atmosphere . . . prevailed”: ibid.

  Chapter 13: A Rocket Man in Tomorrowland

  Von Braun’s relationship with Walt Disney: Neufeld, Von Braun, 285–90.

  thirty-eight . . . experts: Ward, 86.

  “one of the . . . of my life”: von Braun quoted in Ward, 86.

  “Since the advent . . . world”: Eisenhower’s remarks at the Department of State 1954 Honor Awards Ceremony, October 19, 1954, Eisenhower Library, www.eisenhowerlibrary.gov/eisenhowers/quotes.

  Eisenhower’s fears of a future surprise Soviet attack similar to Pearl Harbor in December 1941: Hardesty and Eisman, 44–45.

  Pearl Harbor attack statistics: “The Count of Pearl Harbor Deaths,” Pearlharbor.org.

  Eisenhower and Technological Capabilities Panel (TCP): ibid., 44–47.

  “one of the . . . 20th century.” Hardesty and Eisman, 56.

  “comparable to the . . . bomb”: Clauser, “Preliminary Design of a World-Circling Spaceship,” 2.

  Eisenhower and Freedom of Space principle: ibid., 47, 57, 59–60.

  The IGY’s . . . project: Hardesty and Eisman, 59–60.

  Chapter 14: A Red Moon Rises

  “stretched upward . . . aquarium;” “windows covered . . . white paint;” “crowding together at the entrance;”: Sergei Khrushchev, Nikita Khrushchev and the Creation of a Superpower, 106.

  “We did everything . . . tasted”: Nikita Khruschev from Khrushchev Remembers, quoted in Siddiqi, Challenge to Apollo, ibid.

  “Yes, a terrible force . . . Terrible”: Nikita Khrushchev quoted in Sergei Khrushchev, Nikita Khrushchev and the Creation of a Superpower, 106.

  “I would like you . . . project”: Korolev’s conversation with Khrushchev as recalled by his son, Sergei Khrushchev, in ibid., 110.

  rods protruding on all sides: ibid.

  “The main . . . country”: ibid.

  Chapter 15: Army vs. Navy

  “We had worked hard . . . together”: Randy Clinton quoted in Sputnik Declassified, NOVA/PBS special.

  a superior scientific proposal . . . efficient: Neufeld, interview with the author, October 4, 2019.

  Engineer Randy Clinton d
escribed hiding the satellite in the trunk of his automobile, Sputnik Declassified, NOVA/PBS special.

  “Wernher, I must . . . live.” Medaris in Ward, 98.

  Von Braun’s victory dance: ibid.

  Chapter 16: Object D

  “1.3 tons”: Siddiqi, The Red Rockets’ Glare, 334.

  “What if we . . . simpler”: Mikhail Tikhonravov quoted in ibid.

  one or two . . . source: ibid.

  no method . . . clarity in space: ibid., 338.

  Temperature fluctuations . . . meteorites: ibid.

  “Couldn’t you make it . . . kind”: ibid.

  “Tell him . . . won’t”: von Braun quoted in Ward, 99.

  Chapter 17: Sputnik

  Weather described: Siddiqi, The Red Rockets’ Glare, 350.

  Fifteen minutes before . . . personnel: ibid., 352.

  At the ten minute mark . . . liftoff: ibid.

  “instantly on the alert . . . on”: Evgenii Shabarov, ibid., 353.

  “Ten minutes to readiness”: voice over loudspeaker, ibid., 352.

  Translation of Russian countdown sequence: ibid., 353.

  “Contact liftoff!”: ibid.

  “There was absolute . . . orbit”: Mikhail Rebrov quoted in Harford, 129.

  Outside, Viacheslav Lappo . . . transmission: events of Sputnik launch, Siddiqi, The Red Rockets’ Glare, 355.

  “It’s there! . . . recorders”: Lappo, 356.

  teary-eyed men: Harford, 129.

  “junior specialists . . . labor.” Siddiqi, The Red Rockets’ Glare, 356.

  Chapter 18: Bleep-Bleep-Bleep

  “What do you . . . orbited”: Robinson, “The Story behind the Explorers,” This Week Magazine, April 13, 1958, 36.

  “We knew . . . days”: von Braun quoted in Medaris, 155.

  “Ninety days”; “get the stuff . . . proceed”: Medaris, 155, 157.

  “Come listen”: Homer Hickam, Rocket Boys, chapter 2, ebook.

  “buttered toast”; “hot chocolate”: ibid.

  He expected to hear rock and roll: ibid.

  “the tone . . . space”: ibid.

  “What is this thing, Sonny?” ibid.

  “The bright little ball . . . it”: ibid.

  “raise [his] apprensions . . . iota”: Eisenhower, 123rd press conference, www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJBitwFULCU.

  Chapter 19: The Invisible Man

  Valentin Glushko’s . . . from official historical records: Siddiqi, Sputnik and the Soviet Space Challenge, 169.

  Six-column-wide . . . war: Brzezinksi, Matthew, Red Moon Rising, 171–172.

  Soviet fires . . . U.S.: New York Times, October 5, 1957, www.nytimes.com/partners/aol/special/sputnik/sput-01.html.

  Winter Is an Urgent Task: Siddiqi, The Red Rockets’ Glare, 358.

  Korolev hesitated . . . time: Chertok, Rockets and People: Creating a Rocket Industry, Vol. 2, 387.

  Chapter 20: Laika and the Cosmo-Mutt Cover-Up

  “thirteen-foot . . . instruments”: NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive, www.nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1957-002A.

  Dates and times of Laika’s placement inside the satellite, weather conditions, and launch date: Siddiqi, Sputnik and the Soviet Space Challenge, 173–74.

  “Everyone was very concerned”: Viktor Yazdovsky, “The Dog That Orbited the Earth,” BBC Witness History documentary.

  “They knew she . . . journey”: ibid.

  “wanted to do . . . her”: Vladimir Yazdovsky, ibid.

  Laika’s death and subsequent cover-up: Anatoly Zak, “Laika Declassified,” Smithsonian Air & Space Magazine, www.airspacemag.com/daily-planet/laika-declassified-180967077.

  “The Russians love . . . humanity”: Latson, “The Sad Story of Laika, the First Dog Launched into Orbit.”

  “the shaggiest, lonesomest, saddest dog in all history”: Wellerstein, “Remembering Laika, Space Dog and Soviet Hero.”

  Chapter 21: The Invisible Woman

  The timing . . . hand: Object label, Saturn V Hall, Explorer 1, US Space & Rocket Center Museum, Huntsville, Alabama, visited by the author March, 4, 2019.

  “I had to wear . . . life”: Joyce Neighbors, interview with the author, March 6, 2019.

  During the Jim Crow era . . . cafeterias: “Racial Relations: The Changing Role of Race at NASA Langley,” https://crgis.ndc.nasa.gov/historic/Racial_Relations.

  “If she says they’re good, then I’m ready to go”: Katherine Johnson recalls John Glenn’s words in Johnson, Reaching for the Moon: The Autobiography of NASA Mathematician Katherine Johnson, 209–210.

  Chapter 22: The American Satellite

  a tremendous . . . smoke: “Poof! US Fires Dudnik,” Humboldt Standard, Dec. 6, 1957, 1. Newspaperarchive.com, www.newspaperarchive.com/eureka-humboldt-standard-dec-06-1957-p-1/).

  The Pravda reprinting of the London Daily Herald described in Harford, 133.

  The Vanguard program . . . orbit: Vanguard 1 Satellite, 1958. Hollingham, “The World’s Oldest Scientific Satellite Is Still in Orbit.”

  Debus’s denouncement of colleagues to the Gestapo discussed with Neufeld in telephone interview with the author, December 20, 2019.

  “seemed charged with electricity”: Medaris, 219.

  “As the missile . . . voice”; “that sounded like . . . ‘Go, baby, go!’”; “up and up. Faster and faster”: ibid.

  Only a confirmation . . . achieved.: Medaris, 222, 224.

  Forty minutes later: ibid., 223.

  “I’m out of coffee . . . us.”: ibid., 223.

  “I repeated . . . aloud”: ibid., 225.

  From a nearby . . . satellite: ibid., 225.

  “We have firmly . . . again”: Von Braun, quoted in Time magazine, February 17, 1958.

  “two donuts of seething radiation”: Karen Fox, “NASA’s Van Allen Probes Spot an Impenetrable Barrier in Space.”

  Korolev’s work with the translator described by Vladimir Shevalyov to Harford, 244.

  Chapter 23: NASA Is Born

  “Their recent progress is . . . challenge”: Wernher von Braun, American Weekly, August 3, 1958.

  Chapter 24: “The Right Stuff”

  “Place a manned . . . safely”: Project Mercury Overview: Objectives and Guidelines, www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mercury/missions/objectives.html.

  “to go up . . . infinite”: Wolfe, 17.

  “We were treated like a bunch of lab rats”: L. Gordon Cooper and Bruce B. Henderson, Leap of Faith, 17.

  “The doctors got real creative . . . tests”; “Just when you thought . . . pad”; “We were probed . . . week”: ibid.

  “These men . . . flight”: Transcript, NASA Press Conference, Mercury Astronaut Team, April 9, 1959, www.nasa.gov/pdf/147556main_presscon.pdf.

  “Rarely were history’s explorers . . . destiny”: “The Seven Chosen,” Time magazine, Vol. LXXIII No. 16, April 20, 1959, 17.

  The air force . . . 1946: “Redstone and Atlas.”

  “about a half a mile”; “The sight of the Atlas . . . Disney”; “Searchlights played . . . it”; “thin-skinned . . . steel balloon; “we watched it . . . sky”; “looked like a hydrogen bomb”; the astronauts ducked; “Well, I’m glad . . . way”: Glenn, ebook, chapter 14.

  Chapter 25: Squirrel and Little Arrow

  he seemed to like dogs . . . launches: Siddiqi, Sputnik and the Soviet Space Challenge, 252.

  Soviet scientists . . . weightlessness; became more animated . . . convulsions; struggling Belka vomited; sad sight . . . orbit: Siddiqi, Sputnik and the Soviet Space Challenge, 253.

  “was not as dramatic . . . well.” Kennedy’s letter quoted in Alison Gee, “Pushinka: A Cold War Puppy the Kennedys Loved,” www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24837199.

  Chapter 26: Growing Pains at NASA

  The Redstone . . . arc: Neal Thompson, Light This Candle, chapter 10, ebook.

  “get the nation moving again”: Kennedy, quoted in “Campaign of 1960,” www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/jfk-in-history/campaign-of-1960.


  “We were inventing . . . along”: Kranz, Failure Is Not an Option, 28.

  “a change in the . . . room.”: ibid., 29.

  “precisely at zero . . . smoke”; “nothing on the screen but smoky sky.”: ibid.

  Chapter 27: Blast Radius

  “Over a period of . . . orbit”: Chertok, Rockets and People, Vol. 2, 597.

  “Superstitious Russians . . . bad luck”: Siddiqi explains that leap years are considered unlucky in Russia. See footnote in Chertok, Rockets and People, Vol. 2, 598.

  domineering personalities: Siddiqi, Sputnik and the Soviet Space Challenge, 112–113.

  Korolev preferred to . . . deputy: ibid. 113.

  The friendly rivalry between Korolev and Yangel as described by Siddiqi, in an email correspondence with the author, December 17, 2019.

  devil’s venom: Hardesty and Eisman, 35.

  When it came to . . . Force: Chertok, Rockets and People, Vol. 2, 602.

  Yangel’s political relationship with Nedelin and Khrushchev, Cadbury, 183.

  Mrykin and Yangel’s cigarette break: Siddiqi, Sputnik and the Soviet Space Challenge, 256.

  five hundred feet from the launch site: Chertok, Rockets and People, Vol. 2, 618.

  fifty feet away: Michael T. Kezirian, PhD, Joseph Pelton, PhD, Tommaso Sgobba, “The Russian R-16 Nedelin Disaster: An Historical Analysis of Failed Safety Management,” 69.

  “We’ll modify the missile . . . us”: Chertok recalls Nedelin’s comments, Rockets and People, Vol. 2, 615.

  organ-dissolving chemicals: Mark Everest, Christopher Spencer, Space Race, episode 3, BBC, 2005.

  an electrical error . . . engine: Hardesty and Eisman, 35.

  The rocket’s fuel tank detonated: ibid.