by Amy Cherrix
Descriptions of Nedelin disaster victims: Kezirian, Pelton, and Sgobba, 69.
Only a single . . . identity. Siddiqi, Sputnik and the Soviet Space Challenge, 258.
an aircraft accident: ibid.
Revelation of truth of Nedelin disaster: Siddiqi, telephone interview with the author, October 25, 2019.
126 people died: Siddiqi, Sputnik and the Soviet Space Challenge, 258. In footnote 42 on this page, Siddiqi states that the number of deaths in the Nedelin disaster varies among sources.
Chapter 28: The First to Fly
“You might think . . . back”: Thompson, chapter 1.
A valve malfunctioned . . . course: Thompson, chapter 13, ebook.
he was livid: ibid.
Chapter 29: The Russians’ “Right Stuff”
Gagarin’s reading of Hemingway in the Soviet medical center: Jenks, “The Russian Icarus: How Gagarin Became Cosmonaut #1.”
Soviet fascination with Ernest Hemingway: ibid.
Scott, Leonov, Toomey, sat shirtless . . . turn: Gagarin described by Leonov: Two Sides of the Moon, Chapter 2, ebook.
“Hello, my little eagles”: Alexei Leonov quoted in The Russian Right Stuff : “The Invisible Spaceman,” episode 1.
“Hello!”; “He was looking . . . everything”: ibid.
“blue eyes . . . smile”: Leonov quoted in Harford, 159.
March 9, 1934, in the village of Klushino, a hundred miles from Moscow: Doran and Bizony, Starman, chapter 1.
They seized the Gagarins’ house; seek shelter . . . storage; Russians used . . . straw: Jenks, The Cosmonaut Who Couldn’t Stop Smiling: The Life and Legend of Yuri Gagarin, 36, footnote 32.
Suicide of Russian colonel recalled by Valentin Gagarin in Doran and Bizony, chapter 1, ebook.
The Gagarin children’s resistance activities: ibid.; Jenks, 38.
Boris wept . . . bled; pointed his rifle; by an officer: Doran and Bizony, chapter 1, ebook.
Using the scarf . . . camera: Jenks, 36, 37, footnote 33.
The effects of torture on Boris Gagarin’s ability to walk, ibid.
shoved dirt . . . equipment: ibid., 38.
“It was my fault . . . no one else is to blame”: Valentin Bondarenko quoted from Golovanov in Siddiqi, Sputnik and the Soviet Space Challenge, 266, see footnote 71.
Chapter 30: “Poyekhali!” (“Let’s Go!”)
sixty-five beats per minute: Vladimir Yakovlevich Khilchenko quoted in John Rhea, ed., Roads to Space, 387.
“Everything is normal . . . feel.” Gagarin’s Vostok 1 flight transcript excerpted and translated in Siddiqi, Sputnik and the Soviet Space Challenge, 277.
“I feel excellent . . . well”: ibid.
“I see the clouds . . . beautiful”: ibid.
one hour and forty-eight minutes: ibid., 281.
inside an unmarked car: ibid., 282.
Chapter 31: “Light This Candle”
“It is a most . . . feat”: John F. Kennedy quoted in news conference 9, April 12, 1961, www.jfklibrary.org/archives/other-resources/john-f-kennedy-press-conferences/news-conference-9.
$40 billion: Hardesty and Eisman, 120.
“Do we have a chance . . . win?”: Kennedy in John Logsdon, ed., The Penguin Book of Outer Space Exploration, 158.
“We have an excellent chance . . . 1967/68”: ibid.
The suit was . . . exertion: Thompson, chapter 14, ebook.
for more than three hours: ibid.
“Man, I got . . . myself”: ibid.
the urine was . . . space suit: ibid.
“Why don’t you . . . light this candle”: ibid.
Forty-five million Americans: NASA.gov, “US Human Spaceflight: A Record of Achievement, 1961–2006,” www.history.nasa.gov/monograph41.pdf, 13.
“These are extraordinary . . . cause”; “Now it is time . . . Earth”; “No single space . . . accomplish”: JFK address to a joint session of Congress, May 25, 1961, 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUXuV7XbZvU.
von Braun . . . associates: Ward, 128.
four hundred double-decker buses: Equinox, season 2, episode 1, “The Engines That Came in from the Cold,” www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLg1QUq5GQM.
estimated cost of manufacturing . . . rubles: Harford, 257.
actual cost . . . four billion rubles: ibid.
Chapter 32: Behind the Wall
“We felt like like wild . . . pounce”: Peter Guba quoted in “The Berlin Wall,” documentary video.
powered through discomfort . . . pace: Siddiqi, Sputnik and the Soviet Space Challenge, 361.
He obsessed . . . operation: ibid.
intestinal bleeding . . . unbearable pain: ibid., footnote 32.
Chapter 33: “She Is a Gagarin in a Skirt”
“You’re working . . . space.”: Siddiqi, “The First Woman in Earth Orbit,” Spaceflight Vol. 51, January 2009, 20–21.
“Everything is normal . . . arrangement”; “I am not a delicate lady”: ibid., 21.
as long as . . . air: Valentina Tereshkova quoted in Mary Dejevsky, “The First Woman in Space,” Guardian.com.
“was marvelous”: ibid.
four hundred women candidates: Siddiqi, Sputnik and the Soviet Space Challenge, 353.
altitude of more than four miles: Libby Jackson, Galaxy Girls, 32.
the selection . . . cosmonauts: Siddiqi, Sputnik and the Soviet Space Challenge, 246.
“taking walks . . . son”: Kamanin’s journal quoted in ibid., 362.
“We must first send Tereshkova . . . skirt”: ibid.
the Seagull reported . . . continue: Siddiqi, “The First Woman in Earth Orbit,” 22.
just another . . . West: Siddiqi, Sputnik and the Soviet Space Challenge, 369.
“Women of the world . . . success”: Valentina Tereshkova’s flight transcript quoted in Siddiqi, “The First Woman in Orbit,” 24.
all six American . . . combined: Siddiqi, Sputnik and the Soviet Space Challenge, 373.
Chapter 34: “The President Has Been Shot”
Korolev lived . . . services: suspicion that his phone was tapped; Criticism of the Americans . . . circles; the chief designer felt . . . well.; Harford, 234.
Admire the US: ibid.; “never heard Korolev criticize America.”: Vladimir Shevalyov, ibid.
“What a waste . . . leader”: Bonnie Holmes recollections quoted in Ward, 132.
it was the only . . . cry: ibid.
“Like for so many . . . me”: Wernher von Braun’s letter to Mrs. Kennedy, exhibit, US Space & Rocket Center Museum, Huntsville, Alabama. Author visit March 7, 2019.
“What a wonderful world . . . him.” Mrs. Kennedy’s letter to Wernher von Braun, ibid.
Chapter 35: Stepping Stones to the Moon
“long-duration flight . . . moon”: “Gemini: Bridge to the Moon.”
Korolev hoped . . . moon: Harford, 180.
“launch of . . . away!”: Vasily Mishin, ibid.
Modifications of Vostok to accommodate additional cosmonauts for Voskhod missions: ibid., 181.
F-1 engine functioning: The Great Hope, exhibit, US Space & Rocket Center Museum, Huntsville, Alabama, author visit March 7, 2019.
one week later . . . attack.: Harford, 277.
Most of the . . . systems: Siddiqi, email correspondence with the author, December 17, 2019.
“The scope of . . . alarm”: Korolev’s letter quoted in Siddiqi, Sputnik and the Soviet Space Challenge, 405.
“In this . . . Soviet Union”: ibid.
Voskhod 1 soft landing described: Sparrow et al., eds., The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Space & Space Exploration, 311.
“It was taking far longer . . . to”: Alexei Leonov, “The Nightmare of Voskhod 2.”
“My temperature . . . high”; “drenched with sweat, my heart racing”; “We had only . . . ammunition”; “as the sky . . . howl.”: ibid.
“saddest moment of my life”: White quoted in Ben Evans, “‘The Saddest Moment’: The Story of America’s First Space Walk,” Part 2.
planned to be . . . 1968: Cadbury, 285.
fill a family-size . . . seconds: Space Race, episode 4, BBC, www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZI8uLCsjlU.
Each of the five bell . . . Dams: “The Mighty F-1 Engine Powered the Saturn V Rocket,” www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/history/f1_engine_new.html.
The human toll of the space race on the personal lives and health of those involved, as discussed with Homer Hickam in interview with the author, March 5, 2019.
tired easily: Harford, 276.
Antonina Zlotnikova’s recollection of Korolev stating his plans to die at his desk, quoted from Alexander Ishlinksky in Harford, 277. See also note 367.
“I am somehow unusually . . . bit”: Korolev’s letter to his wife, quoted in Harford, 276.
American military advisers . . . 1965: Ronald H. Spector, “Vietnam: 1954–1975,” Britannica.com., www.britannica.com/event/Vietnam-War.
between 15,000 and . . . protesters: Resistance and Revolution: The Anti-Vietnam War Movement at the University of Michigan, 1965–1972, “The March on Washington, www.michiganintheworld.history.lsa.umich.edu/antivietnamwar/exhibits/show/exhibit/the_teach_ins/national_teach_in_1965.
it was the largest . . . history: ibid.
Chapter 36: Da Svedaniya (“Goodbye”)
“He was wearing . . . smile.”; “run-down . . . thoughts.”: Chertok, Rockets and People: Hot Days of the Cold War, Vol. 3, 521.
“Well, carry on!” Chertok recalls Korolev’s last words to his team: ibid.
“less complicated than an appendectomy”: ibid., 528.
expected to return in one week: ibid.
He was miserable. . . . Cosmodrome: Harford, 277.
“I can’t work like this any longer”: Korolev’s statement to his wife, Nina Korolev, quoted from Golovanov in Harford, 276.
“What are you doing?”; “It is hard enough to . . . him”; “there is no way”; “Ministers come . . . business.”: Mishin quoted from Tarasov in Harford, 278.
at eight a.m. . . . 1966: Harford, 279.
“My father . . . operating table”; “cut the abdomen . . . before.”: Natalia Korolev in Harford, 279.
the size of two fists: Golovanov quoted in Harford, 281.
only had a few months to left to live; Thirty minutes after . . . breathing: ibid.
Doctors raced . . . him: ibid., 281.
“It can’t be this modest”: Chertok, Rockets and People, Vol. 3, 530.
“Korolev remained . . . persecution”: ibid.
“I was attempting . . . repression”: ibid., 531.
“Serbin frowned . . . lines”: ibid.
By nine a.m. . . . enter.: ibid., 539.
“A particle of truth . . . them”; “There was a general sense . . . secret”; “There was a shared . . . achievements”: ibid., 540.
“We wanted to be . . . us”: ibid., 539.
Korolev was cremated: ibid., 541.
past Soviet leaders and heroes: Harford, 285.
Chapter 37: “A Rough Road Leads to the Stars”
“If we die . . . life.” Grissom quoted in Barbour, Footprints on the Moon, 125.
“How are we . . . buildings”: “The Apollo 1 Tragedy,” NASA .gov, www.nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo1info.html.
“We’ve got a fire in the cockpit”: Edward White, ibid.
“three good friends” . . . stars: von Braun quoted in Ward, 139.
bright, sunlit morning: Siddiqi, The Soviet Space Race with Apollo, 585.
Power problems aboard Soyuz 1: Siddiqi, The Soviet Space Race with Apollo, 582–84.
It was almost . . . a.m.: ibid., 585.
suddenly the helicopter . . . side: ibid.
Recollections of a rescue service member, ibid., footnote 68.
resting on its side . . . fire: Soyuz 1 descent described by eyewitnesses in Siddiqi, The Soviet Space Race with Apollo, 587.
Komarov had hit . . . crash: ibid., footnote 73.
“We are very . . . cosmonauts”: Astronauts’ draft of telegram of condolence, NASA.gov, www.nasa.gov/pdf/743921main_Astronaut_condolence_telegram-Soyuz_1-%2024Apr1967.pdf.
For years . . . accident: “Death of Yury Gagarin Demystified 40 Years On.”
Chapter 38: Apollo Takes Flight
“the question . . . sunk”: “Apollo 4 and Saturn V,” www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4205/ch9-5.html.
“When that thing fired . . . throat.”: Jim Jenkins, interview with the author, March 4, 2019.
“We were like school kids . . . by”: James Lovell, quoted in NASA’s Look at 50 Years of Apollo, “Apollo 8: Around the Moon and Back,” episode 3.
“Suddenly I looked . . . moly”: Frank Borman, ibid.
“Oh, my God . . . pretty”: Frank Borman, Apollo 8 Onboard Voice Transcription, NASA.gov, January 1969. http://historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov/JSCHistoryPortal/history/mission_trans/AS08_CM.PDF.
“The vast loneliness . . . Earth”; “From the crew . . . Earth”: James Lovell quoted in “Apollo Expeditions to the Moon,” NASA.gov, www.history.nasa.gov/SP-350/ch-9-6.html.
“disastrous”: James Lovell quoted in Fairhead, Mission Control: The Unsung Heroes of Apollo, documentary film, Netflix.com.
“To end the year . . . place”: ibid.
“What a place . . . painting.”: Eugene Cernan, Apollo 10 Corrected Transcript, www.history.nasa.gov/afj/ap10fj/as10-day5-pt19.html.
“I heard the thrusters . . . bang”; “We were fighter pilots . . . that”; a record-setting . . . hours; “We had all . . . feet.”: Thomas Stafford quoted in NASA’s Look at 50 Years of Apollo, episode 1, “Apollo 10,” NASA, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq8cyvmJMNQ.
Apollo 10 record: ibid.
working twenty-four-hour . . . launch: Equinox, season 2, episode 1: “The Engines That Came in from the Cold.”
“In those first . . . victory”: Boris Chertok: ibid.
“sensitive to . . . objects”: report quoted in Harford, 295.
“Only he who does nothing . . . inadequate”: Mishin quoted in Siddiqi, The Soviet Space Race with Apollo, 854.
Chapter 39: “One Small Step”
an hour early: Watkins, Apollo Moon Missions: The Unsung Heroes, 8.
monitor the lunar . . . computer: Fairhead.
“probably more than . . . engineering”: Steve Bales quoted in Watkins, 5.
lit a cigarette; began reviewing his notes; could “cut it with a knife”: ibid.
“Program alarm”; “It’s a 1202”; “We’re GO on that alarm”; “Roger.”: NASA Apollo 11 “Technical Air-to-Ground Voice Transmission, (GOSS NET 1) from the Apollo 11 mission.”
“Steve! It’s on our little list!”: Bales recalled Garman’s words in, Mission Control.
“Better remind them . . . moon”: Gene quoted in Alan Shepard, Deke Slayton, and Jay Barbree, Moon Shot, chapter 19, ebook.
crossed his fingers; “I swear to God . . . happen”: Alexei Leonov quoted in “One giant . . . lie? Why so many people still think the moon landings were faked.” Guardian.com.
The Soviet newspaper . . . story: Stone and Andres, Chasing the Moon, 275.
Only select . . . landing: Siddiqi, The Soviet Space Race with Apollo, 697.
“The night of . . . minute”: letter from Mrs. Margaret and Michael Jennings quoted in Hansen, Dear Neil Armstrong, 121.
“I adore space . . . an astronaut”: André von Hebra’s letter quoted in Hansen, 132.
“My parents . . . it”: Marianne Madden’s letter quoted in Hansen, 171.
“to record . . . flight”; “My only son . . . up”: Jerry Hammond’s letter quoted in Hansen, 193.
Chapter 40: Return to Rocket City
Huntsville leadership capitalizes on the moon landing: Laney, German Rocketeers in the Heart of Dixie, 1–3.
Huntsville population figures: Laney, 2.
Over five thousand . . . Courthouse: Bob Dunnavant, “Mars Landing Decision Near, Says Von Braun,” July 25, 1969, Decatur Daily, 1.
“That ride was as . . . s
pace”: ibid.
“Now that man . . . continue”: ibid., 5.
“Houston, we’ve had a problem here”: Lovell mission’s corrected transcript and commentary in Woods et al., Apollo Flight Journal.
Chapter 41: Life After Apollo
Dr. Wernher von Braun . . . DC: Ward, 182.
“Dr. von Braun . . . citizens”: ibid.
a new fifteen-million-dollar . . . complex: ibid.
“My friends, there was dancing . . . slippers”: Wernher von Braun quoted in “Huntsville Parties Like It’s 1969 to Celebrate Lunar Landing Anniversary,” www.whnt.com/2019/07/19/huntsville-parties-like-its-1969-to-celebrate-lunar-landing-anniversary.
conflicted feelings about going to Washington: Konrad Dannenberg quoted in Ward, 177.
“I’ve found out . . . accent”: John Goodrum, ibid., 197.
shadow on his left kidney: Neufeld, Von Braun, 464.
On August 22 . . . mass: ibid., 469.
resist his doctor’s orders . . . had: ibid., 464.
less than an hour: ibid., 469.
sedated during the last months . . . pain: ibid., 472.
three a.m. on Thursday, June 16, 1977: ibid.
Chapter 42: Out of the Shadows
“The men that he . . . callous”: Eli Rosenbaum quoted in Laney, 153.
Additional evidence . . . involvement: Laney, 154.
Rudolph was present at the hanging . . . watch: Judy Feigin, “The Office of Special Investigations: Striving for Accountability in the Aftermath of the Holocaust,” 333.
“a form of terror”: ibid.
the statute of . . . expired: Laney, 160.
Chapter 43: All That Remains
Name of SpaceX conference room “Von Braun”: SpaceX tweet, March 23, 2015, www.twitter.com/spacex/status/580158964190482432?lang=en.
Author’s Note
