EDITORIAL INFORMATION

From the first hesitating flights on board fragile handmade vehicles, to the most recent astronautic devices exploring space, a long way full of difficulties has been trodden, one whose most important feats have been kept in utter secret.

Manuel Montes has recreated this secret history of Astronautics which also happens to be a thrilling adventure.

(Extracted from the back cover).

GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

-Prólogo.

-1- Cuando el Espacio Se Hace Realidad.
-2- La Verdadera Carrera Lunar.
-3- Vuelos Tripulados: En Órbita a la Tierra.
-4- Llegan los Transbordadores.
-5- Satélites Militares.
-6- Sondas Misteriosas.

-Epílogo.

-Bibliografía.

OUR REVIEW

This book we are dealing with has been written by one of the people in charge of The Science Book Board. A science writer specialized in themes related to the space sciences, Manuel Montes gathers in this work all those themes which are usually left out of divulgative books of astronautics. We are referring to the military satellites, certain secret missions of the ex Soviet Union (such as the Buran shuttle, the orbital stations Almaz, the manned lunar program - already developed in greater detail by the same author in the book Alas Rojas, Infortécnica, 1994 - some interplanetary probes, etc.)

Our conclusion is that there have existed many space projects that, for different reasons have been kept hidden from public opinion, and that even now there is little information about them. Suffice it to say that the space military budget of the USA is far superior to that of the civilian agency NASA. The image we have of the conquest of space, of what is done up there, is then absolutely partial and incomplete. With this book, however, we are entering some of these mysterious flights, which have recently been unclassified, and we will examine others that still maintain an aura of confidentiality.

The book, while being purely divulgative and easy to read, states the reasons which led those responsible for such programs to choose the aura of secrecy which has been enveloping them for decades. The reason why many of them are still outside the history books is sometimes due to the failures, and some other times because of national security.