The Red Rockets Glare

An academic study on the birth of the Soviet space program, situating the birth of cosmic enthusiasm within Russian and Soviet history.

Traces the development of rockets from the Middle Ages to modern times.

The thrilling stories and stunning illustrations of The Rockets' Red Glare are sure to capture the imagination of anyone interested in the fascinating history of the War of 1812.

Combining the narrative drive of the best of Clive Cussler with the knowledge of Tom Clancy, Rockets’ Red Glare is the techno-thriller of the year about an ingenious coup that would change the balance in the world’s arsenal forever On October 22, 1962, President Kennedy orders the US Navy to search all ships en route to Cuba. For six tense days, a frightened world watches as the two most powerful nations on Earth edge toward war. On October 28, under intense pressure, the Soviet Union agrees to dismantle its bases. The Cuban missile crisis is over. Or is it? Pensacola, Florida, 1987. Two naval officers of the Satellite Surveillance Group who have been tracking a Soviet Foxtrot class submarine suddenly come upon a mysterious VLCC supertanker—identity unknown. Hundreds of miles away in Houston, handsome millionaire industrialist Theodor Churcher takes off in his private helicopter for a clandestine rendezvous with the Soviet submarine in the Gulf of Mexico. Several days later, children playing on a beach in Louisiana find a severed arm floating in the surf—the fingerprints are those of Theodor Churcher. The final ominous moves in a brilliant Soviet strategy that began with the Cuban missile crisis are set in motion. Devastated by his father’s death, young Andrew Churcher undertakes a dangerous mission to the Soviet Union to recover stolen blueprints that would not only avert the unfolding nightmare, but might cleanse his father’s honor of the suspicion of treason. As he tracks a complex trail of move and countermove, Churcher is embroiled in a violent power struggle between two arms of Soviet intelligence. What Churcher doesn’t know is that he is to be the bait in a deadly Soviet trap. From the cockpits of US fighters to the decks of Soviet navy vessels, from the back streets of Moscow to the oilrigs of Texas, Rockets’ Red Glare is the ultimate techno-thriller.

The launch of the Sputnik satellite in October 1957 changed the course of human history. In the span of a few years, Soviets sent the first animal into space, the first man, and the first woman. These events were a direct challenge to the United States and the capitalist model that claimed ownership of scientific aspiration and achievement. Into the Cosmos shows us the fascinating interplay of Soviet politics, science, and culture during the Khrushchev era, and how the space program became a binding force between these elements.

Enjoy this great comic from DC’s digital archive!

Curator and space historian at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum delivers a brilliantly nuanced biography of controversial space pioneer Wernher von Braun. Chief rocket engineer of the Third Reich and one of the fathers of the U.S. space program, Wernher von Braun is a source of consistent fascination. Glorified as a visionary and vilified as a war criminal, he was a man of profound moral complexities, whose intelligence and charisma were coupled with an enormous and, some would say, blinding ambition. Based on new sources, Neufeld's biography delivers a meticulously researched and authoritative portrait of the creator of the V-2 rocket and his times, detailing how he was a man caught between morality and progress, between his dreams of the heavens and the earthbound realities of his life.