John B. Medaris (1902–1990)

I love old books that were written about historical events, in the midst of an historical event. While this book was published in 1960, it primarily focuses on events predating the creation of NASA in 1958. The bulk of the book is made up of his criticism of the government (he REALLY did not like the Air Force) and how the nation's missile programs were run.

He was the Commander of AMBA - The Army Ballistic Missile Agency, home of the Von Braun rocket group. He talks a great deal about the Redstone and Jupiter missiles, so I felt this was a great resource on those two programs. Both faced a lot of opposition and obstacles, and Medaris certainly seems to be the main reason both were eventually successful. The book also covers the duel between the Army and Navy over the first satellite launcher - Jupiter C vs Vanguard. I really enjoyed this perspective on history. He was incredibly dismissive of Vanguard, which was a mistake on his part. While Vanguard certainly had some flaws, I feel it was not as bad as Medaris indicated. I was quite disappointed to note that he misspelled Navaho several times throughout the book. I would have liked more information on some of the test facilities at ABMA, too.

All in all, this would be a great read for anyone interested in space history, especially pre-NASA military space efforts.… (más)