Beyond: The Astonishing Story of the First Human to Leave Our Planet and Journey into Space

The race between the two superpowers for supremacy in the field of manned space flight was so dramatic that Stephen Walker, describing it in a book, feels it necessary to assure the reader: it is not fiction. And indeed, behind the amazing, exciting story is many years of work in archives, personal meetings with participants of the events, hundreds of hours of interviews with specialists involved in the preparation of the first space flights in both the USSR and the United States, conversations with Russian and American cosmonauts. Although Yuri Gagarin’s personality is central to the narrative, Walker draws parallels between him and Alan Shepard, the two candidates for the first space flight, as well as between Sergei Pavlovich Korolev and Wernher von Braun, the rocket builders.

Stephen Walker. Beyond: The Astonishing Story of the First Human to Leave Our Planet and Journey into Space / Translated from English by Natalia Lisova; Science Editor Igor Lisov; Editor Vyacheslav Ionov. - M.: Alpina Non-Fiction, 2024.