Dark Side of the Moon: The Magnificent Madness of the American Lunar Quest

Science News,  Jan 6, 2007  

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DARK SIDE OF THE MOON: The Magnificent Madness of the American Lunar Quest

GERARD J. DEGROOT

Many people have fond memories of the moon landings of the 1960s and consider them heroic scientific achievements for the United States. However, DeGroot, a professor of history at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, claims that the race to the moon brought few dividends beyond a fleeting sense of pride and wonder. DeGroot examines what he calls the dark side of the space race. He reveals how Nazi scientists used slave labor to develop rockets and then were rewarded with work and security in the United States. The author claims that the first astronauts weren't chosen for their piloting or scientific skills. Once Russia orbited Sputnik and ignited panic in the U.S. government, few people questioned the logic of space exploration, and NASA became a big-budget agency with a nebulous mission. After Neil Armstrong's first step onto the moon, politicians and NASA leaders had even less of a sense of what to do about space, the author asserts. NYU Press, 2006, 321 p., hardcover, $29.95.

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