From the author of 'Seven Wonders Of The Industrial World', another highly anticipated TV tie-in charting the shocking but true story behind the space race - and the ruthless, brilliant scientists who fuelled it.
This riveting account stretches from World War II through to the moon landings. With the two superpowers pitched against one another during the Cold War, this race to create the most powerful rocket and dominate the world culminates in 1969's 'giant leap for mankind'. Involving the most pioneering and high-risk experiments ever undertaken, the space race cost untold millions - and hundreds of lives, as mistakes were made, some too horrific to be made public at the time.
Set against a backdrop of communism and espionage, it is a tale full of heroes and villains, individuals whose passion it is to be the winner of this dream at any cost. With ex-Nazi Wernher von Braun on the American side pitted against the enigmatic Sergei Korolev on the Soviet side, this revealing new history shows the extent to which politics and personal ambition combined to create an explosive race of epic proportions.
