Baikonur Man, Barry L. Stoddard
Baikonur Man, Barry L. Stoddard
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Baikonur Man
Space, Science, American Ambition, and Soviet Chaos at the Cold War's End

Author: Barry L. Stoddard

Narrator: Rich Miller

Unabridged: 6 hr 35 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 10/08/2024


Synopsis

Against the backdrop of the late Cold War, a tiny American start-up company forged a secret deal to place American scientific payloads aboard the Soviet space station MIR. Born out of sheer desperation after the Challenger explosion and grounding of the United States space shuttle program, the agreement was negotiated and approved behind the backs of NASA and Congress, with the help of United States government officials inside the Commerce and Defense departments.

On a cold gray morning in February 1988, the company founder met with three graduate students and their professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to put his plans into action. Baikonur Man, written by one of those students, recounts the subsequent five-year saga of how science, comradery, hardship, drama, and occasional lunacy led to the first American experiments and payloads to fly on Russian rockets.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Barry on July 06, 2023

Well, I wrote this book, so not surprisingly I give it five stars! I hope that all who read it enjoy the story. They say that any would-be author should write what they know, and in this case I had this one really interesting, completely true story to tell. If you like forgotten and perhaps unusual......more

Goodreads review by Greg on January 29, 2024

This narrative is a first-person account of a brilliant scientist (Barry) hailing from the heart of Montana and raised in the quaint landscapes of small-town Idaho. A fellow classmate and SHS Alummi :) A delightful blend of science, nostalgia, and personal triumph, I found myself engrossed in the pa......more

Goodreads review by Lindsey on April 20, 2023

"If I puke my guts out again tomorrow...I'm going to do it like an astronaut" I'm partial to nearly-lost stories of history and this one was extra fun. Set during a time when it felt like the world was hurdling towards nuclear disaster and the doomsday clock was only 6 minutes to midnight, this is th......more

Goodreads review by Sharon on July 19, 2023

"If somebody asks you if you want to go to Russia to send experiments into space, you say YES!” (p 53). This book is a fascinating and engaging story of collaboration and scientific advancement during a historical time of challenging political upheaval between two superpowers. The science is relevan......more

Goodreads review by Kate on February 28, 2025

The author has a compelling narrative voice but I'm honestly not sure why this was published as a book rather than a series of blog posts......more