100 Stories about Docking and other space adventures by Vladimir Syromiatnikov
I picked a copy of this book off of Ed. Thanks Ed! This book by my guess would be best classified as an autobiography, a historical documentation and a Kinematics textbook rolled into one.
This book shows the life of Vladimir Syromiatnikov- his childhood, his education and his involvement in the Russian space program. I have read books about Korolev by authors from the U.S. but never have I read a book about someone in the inside who was a major part of the program. It is good to have another point of view.
I learned a new word in this book, “Kinematicsâ€, which is basically a body in motion but does not take into account stuff like mass. Lots of early R&D trial and error approaches to docking. I enjoyed the electromechanical approach to docking. This is a really good read about how the Androgynous docking system, later called APAS, came about. The climax of the book is the Apollo-Soyuz mission.
I think the only drawback on the book was there was never an English language editor for this book, it was just translated. Well I did take notes in the book, so if they need the edits, I have them.
Four out of five stars
SM
