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Summary: A must read for space enthusiasts.
Review: Dragonfly rates five stars. The author, Byran Burrough does a terrific job of telling the story of the American-Russian space station experiences on MIR. The book focuses on the interactions of the American and Russian space programs related to MIR from 1992 to 1997. The personal stories of the cosmonauts and the astronauts are interesting and well written. Much of the book focuses on the behind the scenes events as well as the thoughts and feeling of cosmonauts and astronauts. The book gives good explanations of terminology and some of the history leading to the space station partnership. For many knowledgable with manned space flight, the book reads like fiction, some of the events and interactions seem unbelievable. The old saying "Truth is stranger than fiction" is supported here. To me, the greatest feature of Dragonfly is the subtle comparisions between the Russian and American cultures. For those who read NASA press kits and follow America's manned space program, Dragonfly gives good insight into possible sources for difficulties expected with the Internation Space Program. The author has done a great job of including first person accounts from almost all parties involved. The research involved in the preparation of this book seems complete and the listing of sources in the back of the book is awesome. This is a good read. A great book to read then share with others. I'm looking forward to Bryan Burroughs' take on the International Space Station. Excellent!! Mr. Burrough well done.
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Summary: Must read for anyone interested in the space program
Review: This book is sort of the mirror image of many books about the space program. It emphasises the kind of personality conflicts that you'd expect when you bring some of the best people from 2 very different cultures together and heat them in a pressure cooker. I came away thinking that it was a good thing for NASA that they signed up for the Mir program. The book documents a lot of mistakes and lessons learned that hopefully will be addressed in the International Space station. Again, this book is not shy about characterising people, usually in a negative way. This certainly adds drama to the book, at the expense of real people. Still, there are plenty of sugar coated books about NASA to compensate.
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Summary: The Right Stuff is still alive -- BUT...
Review: ...it's being micro-managed and mismanaged right out of existence by politicians, bureaucrats and opportunists. While that may not be big news, through Burroughs' book, we can now put a name to these previously-nameless NASA parasites: George Abbey, Mark Albrecht, Dan Goldin...just to name a few who aren't in Congress. What struck me throughout this book is the courage, tenacity and intelligence of the men and women in NASA who, in spite of total lack of support, or worse, interference from, their politically-motivated managers, were able to pull off the Mir missions. I was also profoundly moved by the Russians' efforts to maintain their space program and their space station. This book corrected a lot of mis-impressions I'd had about their program. Yes, they take many more chances than NASA would ever contemplate, their equipment is old and falling apart. They are, however, the only program that has sucessfully maintained a long-lived station in space and they are the only humans with any experience in long-duration space flight. We have MUCH to learn from them. And they from us... This book leaves me in doubt as to whether the two space programs will indeed be allowed to profit from each others' experience. The Russian's money problems (which, as this book shows was a driving force behind the politically-inspired Phase One operation) and NASA's phalanx of self-centered, uninspired, non-technical management lead me to believe that if anything is accomplished it will only be through the individual efforts and dedication of the "rank and file" -- and that includes the astronauts. This book explained a lot for me: why my brother-in-law (who trains astronauts), once so purely, beautifully excited with just being a part of NASA, drags himself to work now; and why my husband, part of the initial tests ont he shuttle program when it started so many years ago, quit in disgust. NASA and the Russian space agency are still full of the brightest, most inspired, intelligent and motivated people the two countries have. (After reading this book, that's the only explanation I can come up with for the "success" of the Phase One program.) But unless we get the George Abbeys, and the Dan Goldins and the Hill Rats from Washington out of the equation, space exploration is doomed.
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Summary: The PR Flacks at NASA must be Fuming
Review: While at times poorly organized, and clearly pushing lots ofpersonal agendas and vendettas, this book is still the best insidestory of any NASA activity in the last 30 years. Its also a reminder of what a disservice institutional lying does to the organization that fosters it. Dan Goldin made a political bet on MIR and Russia, yet he lacked the organizational skill to implement through a morbund NASA. He continues to pay the price today.
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Summary: You will never look at space travel the same again
Review: Exciting and disheartening...every detail is fascinating. Not just for space junkies. Burrough is a great story teller.
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Summary: The Right Stuff Revisited: When Egos Collide
Review: The Right Stuff Revisited: When Egos Collide "Dragonfly: NASA and the Crisis Aboard Mir" by Bryan Burrough Book review by Keith Cowing, Editor, NASA Watch... "Can't we just get along?" asked Rodney King amid the L.A. Riots. As you become engulfed in the portrayal of the Shuttle-Mir program outlined in this book, you half expect someone to jump up and say exactly the same thing. This book chronicles the lives of the people who endeavored to make the Shuttle-Mir program work. It sweeps through the lives of those who stayed behind as well as those who went to Mir. In so doing, the author has managed to weave a series of interviews, news reports, air-to-ground transmissions, and Congressional testimony into a compelling story - one which is hard to put down. The author is so adept at his craft that you often get the feeling that he is recollecting events instead of re-telling them. That alone makes this book worth reading. If there is one message this book leaves with the reader it is that technology is not the main challenge to space exploration today. Rather, it is the human factor. It is about the ability (or lack thereof) of people to get along with each other - and to be honest with each other in their working relationships. It is also about the awful consequences of not considering the human element of space operations i.e. depressed, isolated, over-worked, and scared people make mistakes. And finally, it is about the collision of culture and politics in the final frontier and the consequences that result when technical decisions are made for political reasons and political decisions are made for technical reasons. Strangely enough, throughout this book, one of the few people who come across as having any real grasp of what was broke amidst the human element on Earth or in space - or how to fix the situation - was Al Holland, Johnson Space Center's chief psychologist. Holland is portrayed as doing his best to help everyone cope - even when his help (and the obvious problems he cites) was not always welcome. What is truly astonishing is how ill prepared both America and Russia were to implement the Shuttle-Mir program. As the book unfolds it becomes painfully clear how little America knew about Russian spacecraft or operations and how misinformed Russia was about the expectations NASA had for their $400 million payment. As such, both countries rushed head on to make the agreement work and immediately encountered problems. All of the familiar faces appear in this book - the astronauts, the NASA managers, and the politicians. But there are also people portrayed in this book that the general public has never heard of. Perhaps the most interesting is Johnson Space Center Director George Abbey whom Burrough describes: "Abbey is regarded by many as the J. Edgar Hoover of NASA, a mysterious figure shrouded in myth and legend. Astronauts whisper about the file he is said to keep on every center employee. A thick green binder he totes to meetings is regarded as a source of secrets on a par with Pandora's box. Among the astronauts and the hundreds who support them, it is axiomatic that it is Abbey who actually runs NASA, not the bubbly Administrator Daniel S. Goldin who spends his days in far-off Washington glad-handing politicians and flattering the poor, hapless Russians&Scaro;b." As Burrough weaves his tale, the pervasive power held by Abbey, one that can easily extend off of this planet, becomes eerily evident. This man who is almost unknown outside of Houston, much less NASA, is shown to have deftly exerted his interests in the White House as well as among the Astronaut corps. Much of what NASA does - and how it does it - clearly relates back to George Abbey's vision of how things should be done. Abbey's influence within NASA is so pervasive that Burrough quotes former NASA Administrator and astronaut Dick Truly as saying "The real book about manned space program would be a book about George Abbey". The extraordinary efforts taken by some to stay in Abbey's good graces, and the career limiting consequences of straying from his wishes, are chronicled in detail never before published. This information alone is reason to recommend this book to anyone interested in how NASA really works. As other individuals enter the picture, Dan Goldin, Yuri Koptev, politicians, the crews, etc. it becomes painfully obvious that so many of the problems associated with the relationship between America and Russia come down to one simple factor: human ego. These egos all fuel private agendas which are not always in synchrony with those of their superiors - or their new found partners. Yet everyone is duty bound to make things work with orders issued from above. Small wonder that the Shuttle-Mir program, and the International Space Program growing up in parallel, are beset with such constant turmoil. Just as spacecraft collide in this book, so do cultures. The Russians are seen by many Americans as brutish, sexist, and in some extreme cases downright uncaring. Indeed, Burrough quotes Jim Van Laak, Frank Culbertson's deputy as saying that "the Russians simply don't place as high a premium on human life as we do". The Russians are often cited as seeing more than their share of the "ugly American" syndrome wherein NASA folks show up on Russian soil expecting all of the comforts of home and acting as the senior partner in the Shuttle Mir endeavor by virtue of having paid for services. One of the key problems fueling this cultural collision is language. Again and again this book shows that the better one's ability to speak Russian, the better the communication. The better the communication, the more one comes to understand the culture. And while this cultural understanding may not result in acceptance, it certainly arms one with the ability to adapt to the culture. Those Americans and Russians who took the time to understand the other derived clear benefit. Those who did not came to regret the situation. Rifts between individuals from the same country were common, often with language at the heart of the problem. According to Burrough, there were periods of time when astronauts Norm Thagard and Bonnie Dunbar would not even talk to each other even thought they sat side by side in classes in Star City. Thagard did well with his good Russian, derived from lessons he paid for when NASA refused to. Dunbar's skills were lacking and she relied on Thagard to translate her classes for her. When they stopped talking to each other, Dunbar lost her interpreter. Hardly the best way to facilitate learning. Chronic turmoil within the Mir crews is portrayed with multiple incidences cited wherein Americans and Russians don't even speak or share meals with one another for long periods of time. Lack of language skills by some astronauts caused these situations to worsen. These human problems are exacerbated when life-threatening collisions, fires, and life support failures push crews to the limit. There was more to the culture clash than just language. How both countries actually "do" space operations is wholly different. The American approach is to give crews considerable on-orbit autonomy with a strong safety net of support on the ground. The Russian approach places the crew subordinate to ground control on almost every issue but expects the crew to figure things out on their own once given instructions. The Russian approach has allowed the cosmonaut corps to become very adept at seat of the pants repairs while Americans are portrayed as depending on books to get them out of a repair situation. Although not mentioned in this book, I can recall hearing a JSC scientist presenting the contrast as follows: "Americans are astonished at how much information is in one Russian's head while Russians are astonished at how much paper an American needs to go through to get a simple answer." Since these two approaches tend to encourage opposite modes of behavior within space crews, the addition of politics, accidents, and egos often leads to some truly dysfunctional space exploration. What is astonishing to me is how these people risked their lives in space on numerous occasions and yet, their experiences and needs were utterly unappreciated - or even deliberately ignored by ground personnel. Some fault must be placed on the crew who are portrayed as often trying to limit the amount of bad news beamed down from space. Despite the abundant chronicling of human weaknesses, there is abundant heroism portrayed in this book too. And it is clearly demonstrated by the crews of Mir as they deal with the collision and the fire and the immense amount of cobbling together of broken life support systems. There is also a heroic spirit evidenced among many of the folks in the trenches trying to implement often impossible tasks keeping their eye on the prize as they do. As the book closes, Burrough cites a complaint I have heard all too often. Despite all of the public pronouncements that lessons learned about Mir will benefit the International Space Station program.
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Summary: riveting true story
Review: Wow, I just read an excerpt about the fire aboard MIR and how Nasa reacted to it. You feel like you are actually onboard. I can not wait until the full book is out, so I can read more.
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Summary: Perhaps the Best Book on Space Program in Years
Review: What sets "Dragonfly" off from so many other books about space exploration is that the author understands that technology, unlike space, does not exist in a vaccuum. Like few other authors on the subject, Burrough realizes that complex technical systems, like Mir, interact with the variables of human personality, cultural background of the astronauts/cosmonauts, and indeed, the 'culture' which imbues organizations like Nasa and Energia. This book is totally absorbing, and I agree completely with the comment that it makes the reader feel, at times, as though he or she is actually aboard the Mir. In fact,"Dragonfly" should be required reading for ALL personnel who will be involved with the International Space Station. The author is right on target when he predicts that such a project will experience inevitable crises, and that how these are responded to will depend as much upon *human* as technological understanding. Finally, I must put in the supportive words for cosmonauts Tsibliyev and Lazutkin. These cosomonauts were heroes, facing and overcoming difficulties much greater than those encountered by Glenn and Gagarin. They deserved far better treatment upon return from Mir than being blamed for circumstances beyond their control. This book shows how much courage and ingenuity these men really had -- and that their safe return to earth and the saving of the Mir was due to their brave efforts. After reading "Dragonfly," I have the deepest respect for the leadership of Tsibliyev and Lazutkin. I hope they are given a chance to go to the new ISS -- their experience would be invaluable!
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Summary: Author did his homework
Review: This is a very well written and very well researched book. I was very much drawn into the story from the beginning of the book until the last page. Burrough did in depth interviews with about everyone associated with the program and conveys his interviews into a cohesive, interesting and very intriguing story . . . it was hard to put down!
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Summary: The history of NASA's own internal cold war.
Review: Some of the history of big projects and peoples within NASA. This is a snapshot of the agency when it started to interact with the Russian and its MIR station. The point of view of many individuals on the ground and in space are shared. A writtings about things in the past and the author should have kept it that way. One speculation that he made about the future was that a certain cosmonaut would never go to space again after a stay on MIR. That same cosmonaut was part of a crew for the ISS. Space is unpredictable both on the ground and in orbit.
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