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Title: Star-Crossed Orbits : Inside the U.S.-Russian Space Alliance by James Oberg ISBN: 0-07-140796-0 Publisher: McGraw-Hill/Contemporary Books Pub. Date: 01 October, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95

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Average Customer Rating: 4.17 (12 reviews)

Rating: 4
Summary: Try an Deal of Lou Dobbs & James Oberg Combo!
Comment: Oberg's update is a "red-neck version" of US space history. By his own self-description, he is a 'hawk' on domestic space programs, and is thus fearful (perhaps: xenophoic?) when other nations actual 'do space work'! I've got news for him: That is precisely the future of spaceflight!

This is an attitude which should have gotten behind us in October, 1957 when Sputniks I and II were orbited - but it took Nixon Administration's inspired "Apollo-Soyuz/Soyuz Apollo Test Project" link-up during July, 1975 (when Mr. Nixon was out of presidential office) to make one small step toward international cooperation in manned spaceflight!

The International Space Station is a potential major step in that direction, while undergoing 'bean-counter scrutiny' from the combined European Space Agency nations and a new NASA Administrator, Sean O'Keefe.

Seven years ago, the US had an opportunity to grab a unique corner on the future of commercial space flight worldwide. Then the lawyers got hold of former US Cong. Andrea Seastrand's prescient "Highway to Space" legislation & wrestled away control of our financial futures from aerospace engineers! During the interim, multi-national consortia have taken to the commercial space arena and are financially succeeding.

I highly recommend combine Oberg's latest volume with Lou Dobbs' "Space: The Next Business Frontier" for a complete package of recent history and forecast developments. Individually, each book is a 'four-star' rating in my view.

Combined synergistically, however, they represent a full 'five star rating'!

Rating: 2
Summary: Fun Reading but Incomplete
Comment: Oberg's book is required reading for anyone interested in the space station and our partnership with the Russians. Chatty and informative Oberg delivers a stream of detailed revelations about problems NASA and the Russians have chose to hide. In this role he serves as one of the few "gossip columnists" of the space program.

Two key themes of the book is Oberg's observation that 1) the International Space Station was a creature of politics rather than technical necessity, and 2) NASA deliberately ignored Russian deception and fraud. However the book falters when Oberg attempts to connect the gossip with the claims. The book falls flat in helping illuminate who were the authors of this strategy (other than some vauge paragraphs) and why NASA management and Congress decided to implement and ridigly maintain it for over a decade. Some insightful analysis about why Dan Goldin and George Abbey wrapped this albatross across their neck and were never able to remove it would have made this book an agent of change.

I only wish Oberg had developed as good a set of political instincts and contacts as he has inside NASA.

Rating: 3
Summary: nitpicking critic
Comment: James Oberg is a big critic of the Russian space program - has been following it for decades - and poses as a sort of "Crusader for Truth", on a mission to expose lies and cover-ups. A reviewer of his book "Star-Crossed Orbits" described him as "rather too pleased with his role as the unsparing truth-teller picking his way through a minefield of lies and deception". He is obviously knowledgeable about his subject, and "Star-Crossed Orbits" is an informative read, but his pedantic nitpicking gets a tad irritating. He seems to feel that the Russians have the advantage in their partnership with NASA. He is a former NASA engineer, so it's obvious where his loyalties lie (though he can be critical of NASA, too). He mentions all the friends he has in the Russian space industry, yet is savagely critical of their way of doing things, regarding many in the industry (particularly at management level) as cunning and deceitful. If those friends read this book, they might be a bit more reluctant to talk to him!

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