A Treasurey of Tales About the Space Race!

Cuhaj, Joe.  Space Oddities: Forgotten Stories of Mankind's Exploration of Space.  Lanham, MD:   

         Prometheus Books, 2022.  ISBN: 978-1-63388-784-4

 

Did you grow up in the age of Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo?  Or are you just a space junkie who hoards details about the space program, actually any space program?  Joe Cuhaj fits in both categories.  Space Oddities is the outpouring of his obsession with space that began when a 4-year-0ld Joe saw his first rocket launch in 1962.  

Joe Cuhaj opens with a look at some of the early space pioneers - Wan Hu, Max Valier, and Wernher von Braun.  Von Braun ended up in the USA after WW2 still working with left-over German V-2 rockets.  One launch went astray and blew up a cemetery in Mexico  - dubbed the only attack on Mexico by Germans from their base in the US of A..  The second chapter covers the role of women in space, both as ground crew, calculators and astronauts/cosmonauts.  The role of animals in space has its own chapter.  International space exploration such as Zambian Afronauts and the Russo-American cooperation that lead, eventually, to the International Space Station also has a chapter.  Cuhaj discusses the objection many made to the cost of space exploration versus spending that money of problems on Earth which also examines how NASA and the Civil Rights marches of the 1960's interacted and affected each other.  Another chapter looks at the safety concerns and risk analyses are a matter of life in death in space exploration.  Did you know that there were wake-up calls for the space missions? In 1981, the crew of the Columbia were woken up by the crew of USS Swinetrek - "the puns were painful!"  this chapter is followed by one in which Cuhaj documents some of the pranks done on various crew members and/or ground crew.  Then there is always the issue of what to pack and how much to pack.  And for all you coders, there is a chapter entitled "Wrecked by the Most Expensive Hyphen in History."  Anyone remember the "space pen" being sold on QVC?  This phenomena and other space business stories are listed in "Space is Open for Business"  The next last chapter asks the perennial question -  "How do you have sex in space?"  The final chapter looks back at the Earth and longs to go forth and spread humanity's wings outside the cradle.

Space Oddities is a collection of miscellaneous stories brought together by Joe Cuhaj and bound between the front and back covers.  Each chapter could be a launching point for exploration by the interested reader.  But the only links between the chapters are that these are the tales Joe Cuhaj choose to share with the reader.  Dip in and read what interests you!