posted 02-06-2004 12:52 AM               

Growing up on either side of the Iron Curtain, Alexei Leonov and David Scott shared the same dream - to become a pilot. Excelling at flying, they became elite fighter pilots, and were chosen by their countries' burgeoning space programmes to be part of the greatest technological race ever - to land a man on the moon. Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov became the first man to walk in space. It was a feat that won him a place in history, but almost cost him his life.

A year later, in 1966, astronauts David Scott and Neil Armstrong were seconds away from dying as their spacecraft, Gemini 8, spun violently out of control across space. Both men survived against dramatic odds and went on to fly their own lunar missions: Armstrong to command Apollo 11 and Scott to command the most complex expedition in the history of exploration, Apollo 15. Spending three days on the moon, Scott became the seventh man to walk on its breathtaking surface.

Marking a new age of US/USSR co-operation, the Apollo Soyuz Test Project brought Scott and Leonov together, finally ending the Cold War silence and building a friendship that would last for decades.

• Hardcover: 432 pages
  
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; 1st edition (September 23, 2004)
  
• ISBN-10: 0312308655
  
• ISBN-13: 978-0312308650

posted 02-06-2004 11:48 AM            

I have just embarked on writing a book with Alexei Leonov — our parallel biographies. He'd going to talk about Voskhod 2, and I am going to talk about Gemini 8. Basically our race to the Moon, and the Cold War - how each side saw the other side, and how we really got to the Moon - as a political effort.

We plan to explore the cultural differences, our insights into the program, the human nature of the program. Not technical, not scientific, but why there was a race, what was in the race, who might have won the race, from the standpoint of our individual missions, which were a part of the race to the Moon. Some of the exciting events, and a comparison of our lives, as Leonov and I are about the same age, our backgrounds are about the same - we were both fighter pilots. But we went through completely different cultures.

So it it not so much a story about me or Alexei, as a story about different cultures and societies, and how they put together a competitive race. What we are trying to do is find items of interest. It's a great story.

posted 03-07-2004 01:58 PM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by nasamad:
I've never seen a dual bio like this before...

---

posted 06-05-2004 01:06 AM               

It was interesting to read Alexei Leonov's thoughts on the crash that killed Gagarin.

It was also interesting to read Dave Scott's version of the cover scandal. I will be interested to hear others thoughts on what he has written.

I personally would have preferred two separate autobiographies by Leonov and Scott.

posted 06-05-2004 05:05 PM               

Sadly he does not have a lot to say about his fellow crew members.

posted 06-26-2006 04:20 PM               

I thought it was a pretty good book, Leonov's points were interesting since they were new. I found it ironic that Scott said that Apollo 9 wasn't really appreciated yet he glossed over the flight in the book.

posted 11-13-2013 03:45 AM               

For starters, he goes into a lengthy explanation of how four cosmonauts (Nelyubov, Filatyev, Anikeyev and Rafikov) got into serious trouble in March 1963 and all were dismissed from the cosmonaut team. But as one who was involved in casting a vote for their removal, Leonov should know that Mars Rafikov was actually dismissed from the cosmonaut team a full year earlier in March 1962 on a totally unrelated matter.

Then he says in regard to the sad death of Valentin Bondarenko, burned to death in a pressure chamber fire, that he was given a "big funeral." Bondarenko's identity was a state secret, and his funeral was only a smsll family affair. Even his gravestone did not denote his cosmonaut status until 25 years later.

posted 11-13-2013 10:42 AM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by Lasv3:
One of the explanations of this very strange discrepancy could be Mr. Leonov simply mixed his wish to meet the famous writer with the reality when writing the book after so many years. Just keep on mind how many meetings, events and trips he made after his historical flight, so this memory glitch could be understood.

---

A while ago I was working on a writing project that dealt with a B-52 that broke apart and crashed near Savage Mountain, PA in 1964. I had met a gentleman, now in his mid-eighties, who claimed he was one of the first people on the scene of the crash and had found a pilot who had ejected from the B-52. His story was full of all of the right details, the location, the time. It was a vivid, first hand account.

In my research however, I quickly found a newspaper article published right after the crash that confirmed his story exactly, down to the weather conditions, state of the pilot he found, location, etc. There was just one problem. My witness wasn't the person who found the pilot. The newspaper interviewed the man who had found the pilot, had pictures of him, etc.

Now, this man I talked with is a gentleman, a war veteran and a good person. I think he believes he is telling me the truth. Over the decades his vivid memories of the event, maybe his retelling of the story so many time (he lives about 30 minutes from the crash site also) have turned something he read in a newspaper or talked about with friends into something he believes he witnessed and participated in first hand.