With this month's 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik I , the first artificial satellite, and the forthcoming 50th anniversary in 2008 of the establishment of NASA, there are many new books to whet the appetites of space enthusiasts. These two titles start at the same place, Sputnik 's 1957 launch, with some background on the development of rockets in Germany, the Soviet Union, and the United States, but A Ball, a Dog, and a Monkey stops with the launch of the first U.S. satellite in 1958, and Epic Rivalry follows the space race to the Apollo 11 moon landing. D'Antonio (Atomic Harvest ), a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, brings a human perspective to the Sputnik story by interviewing still-living participants and examining a few of the major characters. Much of the focus is on Wernher von Braun and Soviet chief designer Sergey Korolyov, but interviews with scientist James Van Allen, early space reporters Jay Barbree and Wickham "Wickie" Stivers, and many others add a unique personal background to the story.

Hardesty (Red Phoenix: The Rise of Soviet Air Power ), a curator at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, and journalist Eisman do an excellent job of covering the science, technology, and politics of the space race. As new materials become available for research in Russia, more is being learned about the Soviet space program, and Hardesty is well qualified to present the findings. The authors compare the U.S. and Soviet space exploration programs during the cold war. With 75 photos and extensive footnotes, this a good reference book as well as an engaging history. And the foreword by the grandson of Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev, Sergey Khrushchev, is great start. Both titles are recommended for space science collections in public and academic libraries. [For other Sputnik and space history titles, see also Giles Sparrow's Space Flight; America in Space: NASA's First Fifty Years; After Sputnik: 50 Years of the Space Age and Michael J. Neufeld's Von Braun. —Ed.]—Margaret Henderson, Virginia Commonwealth Univ. Lib., Richmond

The Soviet Union captured the world's attention in November 1957 when it shot a shaggy little mutt named Laika ("Barker") into space on Sputnik II, which followed closely after Sputnik I, the first satellite ever launched. Pulitzer prize–winning journalist D'Antonio (The State Boys Rebellion ) recounts how Americans, even though frightened by the Soviets' apparent superiority in space, warmed to Russian reports on the pooch. The daily paper in Huntsville, Ala.—where Nazi rocket meister Wernher von Braun was scheming to get his Redstone rockets into space—advertised the local pound with a picture of a "refugee from the Soviet space program" suspended from a parachute. D'Antonio chronicles the frenzied year of 1958, when the U.S. Army and Air Force hawked their competing rocket designs to a president apparently more interested in his golf game, and an ambitious senator named Lyndon Johnson made political hay out of rockets exploding on the launch pad. American rocketeers wrapped up the year by sending a laid-back monkey named Gordo into orbit. Space buffs will be familiar with most of the details of D'Antonio's story, but his fast-paced narrative incorporates firsthand accounts of everyday citizens caught up in the excitement of America's push into space. 8 pages of photos. (Sept.)