Space and War (Military History)

Introduction

Even though no physical warfare has taken place there, space remains central and vital to the war-fighting capabilities of many nations, particularly the United States, which has changed its way of war fighting from Russell Weigley’s sheer mass of the American approach to a satellite‐enabled, highly accurate, low-density, information-age approach. Therefore, the history of space and warfare is best summarized in two contexts. The first context is the history of the development of policies for the military uses of space. This approach looks at the decision makers and the choices they made in developing policies that militarized space. The second context is the practice and application of technologies in space for practical military purposes. Warfighters in the early 21st century depend on space for missile warning and defense; intelligence; surveillance and reconnaissance; space control; weather; and positioning, navigation and timing, all applications of technologies in space for practical uses, including warfare. To support these approaches, there are generally two types of sources on this list: the largely internalist histories focused on a technology but not on its greater place in society or government policies; and externalist histories that focus less on black boxes and more on the role of a space technology in the “wider view,” to borrow a phrase from James R. Hansen’s important article on aviation. Few books are able to achieve both. This article is intended to offer readings for people interested in the history of the way space has been used by war fighters but acknowledges that there is debate over the weaponization of space and the domain’s uses by war fighters. Many of those debates could be used as primary-source material for a history of arms control and space issues. Many books tagged with the “space weapons” or “space warfare” subject listings are not histories of the topic of space and warfare but are policy discussions on other topics like arms control. Therefore, it is important to note that this article is not a list of current political and policy issues but rather a look at historical policy issues and the practice and application of military technology in the space domain. Views expressed here are the author’s and do not represent the views of the National War College, the National Defense University, or the Department of Defense. Library of Congress Subject Headings for this topic: Space weapons. Space warfare.

General Overviews

McDougall 1985 is the most important political history of the cold war space race. Stares 1985 initiated the discussion about the militarization of space, which Kalic 2012 updates and deepens. Chapman 2008, AU-18 Space Primer, and Robertson 2011 all serve as useful reference sources.

Air Command and Staff College. AU‐18 Space Primer. Maxwell Air Force Base, AL: Air University Press, 2009.
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AU-18 is a useful encyclopedia for individuals who are not familiar with US military space capabilities, organizations, and operations. It is an unclassified guide that includes descriptions of history, theory, doctrine, organizations, missions, flight dynamics, systems, acquisitions approaches, space law, and so on.
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Chapman, Bert, ed. Space Warfare and Defense: A Historical Encyclopedia and Research Guide. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC Clio, 2008.
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This is an interdisciplinary encyclopedia and research guide with hundreds of entries on military systems, well known and unknown. It includes references including treaties and other primary sources, a glossary, a chronology, and a brief annotated bibliography that covers many contemporary policy issues. It also looks at the historical development and evolution of military space policy in the United States, USSR, and European Union.
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Kalic, Sean N. U.S. Presidents and the Militarization of Space, 1946–1967. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2012.
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Looks at the militarization of space by focusing only on a more limited period, that is, through the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. He focuses on the processes that shaped the development of the space policies in the administrations of Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson, arguing they wanted to maintain the sanctuary of space for “peaceful uses” without sacrificing the need for the “non‐aggressive” military use of space.
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McDougall, Walter A. . . . The Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age. New York: Basic Books, 1985.
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Stands alone as the only book on this list to earn the Pulitzer Prize for History. McDougall’s thesis on the technocratic origins of the cold war space programs illustrates the importance of policymakers in what are generally thought of as technological developments. Although not a traditional history of a technology, McDougall nevertheless places the technologies of the early space race into their international political context.
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Robertson, Ann E. Militarization of Space. New York: Facts on File, 2011.
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This is a reference book. Its strength lies in its reference material, presenting in one place a large number of primary sources, including the 1984 US Space Policy, the 2010 US Space Policy, the 2001 Rumsfeld Space Commission Report, and a large number of international primary sources. Additionally, there are charts, fact, figures, brief biographies, chronology, glossary, and a useful annotated bibliography that goes well beyond the militarization of space.
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Stares, Paul B. The Militarization of Space: U.S. Policy, 1945–1984. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1985.
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Argues the United States and the Soviet Union militarized space from the 1940s through the first Reagan administration. The lack of weapons in space was due not to preplanned policy but due to “national interests, military disincentives, and technical constraints” (p. 238). He also argues, though, that with changes brought by the 1980s, the world was “entering a new phase in the militarization of space” (p. 18) in which space weapons are more likely.
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Military Space Programs

Erickson 2005 is a seminal look at the NASA relationship with the military during the Cold War. Gillespie and Weller 2008 is a broad look at the military’s use of space. Peebles 1997 is a brief look at the US Air Force’s participation in space programs. Spires 1997 is the official organizational history of the US Air Force in space, while Walker, et al. 2003 is the official organizational history of the US Army in space. Hall and Neufeld 1998 is a group of recollections of US Air Force space pioneers.

Erickson, Mark. Into the Unknown Together: The DOD, NASA, and Early Spaceflight. Maxwell Air Force Base, AL: Air University Press, 2005.
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This book’s thesis revolves around the idea that during the Cold War, the US had three interrelated space programs for civil, military, and intelligence purposes. He argues that the three programs all made contributions to national security by sharing personnel and technology to achieve success for all three.
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Gillespie, Paul G., and Grant T. Weller, eds. Harnessing the Heavens: National Defense through Space. Chicago: Imprint, 2008.
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This collection of papers presented at the US Air Force Academy in 2007 traces the impact of space on national defense by looking at broad topics in four sections: early looks at space as a war-fighting domain, the evolution of space doctrine, international developments, and technological innovations. While not comprehensive, it is a useful volume of works by some leading scholars.
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Hall, R. Cargill, and Jacob Neufeld, eds. The U.S. Air Force in Space: 1945 to the 21st Century. Washington, DC: United States Air Force History and Museums Program, 1998.
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In this collection of papers presented at a 1995 symposium, Hall and Neufeld have collected a variety of papers and remarks presented by historians and participants in the space program. The best chapters are by the professional historians represented but the pieces by participants like Schriever, McLucas and Kutyna have their value as primary sources.
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Peebles, Curtis. High Frontier: The U.S. Air Force and the Military Space Program. Washington, DC: Air Force History and Museums Program, 1997.
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This brief pamphlet‐sized book looks at the history of the US Air Force’s involvement with space programs from 1945 through Operation Desert Storm, including crewed space programs and uncrewed military space systems.
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Spires, David N. Beyond Horizons: A Half Century of Air Force Space Leadership. Peterson Air Force Base, CO: Air Force Space Command, 1997.
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This is the official version of the US Air Force’s space activities. Spires centers his book around three basic themes: the air force’s quest to be the military’s “space service”; the difficulty of identifying a unique mission for the air force in space; and the development of space activities separate from the flying air force.
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Walker, James A., Lewis Bernstein, and Sharon Lang. Seize the high ground: The Army in space and missile defense. Washington, DC: Center of Military History, 2003.
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This institutional history of the army space and missile defense command covers the contributions of the US Army to US space programs both to missile/rocket programs and to satellite communications programs. The book finishes with a look at US Army contributions to missile defense programs.
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Spacepower Theory

Deblois 1999 is among the first collections of essays to discuss the theoretical schools of space as a source of military power. Using airpower theory, Smith 2002 argues space is a separate domain of warfare, while Smith 2011 argues warfare will occur in space, an argument furthered in Worden and Shaw 2002. Using sea power theory, Klein 2006 also argues space is a distinct domain. Lutes, et al. 2011 further expands on both these approaches. O’Hanlon 2004 and Johnson-Freese 2007 argue the militarization of space has already occurred but that because national security depends on space, there is a need to think about its use strategically.

Deblois, Bruce M., ed. Beyond the Paths of Heaven: The Emergence of Space Power Thought. Maxwell Air Force Base, AL: Air University Press, 1999.
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This collection of essays by early thinkers on space power stretches from the theoretical schools of space as sanctuary to the ultimate high ground. Also discussed are significant issues like organization, doctrine, and structures.
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Johnson-Freese, Joan. Space as a Strategic Asset. New York: Colombia University Press, 2007.
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The United States has no comprehensive space strategy but needs a grand strategy for space programs greater than just military space, according to Johnson-Freese. The United States needs to redefine the concept of space security in order to ease international tensions in space and to preserve US space leadership in the military, civil, and commercial domains, achievable through such acts as trust and confidence‐building measures.
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Klein, John J. Space Warfare: Strategy, Principles, and Policy. New York: Routledge, 2006.
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Initiating the “Corbett School” for spacepower theory, this book argues maritime theory provides an appropriate analog for thinking about military uses of space. Based on the maritime strategy of Sir Julian Corbett, this book offers “a template for considering the strategic principles of space warfare” (p. ix), detailed in chapters on each principle.
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Lutes, Charles D., Peter L. Hays, Vincent A. Manzo, Lisa M. Yambrick, and M. Elaine Bunn, eds. Toward a Theory of Spacepower: Selected Essays. Washington, DC: National Defense University Press, 2011.
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This book brings together a range of perspectives on how the United States and others use space for civil, social, military, and other purposes. Although starting with Mahan’s sea power theory to search for a theory of spacepower, it ultimately is inconclusive in discerning a theory of spacepower. Nevertheless, the chapters in this book are valuable looks at the discussions going on in the development of spacepower theory.
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O’Hanlon, Michael E. Neither Star Wars nor Sanctuary: Constraining the Military Uses of Space. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 2004.
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The militarization genie is already out of the bottle and it will not be put back in. O’Hanlon suggests that even if weaponization of space is inevitable, what is more important is the nature of the weapons in space, the timing of weaponization, international relations at the time weaponization occurs, and that space should not be weaponized by the United States because it is not in the US interest to see space weaponized.
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Smith, Michael V. Ten Propositions Regarding Spacepower. Maxwell Air Force Base: Air University Press Fairchild Papers, 2002.
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This small book appeared very early in the discussion of whether or not space is a separate domain requiring its own theories and strategies. Smith’s propositions on space power suggest that is indeed the case and is required reading for new strategists and thinkers on space.
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Smith, Michael V. “Spacepower and Warfare.” Joint Force Quarterly 60 (2011): 42–45.
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Argues the space domain will be eventually weaponized and that warfare will occur in space so strategists need to begin to plan for it. Using classical strategists like Clausewitz and Sun Tzu, Smith argues war, an extension of politics, will occur in space because space plays an important role in the national defense of the major powers, offering opportunities and vulnerabilities.
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Worden, Simon P., and John E. Shaw. Whither Space Power? Forging a Strategy for the New Century. Maxwell Air Force Base: Air University Press, 2002.
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This book casts the cold war as “The Great 50‐Year Space War,” arguing that US dominance across four described space sectors significantly contributed to the fall of the USSR. In order to ensure continued US dominance of the space sector, the authors argue for strategies to counter the perceived threats, limitations, and constraints on space superiority.
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Journals

Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly (Eckert and Ihme 2013), while not devoted solely to military spaceflight issues, prints scholarly articles on the people, projects, and programs that have been part of 20th-century military space activities. The Journal of Military History (Neufeld 2005), the quarterly journal of the Society for Military History, publishes scholarly articles in military history, including space history. Technology and Culture (Johnson 2001), which is the quarterly journal of the Society for the History of Technology, offers articles; essays; and reviews of books, film, museum exhibits, and digital projects, but few military‐ and space‐related topics make it into the journal. History and Technology (Spinardi 2010) also presents occasional military space‐related topics. High Frontier (Neufeld 2004), published 2007–2011, was a quarterly professional journal for military space and cyberspace operators, focused heavily on military issues but rarely historical topics.

Eckert, Richard S., and Kelly Ihme. “Space Support to Operation Enduring Freedom.” Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly 22.2 (Spring 2013): 24–33.
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This is an organizational history of US approaches to the war in Afghanistan through 2011, arguing the operation showed the importance of commercial products and services to complete the military’s use of its own systems to provide support to war fighters, particularly in the demands of communications systems and overhead imagery.
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Hall, Harvey. “The Navy’s Pioneering Venture into the Space Program.” Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly 8.3 (Fall 2011): 33–39.
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This article traces the navy’s involvement in the space program from the very first Bureau of Aeronautics reports at the end of World War II on the usefulness of rockets and satellites. The article is written from an internal viewpoint by an author who participated in these early discussions beginning in 1945.
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Johnson, Stephen B. “Samuel Phillips and the Taming of Apollo.” Technology and Culture 42.4 (October 2001): 685–709.
DOI: 10.1353/tech.2001.0168Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Johnson explores the impact of General Phillips by emphasizing the role of systems management in the post-1967 success of the Apollo program, an approach General Phillips brought with him from the US Air Force ICBM programs. Available at Technology and Culture. Editorial Office. University of Oklahoma, Cate Center 4, 332 Cate Center Dr. Rm. 484, Norman, OK 73019.
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Neufeld, Jacob. “General Bernard A. Schriever: Technological Visionary.” High Frontier 1.2 (Fall 2004): 16–19.
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This journal provided an official scholarly exchange of ideas among space professionals for seven years and often devoted an entire issue to a single space mission area. In this article, in an issue that largely covers the early history of the military in space, Neufeld argues Schriever’s technological vision had far more impact on the US Air Force than his ICBM program successes. Available at High Frontier.
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Neufeld, Michael J. “The End of the Army Space Program: Interservice Rivalry and the Transfer of the von Braun Group to NASA, 1958–1959.” Journal of Military History 69.3 (July 2005): 737–757.
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The group of German rocket scientists led by Werner von Braun was caught in the middle of Cold War American rivalries over the future of the ballistic missile and space programs in the Department of Defense. The US Army allowed the transfer of the von Braun group to NASA, determined to keep the army missile program separate from the US Air Force. Available at Journal of Military History. George C. Marshall Library. Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, VA 24450.
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Schroeder, Jerome E. “Space Support to Homeland Defense.” Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly 18.1 (Winter 2011): 31–36.
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This is an organizational review of the way the space segments of the US military provided help to support the defense of the homeland in the wake of the 9/11 attacks in 2001. The first portion of the article deals with support to air assets and the second part deals with support to recovery efforts after the Pentagon and New York attacks. The article finishes with a look at the preparations for operations in Afghanistan.
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Spinardi, Graham. “The Rise and Fall of Safeguard: Anti‐ballistic Missile Technology and the Nixon Administration.” History and Technology 26.4 (December 2010): 313–334.
DOI: 10.1080/07341512.2010.523174Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Spinardi explores the brief history of the first deployed American antiballistic missile system, the short-lived Safeguard program. Using Nixon archival sources, Spinardi argues the decisions to proceed with and then cancel the program had more to do with politics than technological capabilities. Available at History and Technology.
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Sturdevant, Rick W., and Haithe Anderson. “Organizing Space for the Warfighter.” Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly 18.3 (Fall 2011a): 29–37.
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This is an organizational history that begins with some brief background on military uses of space but spends much of its time discussing the impact of the 1991 Gulf War on the uses of space and the impact of the 2001 space commission. The article shows the organizational changes that took place to react to these organizational inputs. These organizational changes impacted space organization and doctrine in the 2003 Gulf War.
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Sturdevant, Rick W., and Haithe Anderson. “Space Effects in Operation Iraqi Freedom.” Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly 20.2 (Spring 2011b): 25–39.
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This article is an organizational history of the military’s support for operations in Iraq starting in 2003. It begins with a look at space support to operations in the 1991 Gulf War. It then provides a look by broad space mission area at the support to operations in the 2003 war and the operations following until 2010. It concludes that space support to war fighters had taken a dramatic leap in the two decades following the end of the 1991 war.
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Tunyavongs, T. Tony. “A Political History of the Establishment of Air Force Space Command.” Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly 9.1 (Winter 2001): 31–43.
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This organizational history reviews the politics behind the establishment of Air Force Space Command. It then covers the space shuttle program and its importance to changing the way the air service thought about space. It finishes with a look at the disestablishment of the commands that thought of themselves as the space command and covers the interservice rivalries present at the beginning.
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von Braun, Wernher. “The Redstone, Jupiter, and Juno.” Technology and Culture 4.4 (Autumn 1963): 452–465.
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This article by the space pioneer is part of an entire issue of Technology and Culture devoted to the development of missiles and space technology that were taking place at that very time. Von Braun himself talks about his missile programs while others like historian Robert Perry write about the impact of the Atlas, Thor, and Titan ICBM programs. Available at Technology and Culture. Editorial office. University of Oklahoma, Cate Center 4, 332 Cate Center Dr. Rm. 484, Norman, OK 73019.
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Waldron, Harry N. “The Air Force Ballistic Missile Division and the Pioneer Lunar Probes of 1958.” High Frontier 1.2 (Fall 2004): 10–13.
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Though brief, this article shows an important connection between the military’s space programs, in this case a ballistic missile used as a launch platform, and an early civilian space system, the Pioneer lunar exploration program. It is a good example of how the early military and civil space programs were linked in the United States. Available at High Frontier.
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Document Collections

Spires 2004 is the primary source material supporting the author’s organizational history Beyond Horizons. Feyock and Butterworth 2006 and Hall 2006 are collections of US declassified space policies. Logsdon 1995 is a multivolume collection of primary sources and analytical essays on US space programs. RAND Corporation 1946 is a seminal primary source in the history of military uses of space.

Feyock, Stephanie, and Robert Butterworth, eds. Presidential decisions: NSC documents. Arlington, VA: George C. Marshall Institute, 2006.
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This volume presents in one place the public US space policies, press announcements, and fact sheets. This collection allows researchers to trace the development of US policies for using space for military and intelligence purposes and the important role of science and technology in space policy decisions.
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Hall, R. Cargill, ed. Presidential Decisions: NSC Documents; Supplement; Newly Declassified Excerpts. Arlington, VA: George C. Marshall Institute, 2006.
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This volume updates some of the material in Feyock and Butterworth 2006 by releasing more of the declassified documents, allowing for better research into the development of US space policies.
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Logsdon, John M., ed. Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civil Space Program. Washington, DC: NASA, 1995–.
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This series, while not specifically focused on space and warfare, is a critical collection of primary source materials in the history of the US space program. Along the way, these scholars have collected hundreds of documents invaluable to scholars on rockets, satellites, space probes, human spaceflight, and bureaucratic needs like policies and external relationships.
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RAND Corporation. Preliminary Design of an Experimental World‐Circling Spaceship. Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 1946.
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Reprinted in 1996, this is the original, seminal RAND report on satellite design, a report that goes into much more detail and argues there were multiple military uses for satellites. Included are diagrams, worksheets, and other illustrations.
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Spires, David N. Orbital Futures: Selected Documents in Air Force Space History. 2 vols. Colorado Springs, CO: Air Force Space Command, 2004.
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This collection of documents, many of them the primary sources used for Spires’ official history Beyond Horizons, contains dozens of sources on the development of policy, plans, management, organizations, cooperation, and systems developed to support military space missions. Also included are lengthy essays explaining the topic and its history.
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Nazi Rocket Program

Neufeld 1995 is the essential book on Hitler’s V-2. Dornberger 1954 is an insider’s memoir. Similarly, Michel 1980, Béon 1997, and Sellier 2003 are all very personal looks at the human impact of the Nazi program.

Béon, Yves. Planet Dora: A Memoir of the Holocaust and the Birth of the Space Age. New York: Westview, 1997.
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Written by a survivor of the concentration camps, including the ones supporting the Nazis’ underground rocket factory, this book recounts the author’s experiences with life and death in the concentration camp where V-2s were assembled. The 1997 edition is edited and introduced by Michael Neufeld.
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Dornberger, Major General Walter. V-2. Translated by James Cleugh and Geoffrey Halliday. London: Hurst and Blackett, 1954.
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The author’s memoir of leading the Nazi rocket programs from 1930 to 1945, including the V-2 program, as an officer in the German army.
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Michel, Jean. Dora: The Nazi Concentration Camp Where Space Technology Was Born and 30,000 Prisoners Died. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1980.
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This memoir of the Dora concentration camp, the first to appear, changed the way the former German rocketeers living in the United States were viewed, from “the good Germans” to something more accurate, resulting in the return to Germany of one of von Braun’s chief deputies.
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Neufeld, Michael J. The Rocket and the Reich: Peenemünde and the Coming of the Ballistic Missile Era. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995.
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This book is vital. The V‐2 sparked the beginnings of the space age as its technology was used in both the US Redstone rocket and the Soviet R‐7 ICBM. Neufeld argues the V-2 had an ambiguous legacy as the grandfather of all modern guided missiles and space boosters because it was built with slave labor in a brutal Nazi regime.
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Sellier, André. A History of the Dora Camp: The Story of the Nazi Slave Labor Camp That Secretly Manufactured V‐2 Rockets. Translated by Stephen Wright and Susan Toponier. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2003.
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Concentration camp survivor and Dora slave laborer Sellier, a trained historian, presents a history of Camp Dora that uses survivor memoirs, interviews, and other primary sources to present a scholarly history of the Nazi rocket program.
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Rockets and Missiles

Gruntman 2004 is a technological look at the prehistory of rocketry, written by an actual rocket scientist. Emme 1964 is an important first look at rockets as systems of military systems. Lonnquest 1996 looks at the history of the Atlas missile and is one of the first scholarly looks at missile pioneer Bernard Schriever.

Emme, Eugene M., ed. The History of Rocket Technology: Essays on Research, Development, and Utility. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1964.
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This edited volume is not important so much for what it says about the development of military rockets and missiles but for its first attempt to point out that they are systems of systems. There are discussions on the importance of telemetry to missile and rocket developments. There also is a good discussion of the development of the earliest military rockets and the satellites for them.
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Gruntman, Michael. Blazing the Trail: The Early History of Spacecraft and Rocketry. Reston, VA: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2004.
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This book, written by an actual rocket scientist who grew up near a Soviet rocket launch base during the Cold War, tells in technical detail the story of the earliest rockets in China and India and continues to the modern rockets of the early space age, covering the history of rocketry on five continents.
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Lonnquest, John C. “The Face of Atlas: General Bernard Schriever and the Development of the Atlas ICBM, 1953–1960.” PhD diss., Duke University, 1996.
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This dissertation is a look at the development of the first operational American ICBM program. Lonnquest traces Schriever’s influence on the program and the growth of the ICBM program, including many of the innovative ideas he used to speed up the program.
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Eisenhower

McDougall 1985 is essential reading in space history. Divine 1993 expands on McDougall 1985 by arguing Eisenhower had a strategic vision for space. Mieczkowski 2013 makes similar arguments but updates the scholarship to include classified programs initiated as part of Eisenhower’s strategic approach for space.

Divine, Robert A. The Sputnik Challenge: Eisenhower’s Response to the Soviet Satellite. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993.
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Using declassified documents and primary-source material that McDougall did not have access to, Divine argues that Eisenhower’s strategic vision enabled the United States to successfully maneuver through the Sputnik crisis, but that his leadership in the handling of the frightened public following Sputnik was a failure.
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McDougall, Walter A. . . . The Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age. New York: Basic Books, 1985.
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This book played an important role in the development of the thesis that Eisenhower played an active role in decision making in his presidency with planning and foresight. It was among the first books to argue Eisenhower’s active role in many of the policies developed during the Cold War, rather than suggesting that these policies developed through other means.
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Mieczkowski, Yanek. Eisenhower’s Sputnik Moment: The Race for Space and World Prestige. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2013.
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This book is a response to much of the Eisenhower scholarship that argued his leadership failed to succeed because he did not understand the “prestige race” of the Cold War space race. Instead, the author argues Ike did indeed have a strategic plan to win the space race through his creation of NASA and the secret Corona program.
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Corona

Ruffner 1995 is the CIA’s own history of the first photoreconnaissance program. Peebles 1997 is the first monograph on the Corona program. Day, et al. 1998 is an edited volume from a conference following the declassification of Corona. Arnold 2005 is the first scholarly look at the operations and use of the Corona program.

Arnold, David Christopher. Spying from Space: Constructing America’s Satellite Command and Control Systems. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2005.
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Using a systems model to look at the development of America’s satellite command and control system for the Corona reconnaissance satellite program, this book looks at the development of a large, complex technological system designed to support one space program and how it evolved into a system able to support multiple space programs.
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Day, Dwayne A., John M. Logsdon, and Brian Latell, eds. Eye in the Sky: The Story of the Corona Spy Satellites. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1998.
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This book, an outgrowth of May 1995 conference at George Washington University in Washington, DC, following the declassification of the Corona program, argues for reconnaissance satellites as a significant development in intelligence in the 20th century, one that is “largely unheralded” because it was developed and operated in secret for so long. The editors argue space‐based intelligence satellites provide force‐multiplication, as Corona produced 800,000 pictures on four hundred miles of film in 145 missions. They also argue Corona’s pioneering work sparked a revolution in space technology.
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Peebles, Curtis. The Corona Project: America’s First Spy Satellites. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute, 1997.
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Using interviews with subjects who had never spoken about the Corona program before and declassified documents, this book traces the history of the Corona program, including the film recovery aircrews. It includes a useful appendix detailing every Corona launch.
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Ruffner, Kevin C., ed. CORONA: America’s First Satellite Program. Washington, DC: Central Intelligence Agency, 1995.
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This book, an outgrowth of the public unveiling of the Corona photoreconnaissance satellite, includes many primary sources on the program, led by the first article published in Studies in Intelligence, the classified professional journal of the CIA. The book includes many sources of the program from the early 1960s related to technical requirements for the Corona program, bureaucratic needs for protecting information, and some major intelligence reports derived from the earliest Corona missions.
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Intelligence and Reconnaissance

Klass 1971 and Burrows 1986 are dated but both provide important theses in space history on the role of space-based reconnaissance. Taubman 2003, Temple 2005, and David 2015, written after the declassification of major parts of US space-based satellite systems, are more current scholarship. Written by insiders, both Charlston 2010 and Waltrop 2010 are important historiographical pieces on space-based reconnaissance. Charlston 2011 and Waltrop 2012 are recent looks at aspects of the film-return programs.

Burrows, William E. Deep Black: Space Espionage and National Security. New York: Random House, 1986.
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Though dated, Burrows’s thesis—that space systems are as much about the people who build and use them—is still significant. There are no systems or wiring diagrams here, but by focusing on the use of space‐based reconnaissance systems for arms control verification, Burrows tries to make the case that such methods have prevented World War III, rather than made it more likely.
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Charlston, Jeffery A. “What We Officially Know: Fifteen Years of Satellite Declassification.” Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly 17.3 (Summer 2010): 7–19.
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This article, written by a senior historian under contract to the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), covers the processes and debates behind the declassification of US reconnaissance satellite programs, reviewing the early history of the first classified programs, including Grab, Poppy, and Corona, and the programs that followed. In particular, the article covers the efforts and the differences between declassifying the products and the systems used to make them.
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Charlston, Jeffery A. “Old Satellites, New Revelations: Remaining Film‐Era Intelligence Satellites Declassified.” Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly 18.4 (Fall 2011): 18–24.
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This article is an overview of the film era of space‐based photoreconnaissance, culminating in the Hexagon program, which was declassified in 2011 coincident with the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the National Reconnaissance Office. Like the Corona program before it, Hexagon was a photoreconnaissance satellite that ejected film capsules from space to be recovered by airplanes out of the sky during their descent. This technical article argues film‐based satellites provided critical information to the United States during the Cold War.
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David, James E. Spies and Shuttles: NASA’s Secret Relationship with the DoD and CIA. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2015.
DOI: 10.5744/florida/9780813049991.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Traces the relationship between the defense and intelligence communities and NASA during the Cold War by using declassified documents. The author argues that there was considerable support given to NASA throughout the period but that NASA became dependent on the money available from the defense and intelligence communities when the shuttle program developed because NASA could not execute the program independently.
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Klass, Philip J. Secret Sentries in Space. New York: Random House, 1971.
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Although dated, this book was among the very first to describe the US reconnaissance satellite programs. Klass, an aviation and space journalist, takes the story to the origins of the US and Soviet ICBM and nuclear programs in order to show the important role that reconnaissance satellites play in letting each side know the other’s capabilities.
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Taubman, Philip. Secret Empire: Eisenhower, the CIA, and the Hidden Story of America’s Space Espionage. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2003.
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Written after the declassification of the Corona program, Taubman argues that Eisenhower was deeply involved in many aspects of the development of space‐based reconnaissance programs, pushed by the interaction he allowed between science and technology and the White House. The CIA, where Eisenhower placed these innovative ideas for development, was able to provide important capabilities in national security space.
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Temple, L. Parker. Shades of Gray: National Security and the Evolution of Space Reconnaissance. Reston, VA: American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2005.
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This book is among the first to recognize the interdependence the US military, civil, and intelligence space programs have on each other. The themes covered are the concept of threat‐driven programs, the importance of security and classification, the role of scientists, and the impact of technology. He begins with the development of nuclear programs giving a rise to the need for airborne and spaceborne overhead reconnaissance but concludes that space systems have provided national‐level and later tactical‐level information for decision makers.
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Waltrop, David W. “Critical Issues in the History and Historiography of U.S. National Reconnaissance.” Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly 17.3 (Summer 2010): 20–28.
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This article, by the former deputy chief of the NRO’s history office, covers the historiography of several important subjects in reconnaissance, including post–World War II aerial reconnaissance, the transition to space‐based reconnaissance, and the concept of Freedom of Navigation. It is very well sourced and provides many sources of articles and books on national reconnaissance programs.
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Waltrop, David W. “Undersea Ice‐Station Zebra.” Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly 19.3 (Fall 2012): 4–17.
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This article tells the story of the deep-sea underwater recovery of a film capsule that had been ejected from a spy satellite. Waltrop illustrates the length to which the CIA went during the Cold War to protect its technology from capture.
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Missile Warning and Defense

Gruntman 2015, written by a native Russian speaker, is among the only histories of the Soviet missile defense program in English. Richelson 2012 is a key book on the US space-based missile launch warning satellite system, a history that has its origins traced in Hall 1999. History of BMEWS 1957–1964 is the official history of the United States’ ground-based missile warning radars, a subject missing serious scholarship. FitzGerald 2000 and Baucom 1992 are the best looks at the so-called Star Wars program, one by an outsider and one by an insider.

Baucom, Donald R. The Origins of SDI, 1944–1983. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1992.
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Traces the history of US research into the development of antiballistic missile systems, written by the staff historian of the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization. Puts Ronald Reagan’s decision to start “Star Wars” in historical context, starting with the V‐2 attacks on London, moving to arms control issues in the 1970s, the impact of treaties on programs, and the early Reagan administration heading into the decision to start SDI.
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FitzGerald, Frances. Way Out There in the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars, and the End of the Cold War. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000.
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Highly detailed, sourced, and complex history of how Ronald Reagan came to give the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) speech. Looks at Reagan’s biography and events leading to the decision to start the program in space. Synthesizes a large number of secondary sources, supplemented by many primary sources, especially interviews.
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Gruntman, Mike. Intercept 1961: The Birth of Soviet Missile Defense. Reston, VA: AIAA, 2015.
DOI: 10.2514/4.103506Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
This book traces the Soviet antiballistic missile (ABS) program to a 1961 guided missile intercept of an intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) warhead, the first of several successful tests that altered the nuclear missile balance of power between the superpowers. The system relied on high technology including radar systems and computing capability the United States assumed the USSR did not have. Based on Russian language and US documents, this book focuses on the development of the system used in 1961 but does not compare it to US systems or policies.
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Hall, R. Cargill. “Missile Defense Alarm: The Genesis of Space‐Based Infrared Early Warning.” Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly 7.1 (Spring 1999): 5–17.
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This technical and organizational history of the first missile early warning satellites, developed in the early 1960s alongside other important space‐based reconnaissance assets. Hall shows the relationships between the contractor and the government. Even as the science and technology of space‐based infrared sensing matured, the program still had to run through a series of organizational hurdles in the Department of Defense.
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Ray, Thomas A. History of BMEWS 1957–1964. ADC [Air Defense Command] Historical Study No. 32, n.d.
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Undated official history of the bureaucratic and technical issues surrounding the development of the first ballistic missile early warning system, a network of very large antennas used for tracking ICBMs, initiated in the late 1950s and operational by the late 1960s.
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Richelson, Jeffrey T. America’s Space Sentinels: DSP Satellites and National Security. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2012.
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Richelson’s book on the history of a key technology in preventing World War III puts the technology not just in its internalist place but also in its external, geopolitical context. He argues the evolution of satellite‐based early warning is in response to changes in the political and military environments by taking a look at the political, technical, and geopolitical contexts for this weapon system.
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Satellite Communications

Martin 1996 is a technical encyclopedia for all things satellite communications (satcom). Butrica 1997 is a tightly focused collection on the history of satcom, tied together by its three stages of development thesis. Pearson 2000 is a bureaucratic history of a technological system with a wider view of “dissensus” in systems development. Whalen 2002 focuses on the commercial role in satcom development. Morrison 1997 offers a brief overview of how satellites fit into the overall needs of the US Air Force.

Butrica, Andrew J., ed. Beyond the Ionosphere: Fifty Years of Satellite Communication. Washington, DC: NASA, 1997.
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In this collection of articles on the history of satellite communications, editor Butrica ties the articles together by suggesting space‐based satellite communications led to a rivalry between businesses and therefore nation‐states during the Cold War. He offers three stages of satellite communications development, beginning in the late 1950s and extending into the 1970s, analyzing the geopolitical motivations of nation‐states in space while also discussing technological developments in the history of satellite communications.
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Martin, Donald H. Communication Satellites, 1958–1995. Los Angeles: Aerospace Corporation, 1996.
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This book is more of an encyclopedia of communications satellites than it is a history of the concepts and programs in the idea “communications satellites,” but it is a very thorough chronicle of the evolution of commercial and government communications satellites in the period, providing details on communications payload capabilities, spacecraft parameters, and even includes subsystem wiring diagrams intended for the technical user.
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Morrison, Larry R. From Flares to Satellites: A Brief History of Air Force Communications. Washington, DC: Air Force Communications Agency, 1997.
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While largely an institutional history not focused on military satellite communications, this small book does give brief overviews of military systems the US Air Force developed, and shows how space systems fit into the overall needs of the service.
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Pearson, David E. The World Wide Military Command and Control System: Evolution and Effectiveness. Maxwell Air Force Base, AL: Air University Press, 2000.
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He argues in this bureaucratic and organizational history that “rampant organizational suboptimization” (p. xix) led to the system’s failure because the subunits, lacking an organizational center of gravity, developed according to their own missions and priorities. This “dissensus” (p. xvii) subjected the larger system’s missions and priorities to failure because the subunits could not or would not see a more substantive, system-wide perspective.
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Whalen, David J. The Origins of Satellite Communications, 1945–1965. Washington, DC: Smithsonian, 2002.
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Whalen argues that government research and development was not the greatest input to the development of space‐based communications, but that industry played a large role, having developed the necessary technologies for the mission and even determining the best orbital regimes. But lacking a dedicated industry ability to get to space, which was a state monopoly until the mid‐1960s, government decisions affected the players in the satellite communications business.
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ASATs

Chun 1998 and Chun 2000 are the first scholarly looks at early ASAT programs. Kilgo 2004 updates the scholarship. Lantratov 2007 looks at a particular Soviet program, but it is one of the only articles available in English on Soviet ASAT programs.

Chun, Clayton K. S. “A Falling Star: SAINT, America’s First Antisatellite System.” Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly 6.2 (Summer 1998): 44–48.
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This article covers the origins of America’s first antisatellite system, gives a system description, and describes its concept of operations. SAINT faced several technical problems and failed to reach an operational status, but it was an important system in the air force’s argument that it was the US “space service.”
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Chun, Clayton K. S. Shooting Down a “Star”: Program 437, the US Nuclear ASAT System and Present‐Day Copycat Killers. Maxwell Air Force Base, AL: Air University Press, 2000.
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This book presents a case study of an early US ASAT system by showing how engineers stitched together a system in the late 1960s from obsolete 1950s‐era missiles, tracking systems, and nuclear warheads.
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Kilgo, Robert. “The History of the United States Anti‐Satellite Program and the Evolution of Space Control and Offensive and Defensive Counterspace.” Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly 11.3 (Summer 2004): 30–39.
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This article gives brief histories of the major US antisatellite programs running from the late 1950s to the mid‐1980s. It then gives an analysis of the evolution of US space doctrine following the 1991 Gulf War.
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Lantratov, Konstantin. “The ‘Star Wars’ That Never Happened: The True Story of the Soviet Union’s Polyus (Skif‐DM) Space‐Based Laser Battle Stations.” Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly 14.1 (Winter 2007): 5–14.
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In two parts, continuing in Quest 14.2 (Spring 2007): 5–18. These technical articles provide an account of the Soviet program intended as an antiballistic missile program in the 1970s and 1980s; in particular, the program intended to be a space‐based laser, though Skif failed after separation from its Energyia booster.
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Weather

Civilian weather satellite programs are well researched, but military systems are rarely researched. Hall 2002 is the best available on military weather systems.

Hall, R. Cargill. “A History of the Military Polar Orbiting Meteorological Satellite Program.” Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly 9.2 (Spring 2002): 5–19.
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This article is a history of weather satellites used to support military and intelligence programs from the 1960s through the early 1990s, illustrating the revolutionary uses of weather satellites from primarily military support platforms to important assets for broad, national weather forecasting. Part organizational history and part technical article, this article shows the evolution of a small satellite program office into a large one.
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Navigation

There has been a long debate about which agency or person “invented” space‐based positioning, navigation, and timing, which began with the United States’ Transit and Timation, and evolved into the GPS programs. The debate plays out in Banther 2004 and Easton 2007. Strom 2004 and van Keuren and Tugman 2015 provide insights from the participants themselves. Easton and Frazier 2013 updates the scholarship. Pace 1995 takes a less-biased approach than the other sources.

Banther, Chris. “A Look into the History of American Satellite Navigation.” Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly 11.3 (Summer 2004): 40–48.
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This article gives the technological and political background to the development of space‐based navigation systems, including Transit, Timation, and GPS. It argues for the revolutionary development of space‐based navigation systems based on evolutionary decisions.
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Easton, Richard. “TIMATION and the Invention of GPS 1964–1973.” Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly 14.3 (Summer 2007): 12–17.
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Written by the son of Roger Easton, inventor of Timation in 1964 at the Naval Research Lab, this article argues Timation’s ideas and technology led directly to GPS through Timation’s ideas of atomic clocks and passive ranging.
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Easton, Richard D., and Eric F. Frazier. GPS Declassified: From Smart Bombs to Smartphones. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2013.
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Good, basic, technical history of the GPS system and its uses, covering the system’s development and policy changes affecting the daily lives of people in the early 21st century. Argues that GPS was invented by Roger Easton, father of one of the co‐authors, because GPS incorporates ideas of the Timation system, including passive-ranging techniques and space‐based atomic clocks.
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Pace, Scott, ed. The Global Positioning System: Assessing National Policies. Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 1995.
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The purpose of this book was to examine some key issues related to the growing civilian use of a navigation and timing system constructed to win wars. While primarily focused on the major policy issues, the technology importantly plays a role and is covered here. In particular, the book debates the issues surrounding a key feature of GPS at the time, selective availability, which the US government decided in 1996 to discontinue using because of the added capability available to more users.
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Strom, Stephen. “Interview with Dr. Bradford Parkinson (the Creator of GPS).” Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly 11.3 (Summer 2004): 49–59.
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This interview covers Parkinson’s time leading the system program office as program manager for Program 621B, which became GPS, including a discussion of the Transit and Timation program offices and their influence on the development of GPS.
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van Keuren, David K., and James Tugman. “An Interview with Roger Easton: Navigating Time.” Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly 22.1 (Winter 2015): 25–44.
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Covers much of Easton’s early career, including programs he worked on at the dawn of the space age. They argue he invented GPS by showing how Timation and the early tests he did in its concept development were later incorporated into GPS. Presents a copy of his patent for a “Navigations System Using Satellites and Passive Ranging Techniques.”
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Human Spaceflight

Houchin 2006 is the best scholarly look at a cancelled, piloted military space plane. Pealer 1997 is a look at the military’s cancelled space station. Springer 1994 is an early look at a military space program that evolved into a civilian program.

Houchin, Roy F. U.S. Hypersonic Research and Development: The Rise and Fall of Dyna‐Soar, 1944–1963. London: Routledge, 2006.
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Houchin argues that the cancellation of DynaSoar was a political and economic decision about a technology that could have worked. He shows the importance of a technology by placing it not only in its technological context but also in its bureaucratic and political contexts, because DynaSoar not only duplicated some of the capabilities of air‐based and uncrewed space‐based systems but also was incompatible with the US “space for peace” approach.
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Pealer, Donald D. “MOL: Manned Orbiting Laboratory.” Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly 4.3 (Fall 1997): 4–19.
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In three parts, continuing in Quest 4.4 (Winter 1997): 28–35 and Quest 5.2 (Spring 1998): 16–23. These three articles describe the technological and political aspects of the military’s MOL program. Specifically, the articles address context and background, including the links to the Gemini program; project plans and definition; hardware development, including launchers and the laboratory itself; and the program’s demise.
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Springer, Anthony M. “Project Adam: The Army’s Man in Space Program.” Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly 3.3 (Summer–Fall 1994): 46–47.
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This very brief article describes a US Army project intended to launch a soldier on a modified Redstone rocket, a project that was very similar in many ways to Project Mercury’s suborbital phase. Although it was descended from the US Air Force’s Project Man High and never flew, Adam influenced the development of the later Mercury program.
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International Space

Oberg 1981 is an important first look at the Soviet space program before the fall of the USSR. Siddiqi 2000 remains the standard on scholarship in the Soviet space program and the moon race. Godfroy 2011 is the first scholarly look at the early Canadian space program. Paikowsky 2011 is a scholarly look at the early history of Israeli space efforts. Similarly, An 2013 looks at the development of South Korea’s space program.

An, Hyoung Joon. “Seeking Independence in Space: South Korea’s Space Program (1958–2010).” Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly 20.2 (Spring 2013): 34–51.
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This article traces the history of the space program in the Republic of Korea from its origins as a military missile program to its modern, expanded role as both a source of national prestige and scientific advancements.
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Godfroy, Andrew B. Defence & Discovery: Canada’s Military Space Program, 1945–1974. Vancouver, Canada: University of British Columbia Press, 2011.
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Among the histories of national space programs not in the United States or USSR, this book nearly stands alone. It argues that Canada, over thirty years, realized that its own defense relied on military use of space, but Canada’s space program began to decline with the integration of its armed forces. The new combined headquarters, uninterested or uninvolved in space matters, allowed military space assets to be transferred to the civilian sector or cancelled outright.
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Oberg, James E. Red Star in Orbit: The Inside Story of Soviet Failures and Triumphs in Space. New York: Random House, 1981.
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Oberg argues the Soviets were in a space race with the United States in an attempt to reach the moon. He suggests Korolev was indispensable to the Soviet space program because after his death, the program failed to keep up with the US program. By switching its focus to low‐Earth orbit, Soviet successes in space station designs gave the Soviets a wide gap in knowledge of long‐duration spaceflight.
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Paikowsky, Deganit. “From the Shavit‐2 to Ofeq‐1: A History of the Israeli Space Effort.” Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly 18.4 (Fall 2011): 4–12.
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This article traces the history of the Israeli space program from the earliest sounding rockets like the Shavit‐2 in the early 1960s to the launch of Israel’s first satellite Ofeq‐1 in 1988. Paikowsky argues the 1973 war was the turning point that convinced Israeli leaders they needed their own space‐based reconnaissance capability, but that it was not until after the peace accord with Egypt that Israel could do more than study the problems.
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Raj, Gopal. “The Evolution of Indian Launch Vehicles.” Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly 9.1 (Winter 2001): 21–29.
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Argues the vision of Vikram Sarabhai and his practical skills as a leader of projects and engineers started India on an evolutionary path in satellites and launch vehicles that has been very successful for the poor nation.
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Savant, Shubhada, and Sanithosh Seelan. “India’s Remote Sensing Program.” Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly 12.4 (Fall 2005): 26–33.
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Traces the history of India’s remote sensing program, which was designed to support national efforts in the sciences, education, remote sensing, and weather, but is also a source of enormous prestige.
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Siddiqi, Asif A. Challenge to Apollo: The Soviet Union and the Space Race, 1945–1974. Washington, DC: NASA, 2000.
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Siddiqi’s book covers three themes in his history of the Soviet space program: institutional frameworks, technological innovation, and early Soviet successes and later failures. While not a history of space and warfare in the historiography of the Soviet Union, this book does answer the important question, “Why did the Soviets beat the Americans in space so many times but not go to the moon?” and definitively answers, based on Soviet sources, that the USSR was racing the United States to the moon.
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Biography

While there is a plethora of biography, autobiography, and hagiography of civilian space pioneers and astronauts, there is little on military space pioneers, save the few mentions of the military careers of those who eventually became astronauts. Neufeld 2007 is the standard against which all von Braun biographies must be measured. Sheehan 2009 is as much about the Cold War weapons programs as it is about General Schriever. Johnson 2001 (cited under Journals) and Arnold 2004 discuss the nonastronaut career of a space engineer and leader. Chertok 2005–2011 is the best of the Russian space pioneers’ memoirs. Hartinger 1997 is a memoir of a military officer who finished his career leading military space organizations. The Air Force Space Command History Office and Center for the Study of National Reconnaissance websites provide brief biographies of people they see as space pioneers.

Air Force Space Command History Office. “Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers.”
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In conjunction with an awards program at the headquarters of Air Force Space Command, a website exists giving brief biographies of each of the US Air Force’s space and missile pioneers.
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Arnold, David C. “Forrest S. McCartney: The First Space Professional.” Air Power History 51.4 (Winter 2004): 18–29.
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This biography of General McCartney covers his military career, from his early days as a young officer flying Corona satellites to his final days in uniform, and then as a civilian in charge of the Kennedy Space Center. The article explains the need for technical and professional competence in military and civilian space leaders.
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Center for the Study of National Reconnaissance. “Pioneers of National Reconnaissance.”
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The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) also runs a program recognizing its pioneers and has a biography page on its website for its pioneers. However, the NRO emphasizes the contributions of the pioneers to the intelligence community, giving a different look at the biographies of these people than Air Force Space Command’s pioneers program.
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Chertok, Boris. Rockets and People. 4 vols. Translated and edited by Asif A. Siddiqi. Washington, DC: NASA, 2005–2011.
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This memoir—translated by historian Asif Siddiqi, himself an expert in the Soviet space program—is a first-hand account of the history of the Soviet space program from the perspective of one of its leading engineers, and it is the best available source in English.
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Hartinger, Jim. From One Stripe to Four Stars: The Personal Recollections of General James V. Hartinger, USAF Ret. Colorado Springs, CO: Phantom, 1997.
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This memoir by the first commander of Air Force Space Command is significant because it was the first memoir published by a senior US space leader and is a useful primary source for the creation and early days of the US Air Force Space Command. The book, too, is an engaging read about a person who rose in the military from the bottom to the top.
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Neufeld, Michael J. Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007.
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Neufeld argues von Braun became the most influential spaceflight advocate and rocket scientist of the 20th century by making a series of compromises, first with the Nazi regime and then with the US military, in order to achieve his spaceflight vision. Von Braun’s success was founded in his abilities as a visionary, engineer, and a manager of systems development.
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Sheehan, Neil A. A Fiery Peace in a Cold War: Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon. New York: Random House, 2009.
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This book is as much a history of the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and nuclear weapons during the Cold War as it is a biography of General Schriever. Like A Bright Shining Lie, Sheehan’s book about the Vietnam War (New York: Random House, 1988), this well‐written and very readable book covers Schriever’s rise in the air force through his technical competence and ability to navigate the military’s bureaucracy, and serves as an important biography of the father of the air force’s ICBM programs.