Overview

Against the backdrop of the late Cold War, a tiny American start-up company forged a secret deal to place American scientific payloads aboard the Soviet space station MIR. Born out of sheer desperation after the Challenger explosion and grounding of the US space shuttle program, the agreement was negotiated and approved behind the backs of NASA and Congress, with the help of US government officials inside the Commerce and Defense departments. On a cold gray morning in February 1988, the company founder met with three graduate students and their professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to put his plans into action. Baikonur Man, written by one of those students, recounts the subsequent five-year saga of how science, comradery, hardship, drama, and occasional lunacy led to the first American experiments and payloads to fly on Russian rockets.

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9781646639403

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Reviews

"""This is a fascinating story of an unusually risky scientific collaboration at a time of historic political and societal change. Those looking to understand a key moment that helped to advance our understanding of human biology and space flight should read this book."" -Jennifer Doudna, 2020 Nobel Prize Recipient, Author of A Crack in Creation, and Subject of Best-Selling Biography Code Breaker ""Barry Stoddard's winning new book, Baikonur Man, proceeds from the initial assertion that it is rocket science . . . but also much more: Santa Claus boxers, Armenian cognac with Russian engineers, fence building in north Idaho, rides on a Vomit Comet, grim lodgings in Kazakhstan, crystals in space . . . not to mention the collapse of the Soviet Union. For readers who want to have a little fun with their science and a little science with their fun-mission accomplished. This book is for you."" -Keith Morris, Editor of the South Carolina Review, and Author of Traveler's Rest and The Dart League King ""Engagingly told, this book tells the fascinating story of a scientific, personal, and political journey early in the life of a young scientist thirty years ago. Its highs and lows are great and make for a terrific and timely story."" -Richard Henderson, 2017 Nobel Prize Recipient and Copley Medal Winner ""Barry's book tells the story of a fascinating, high-level, and intriguing adventure. I find it hard to conceive that when so many aspects of this world seem tenuous, opposing forces can still find ways to tackle important projects for the common good."" -Marianne Love, Author of Pocket Girdles, Postcards from Potato Land, and Lessons with Love ""A great account of a young graduate student's unexpected adventures while participating in one of the very earliest experimental science projects carried out by American scientists and the Russian space program. Told with surprising frankness and down-to-earth humor."" -Rich Roberts, 1993 Nobel Prize Recipient and Chief Scientific Officer of New England Biolabs"

This is a fascinating story of an unusually risky scientific collaboration at a time of historic political and societal change. Those looking to understand a key moment that helped to advance our understanding of human biology and space flight should read this book. -Jennifer Doudna, 2020 Nobel Prize Recipient, Author of A Crack in Creation, and Subject of Best-Selling Biography Code Breaker Barry Stoddard's winning new book, Baikonur Man, proceeds from the initial assertion that it is rocket science . . . but also much more: Santa Claus boxers, Armenian cognac with Russian engineers, fence building in north Idaho, rides on a Vomit Comet, grim lodgings in Kazakhstan, crystals in space . . . not to mention the collapse of the Soviet Union. For readers who want to have a little fun with their science and a little science with their fun-mission accomplished. This book is for you. -Keith Morris, Editor of the South Carolina Review, and Author of Traveler's Rest and The Dart League King Engagingly told, this book tells the fascinating story of a scientific, personal, and political journey early in the life of a young scientist thirty years ago. Its highs and lows are great and make for a terrific and timely story. -Richard Henderson, 2017 Nobel Prize Recipient and Copley Medal Winner Barry's book tells the story of a fascinating, high-level, and intriguing adventure. I find it hard to conceive that when so many aspects of this world seem tenuous, opposing forces can still find ways to tackle important projects for the common good. -Marianne Love, Author of Pocket Girdles, Postcards from Potato Land, and Lessons with Love A great account of a young graduate student's unexpected adventures while participating in one of the very earliest experimental science projects carried out by American scientists and the Russian space program. Told with surprising frankness and down-to-earth humor. -Rich Roberts, 1993 Nobel Prize Recipient and Chief Scientific Officer of New England Biolabs

Author Information

Barry Stoddard was born in Montana and has lived in the Pacific Northwest for most of his life. He graduated from Whitman College and earned his doctorate from MIT. After further training at the University of California in Berkeley, he joined the faculty at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, Washington, where he has run a research laboratory ever since. He has authored hundreds of research studies and serves as the senior editor of a scientific journal. Among the many adventures, working with Payload Systems and the Soviet and Russian space program remains at the very top of the list.Barry lives in Bellevue, Washington, with his wife, Amy, not far from his sons and their families.

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