The Wrong Stuff

“[A] brisk, rip-roaring account of the Soviet side of the space race… Mr. Strausbaugh’s style is appealingly sardonic, amusing and a touch gonzo. The author has a sharp eye for the bizarre, which lends itself nicely to a story of remarkable dysfunction and remarkable achievement, told against a background where the darkness is not only that of space.”
 

“I love this book. This is a harrowing and hilarious account of a history that I will admit as a space geek I knew absolutely nothing about.”
 

“Strausbaugh tells this extraordinary tale in a chatty, familiar voice that adds to the ironies of historical Soviet extraterrestrial adventuring.”
 

“Strausbaugh’s droll sense of humor fits well with this examination of the Soviet space program… [He] clearly enjoyed writing this entertaining book, an accessible, engaging story about an era that, for better or worse, is nearly forgotten.”

"Strausbaugh paints an amusing portrait of rockets and spacecrafts held together with little more than bubblegum and shoe strings — and tight-lipped publicity campaigns."

“Highly entertaining… The Wrong Stuff is the right choice for readers fascinated by space and the human absurdities that propel us there.”
 

“Strausbaughs writing is engaging and full of anecdotes that both reveal the humanity of the cosmonauts and the calamities of a space program operating under Soviet communism.”