A stunningly imaginative book about the Cold Battle, the Russian space program, as well as the amazing scams that pulled the wool over the eyes of the world.

It’s 1964 in the USSR, and unbeknownst even to Premier Khrushchev himself, the Soviet space system is a sham. Well, half of a sham. As the program has successfully released five pills into space, the principle Designer and his group have never effectively brought one back to earth. To disguise this, they’ve used twins. But in a nation constructed on about First Cosmic Speed secrets and propaganda, the biggest lie of most is about to unravel.

Because right now there are no more twins left.

Combining background and fiction, the true as well as the mystical, First Cosmic Velocity is the story of Leonid, the final of the twins. Used 1950 from a lifestyle of poverty in Ukraine to the training grounds in Russia, the Leonids were given one name and one identification, but divergent fates. Now one Leonid provides launched to specific death (or so one might believe…), and the additional is sent on a press tour beneath the watchful eyesight of Ignatius, the federal government agent who understands too much but gives aside little. Even though Leonid battles his increasing doubts about their deceitful task, the Chief Developer must scramble to master a working spacecraft, especially when Khrushchev nominates his high-strung, squirrel-like pet dog for the 1st canine mission.

By converts grim and whimsical, fatalistic and deeply hopeful, First Cosmic Velocity is a sweeping book of the heights of mankind’s achievements, the depths of its folly, and the people–and canines–with whom we create family.