Lawrence E. Lamb

Inside the Space Race: A Space Surgeon’s Diary, Lawrence E. Lamb, MD, Synergy Books, 2006

This book looks at the early days of the American space program from the point of view of a key scientist, someone who had a voice in deciding who would, or would not, be traveling into space.

In the early 1950s, there was much concern, even paranoia, about Soviet military capabilities. The concern got even worse when Sputnik was launched in 1957. Lamb was an Air Force cardiologist who was given the task of developing the cardiology portion of the physical exam used on participants in the Man in Space program. Starting from scratch (a couple of abandoned buildings at Brooks AFB in Texas), Lamb and his group knew that they had to be as sure as possible about a pilot’s physical condition. Lamb did not have the final word as to who would be going into space, but his recommendation carried a lot of weight.

When he recommended that Donald "Deke" Slayton, one of the original Mercury astronauts, not be cleared for spaceflight, many important people were not happy. Attempts were made to find cardiologists who would publicly state that Slayton’s heart arrythmia should not ground him. Other attempts were made to take the whole cardiology program away from Lamb and his group, and put it under the direct control of NASA or the Pentagon. Lamb strongly objected when he discovered that Slayton was to be the backup astronaut for John Glenn’s orbital flight (which almost never happened and which almost ended in disaster), and when Slayton was to be the astronaut for the second orbital flight.

When the emphasis turned to longer flights, Lamb talks about the experiments that were devised to measure the effects of prolonged weightlessness on the human body. Data from Russian flights showed that the human body simply could not take any more than several days of weightlessness. Until methods were found to ease the effects on the body, going to the moon (or anywhere else, for that matter) was not a sure thing.

This is a very interesting inside look at a famous part of American history. It is first-rate, and is recommended for readers of all ages.… (mere)