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The history of the Russian space programme is labyrinthine. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Soviets consistently beat the US to famous world firsts with Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin. During this time, however, the seeds of later failures, in particular attempts to reach the Moon, were being sown. In The New Russian Space Programme (John Wiley and Sons, £24.95, ISBN 0 471 96014 4), Brian Harvey charts a clear course through this complex historical saga and relates the more recent events that are forcing the Russians into a new age of collaboration.