John B. Medaris (1902–1990)
Author of Countdown for Decision
About the Author
Image credit: U.S. Army Major Genaral John B. Medaris
Works by John B. Medaris
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Medaris, John B.
- Birthdate
- 1902-05-12
- Date of death
- 1990
- Burial location
- Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia, USA
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Education
- Ohio State University
- Occupations
- soldier
businessman
priest - Organizations
- United States Marine Corps
United States Army
Members
Reviews
Awards
Statistics
- Works
- 1
- Members
- 16
- Popularity
- #679,947
- Rating
- 3.5
- Reviews
- 1
- ISBNs
- 1
He was the Commander of AMBA - The Army Ballistic Missile Agency, home of the Von Braun rocket group. He talks a great deal about the Redstone and Jupiter missiles, so I felt this was a great resource on those two programs. Both faced a lot of opposition and obstacles, and Medaris certainly seems to be the main reason both were eventually successful. The book also covers the duel between the Army and Navy over the first satellite launcher - Jupiter C vs Vanguard. I really enjoyed this perspective on history. He was incredibly dismissive of Vanguard, which was a mistake on his part. While Vanguard certainly had some flaws, I feel it was not as bad as Medaris indicated. I was quite disappointed to note that he misspelled Navaho several times throughout the book. I would have liked more information on some of the test facilities at ABMA, too.
All in all, this would be a great read for anyone interested in space history, especially pre-NASA military space efforts.… (more)