Accessory to War: The Unspoken Alliance Between Astrophysics and the Military

The mysteries of the skies and the stars, planets and plethora of objects that occupy the ethereal realm pose many questions. There have been many who tried to unravel the mysteries, only to find more within. Stars served as navigational guides for explorers and travelers since the beginning of man. As years have passed, curiosity begat innovation which begat implementation, especially in case of war. The discovery of new technology has spun into offensive and defensive weapons. The cold war witnessed the race to put a man on the moon, as the Russians went to space with Sputnik followed by the Americans placing a man on the moon with the Apollo programs. The SDI or Star Wars program offered up plans to shield the US from nukes but proved unsuccessful and unpopular in the 1980s. National Defense has been beefed up, while NASA research against natural elements from the skies has been gutted. Will space and the stars continue to be colonized and grabbed like land? Or will cooperation among nations be the new rule?

Accessory to War is an exhaustive and important history of science, space, and war. Neil Degrasse Tyson and Avis Lang write convincingly of the need for better utilization of resources and money for space exploration. The weaving of the historical narrative is done with care and aplomb, this is a book for the space and history lover. A+