A Hole in Texas
Herman Wouk, ISBN
0-316-52590-1, 2004
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The interesting, fictive
story about the professional and private interactions of an American high
energy physicist and an ambitious Chinese physicist after her surprise
announcement of having discovered the long-sought Higgins bosom. “The SSC has been lynched and
we have to bury the body” (Sen. Bennet Johnston, D-La) said after the final vote
in October 21, 1993 after the ISS has won approval of the Congress with 216 to
215 votes in June 1993 before. |
Having spent much of my
career with the ISS (and the European Columbus module) I found the book very
interesting, because it sheds a light on the politics, lobbying and decision
making of the responsible institutions and politicians. At the time of those
decisions we (in Europe) only realized the results – having read the book I
have the feeling of a much better understanding why things happened the way
they happened and as “lessons learned” I think the described processes for
decision-making shed some light on the current debate about the way on how to continue
with the human spaceflight program in the USA and with their partners.
I promise that every reader
of the book will have a deeper insight in the decision process for prestigious
and billion dollar scientific projects.
Therefore the book is highly
recommended for professionals in the space business.
As
an afterthought, with the above history in mind, I think the "hole" in
Texas has deepend after it missed out on getting one of the remaining
Space Shuttles for historical display.