Whether you're interested in the science of rocketry, the political implications of the Soviets' beating us into space, or simply in Sputnik as news event, the Gurneys' desultory organization doesn't exert much pull. This unfocused Focus book starts off with a few pages on Copernicus, Kepler and Newton headlined ""They Prepared the Way,"" a standard rundown on rocket pioneers, more background (the nub of the book) on Soviet designer Korolev, a chronology of how the Russians scooped our own IGY satellite launching project, and a sampling (without much discussion or perspective) of Sputnik's repercussions in the U.S. Still, as Carlisle's 1971 Satellites: Servants of Man blacked out Sputnik altogether, and others have done little more than recycle NASA handouts, this rather deadpan summary begins to look useful.