Well, here's another crisis to worry about: a corrupt space program [in "Countdown"]. "Spaceport City," Floridian home base of the Pegasus Project, is such an incubator for human frailty it's a marvel anything ever gets launched.

The boss astrophysicist, late of Harvard, is busy straining his vital organs (and addling his computations) in pursuit of a chick half his age. The head metallurgical technician falls blotto in the darkroom. The president of the outfit charged with manufacturing Pegasus is demented with cupidity. So, when exastronaut Dr. Mike Barnes arrives as troubleshooter for a Congressional committee, he has plenty to do, including an emergency tracheotomy. Before he's done, Dr. Mike finds as much human error in his chosen sphere as Ralph Nader and Jacqueline Susann did in theirs—but he has nothing too cogent to backstop his sleuthing until Dr. Slaughter sutures the plot with melodramatic needlework.

Martin Levin...