Lost Rocket Summer

That's the title of a short story by Ray Bradbury, and it's also going to be the title of my article on the history of space exploration, which I'm currently working on, simultaneously with an article on Walt Disney's Tomorrowland programs, which I've been watching over the past few days.

Two of these programs were aired in 1955, and two in 1957... indeed Mars and Beyond was aired on December 4, 1957...two months after the Soviets had stunned the US by putting a satellite, Sputnik, into orbit, which effectively derailed the US's exploration of space into a propaganda race to be the first to reach the moon. The hopes of building a space station and doing methodical exploration fell by the wayside... as I'll cover in my article.

Anyway:

Man in Space - March 9, 1955
Man and the Moon - Dec 28, 1955
Our Friend, The Atom - Jan 23, 1957
Mars and Beyond - Dec 4, 1957
Eyes in Outer Space - theatrical short, released in 1959, shown on TV in 1962

NOTE: I can't get Blogger to get the captions correct, sorry about that. So just note that each caption refers to the photo BELOW, not to its side!

Ward Kimble: one of the writers, and the producer



Willy Ley: Rocket scientist who left Grrmany before Hitler came to power:



Werner von Braun: Rocket scientist who worked on the V2, etc, fled to the US side after the war (as opposed to other rocket scientists captured by the Russians)



Heinz Haber

Science populist in both US and Germany