Heroes in a Vacuum: The Apollo Astronaut as Cultural Icon

No one could have predicted the public fascination with astronauts from the first unveiling of the Mercury Seven in 1959 through Project Apollo until the present. The astronaut as celebrity and what that has meant in American life never dawned on anyone beforehand. To the surprise and ultimately consternation of some NASA leaders, they immediately became national heroes and the leading symbols of the fledgling space program.1 Even so, both NASA and the press contrived to present the astronauts as embodiments of the leading virtues of American culture and this has continued from the 1950s to the new millennium. Both NASA officials and the astronauts themselves carefully molded and controlled their public images every bit as successfully as those of movie idols or rock music stars.

Paper Session II-A - Looking Backward/Looking Forward: Space Flight at the Turn of the New Millennium

On March 16, 1926, seventy-six years ago, a reclusive Robert H. Goddard launched the world’s first liquid-fueled rocket at Auburn, Massachusetts, which traveled 43 feet in 2½ seconds. This event could appropriately be characterized as the “Kitty Hawk” of space exploration and the beginning of what would eventually become one of the most significant endeavors of the twentieth century. In the space allotted for this article, I shall survey fifty years of space exploration, reviewing the major programs of human and robotic exploration from the first efforts to reach space in 1957-1958 through the enormously successful spaceflight programs of the recent past. Using this historical base as a jumping-off point, I shall offer some comments on the possibilities available for the next fifty years in spaceflight

“Astronaut Envy?” The U.S. Military’s Quest for a Human Mission in Space

Before the beginning of the space age in 1957, the Department of Defense (DOD) of the United States sought to gain the mission and the technologies to carry out human operations in space. Even after 1958, when President Dwight D. Eisenhower made the decision to assign the human spaceflight mission to the newly created National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), DOD champions continued to argue for a role for military astronauts. The military pursued several flight projects in the 1960s, achieved flight status for military astronauts on classified missions on the Space Shuttle in the 1980s, and has continued to advocate a human military mission in space as the twentieth century came to an end. All this happened despite an exceptionally weak rationale for military astronauts in space. While the DOD commitment to human spaceflight has moderated in the post-cold war era, there remains some who seek this activity as a military mission. This essay reviews the history of the military quest for human spaceflight, and suggests that a human military presence in space will come as other humans settle beyond Earth as has long been the case in terrestrial exploration and settlement. It points to the continuing difficulty of developing a rationale for human spaceflight, a difficulty that has come to a head in the early twenty-first century as the Space Shuttle is retired and plans for future vehicles remain unclear

Toward a history of the space shuttle. An annotated bibliography

This selective, annotated bibliography discusses those works judged to be most essential for researchers writing scholarly studies on the Space Shuttle's history. A thematic arrangement of material concerning the Space Shuttle will hopefully bring clarity and simplicity to such a complex subject. Subjects include the precursors of the Space Shuttle, its design and development, testing and evaluation, and operations. Other topics revolve around the Challenger accident and its aftermath, promotion of the Space Shuttle, science on the Space Shuttle, commercial uses, the Space Shuttle's military implications, its astronaut crew, the Space Shuttle and international relations, the management of the Space Shuttle Program, and juvenile literature. Along with a summary of the contents of each item, judgments have been made on the quality, originality, or importance of some of these publications. An index concludes this work

The Wright Brothers, Government Support for Aeronautical Research, and the Progress of Flight

The article, The Wright Brothers, Government Support for Aeronautical Research, and the Progress of Flight, was presented by Roger D. Launius at the Following the Footsteps of the Wright Brothers: Their Sites and Stories Symposium at Wright State University, September 28, 2001. In the article Launius discusses the slow development of the aircraft and how the United States lagged in further research and development of the air service

James Van Allen: The First Eight Billion Miles

Review of: "James Van Allen: The First Eight Billion Miles," by Abigail Foerstner

Apollo: A retrospective analysis

Since the completion of Project Apollo more than twenty years ago there have been a plethora of books, studies, reports, and articles about its origin, execution, and meaning. At the time of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the first landing, it is appropriate to reflect on the effort and its place in U.S. and NASA history. This monograph has been written as a means to this end. It presents a short narrative account of Apollo from its origin through its assessment. That is followed by a mission by mission summary of the Apollo flights and concluded by a series of key documents relative to the program reproduced in facsimile. The intent of this monograph is to provide a basic history along with primary documents that may be useful to NASA personnel and others desiring information about Apollo

Reconsidering Sputnik: Forty Years Since the Soviet Satellite

This collection of essays explore several broad themes: the Soviet Union and Sputnik, space and the international Geophysical Year, the immediate ramifications of Sputnik in the United States, and the significance of Sputnik throughout the world

An annotated bibliography of the Apollo program

The topics presented include the following: general works, the space race, decisions, Apollo technology, operations, popular culture and promotion, science, astronauts, the management of the Apollo Program, and juvenile literature