by Robert Stone
These pages would not have been possible without considerable support provided by Mark Andres, Peggy Hogan, and Lucinda Jewell, whose lives have been shaped by a commitment to the importance of books, and, in the case of Chasing the Moon, generously assisted in its creation. Alan Andres wants to thank his partner, Anne Weaver, for both her belief in this project and her willingness to be primary family caretaker while it was being written. He is also very appreciative of the curiosity—and patience!—of Ian and Miranda as they listened to their father talk for what may have seemed to be an eternity about this history from a half century ago.
From our initial inquiry, Jane von Mehren had little doubt that contemporary readers would be intrigued by our approach. Working with her again after many decades was one of this project’s additional rewards. Our editor at Ballantine, Susanna Porter, has demonstrated why she is so highly valued in the publishing world. Her enthusiasm, patience, astute questions, and careful eye have transformed these pages in profound ways of which the reader is unaware. Additionally, copy editor Kathy Lord’s scrutiny, diplomacy, and wisdom are hidden within every paragraph of this book. Her diligence and attention to the smallest details are appreciated more than a small acknowledgment reveals. Thanks also to Emily Hartley, Deborah Foley. Matthew Martin, Simon Sullivan, Greg Kubie, and Dennis Ambrose for their work behind the scenes keeping everything on schedule.
Every effort has been made to trace the holders of all copyrighted material. We greatly regret any inadvertent omissions or errors within these pages; should they come to our attention, we will attempt to rectify them in future editions.
NOTES
ACC: Arthur C. Clarke
NASM: National Air and Space Museum
NYT: The New York Times
CHAPTER ONE: A PLACE BEYOND THE SKY
Now he learned ACC, introduction to The Conquest of Space by David Lasser (Burlington, ON: Apogee Books, 2002).
A full decade after Tsiolkovsky’s groundbreaking paper Michael J. Neufeld, “The Three Heroes of Spaceflight: The Rise of the Tsiolkovskii-Goddard-Oberth Interpretation and Its Current Validity,” Quest 19, no. 4 (2012): p. 8.
“As I looked” Robert Goddard, The Papers of Robert H. Goddard 1898–1924 (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1970), p. 9.
He also proposed “Invents New War Weapon: Armistice Prevented Use of Dr. Goddard’s Rocket,” NYT (March 30, 1919).
Within weeks, The New York Times: “First Volunteer for Leap to Mars,” NYT (February 5, 1920).
The Times slammed Goddard “Topics of the Times,” NYT (January 12, 1920).
Occasionally Goddard was complicit “Plans Ocean Rocket Carrying Passengers; Professor Goddard Experiments on a New Method for Crossing the Atlantic at Terrific Speed,” NYT (July 4, 1927).
A brilliant student of mathematics John Elder, “The Experience of Hermann Oberth,” History of Rocketry and Astronautics: Proceedings of the Twenty-Fifth History Symposium of the International Academy of Astronautics (San Diego: American Astronautical Society, 1997), pp. 278–280.
“This was nothing but a hobby ”: Hermann Oberth, “Autobiography,” in The Coming of the Space Age, ed. ACC (New York: Meredith, 1967), p. 116.
One of Tsiolkovsky’s Frank H. Winter, Prelude to the Space Age: The Rocket Societies, 1924–1940 (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1983), p. 26.
In 1924, Russian Asif A. Siddiqi, “Imagining the Cosmos: Utopians, Mystics, and the Popular Culture of Spaceflight in Revolutionary Russia,” Journal of Space Mission Architecture, no. 1 (Fall 1999): p. 271.
Lasser, the son of Russian immigrant Eric Leif Davin, Pioneers of Wonder: Conversations with the Founders of Science Fiction (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1999), pp. 31, 46–47.
Avid readers noticed Lester Del Rey, The World of Science Fiction, 1926–1976 (New York: Ballantine, 1979), p. 50.
Goddard informed Lasser Davin, Pioneers, p. 56.
In one of his first roles: Bulletin of the American Interplanetary Society Vol. 1, no. 7 (1931); “2,000 Ride Rocket to Moon in Museum,” NYT (January 28, 1931).
Lasser had concluded Davin, Pioneers, p. 53.
“We learn that” Lasser, The Conquest of Space, p. 17, 88.
He soon amassed Clarke’s school notebooks are now in the collection of the Smithsonian’s NASM.
But when he read ACC, “In the Beginning Was Jupiter,” NYT Book Review (March 6, 1983).
Archie Clarke’s parents Fred Clarke, Arthur C. Clarke: A Life Remembered (Burlington, ON: Apogee Books, 2013), p. 17.
Like many other curious boys Neil McAleer, Odyssey: The Authorized Biography of Arthur C. Clarke (London: Gollancz, 1992), p. 6.
He loved reading ACC, introduction to The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke (New York: Tor Books, 2001), p. ix.
All of the serious Winter, Prelude, p. 42.
One of the society’s remaining Winter, Prelude, pp. 44–48.
Unemployment in the United States Davin, Pioneers, p. 56.
“If you like working” Davin, Pioneers, p. 57.
“I am extremely interested” ACC, letter to L. J. Johnson in Odyssey, p. 11.
On its final transatlantic voyage “Here to Show Us How to Use Mail Rockets,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle (February 21, 1935).
Ley had even written Jared S. Buss, “Willy Ley, the Science Writers, and the Popular Reenchantment of Science” (PhD diss., University of Oklahoma, 2014), pp. 114–116.
“I prided myself” ACC, Astounding Days (London: Gollancz, 1989), p. 125.
When the project was completed ACC, Astounding, p. 152.
“When a distinguished” Clarke’s other two laws being: “The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible” (Clarke’s Second Law, 1962), and “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” (Clarke’s Third Law, 1973).
News about the society’s rocket Tony Reichhardt, “H.M.S. Moon Rocket,” Air & Space (March 1997).
During the flurry McAleer, Odyssey, p. 35.
Sitting on a veranda Fritz Lang, “Sci-Fi Film-maker’s Debt to Rocket Man Willy Ley,” Los Angeles Times (July 27, 1969).
Laughter was heard ACC, Astounding, pp. 153–154.
Should Ley have needed “V-2 Details Are Revealed,” Life (December 25, 1944): pp 46–47.
Ley published an article Buss, “Willy Ley,” pp. 232–233.
“Those that are still alive”: Willy Ley, “V-2 Rocket Cargo Ship,” Astounding Science Fiction (May 1945).
In the mid-1930s Michael G. Smith, Rockets and Revolution: A Cultural History of Early Spaceflight (Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2014), p. 285; Jay Robert Nash, Spies: A Narrative Encyclopedia of Dirty Tricks and Double Dealing from Biblical Times to Today (New York: M. Evans, 1997), p. 130.
Technology for both rockets Frank H. Winter, “Robert Goddard Was the Father of American Rocketry. But Did He Have Much Impact?” AirSpaceMag.com (May 8, 2018).
From an American military officer Buss, “Willy Ley,” pp. 259–261.
“I only hope” Willy Ley, letter to Robert Heinlein, “Willy Ley” (August 29, 1945), p. 261.
“Entire German staff”: “Reich Experts Identified,” NYT (November 18, 1945).
“A crackpot with mental delusions” Davin, Pioneers, p. 54.
Lasser was incredulous Lynn Darling, “A Rebel Redeemed,” The Washington Post (April 23, 1980).
Instead, the White House Annie Jacobsen, Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program that Brought Nazi Scientists to America (New York: Little, Brown, 2014), p. 195.
Early in 1945 ACC, “Peacetime Uses for V-2,” Wireless World (February 1945): p. 58.
During that summer ACC, “Extra-Terrestrial Relays: Can Rocket Stations Giv
e World-Wide Radio Coverage?” Wireless World (October 1945): pp 305–308.
A second, less historically important McAleer, Odyssey, p. 65.
“In a very short time”: ACC, Ascent to Orbit: A Scientific Autobiography (New York: Wiley, 1984), p. 83.
Bonestell’s scientifically accurate Ron Miller, The Art of Chesley Bonestell (London: Paper Tiger, 2001), p. 36.
In Rahway, New Jersey Ray Spangenburg and Diane Moser, Carl Sagan: A Biography (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2004), pp. 10–11; Carl Sagan, “In Praise of Arthur C. Clarke,” the Seth MacFarlane Collection of the Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan Archive, Library of Congress (October 28, 1981).
CHAPTER TWO: THE MAN WHO SOLD THE MOON
It’s no surprise Camel News Caravan, 16mm film segment, NBC Universal Archives, clip no. 5112458708 (March 13, 1952).
Collier’s readers were introduced Cornelius Ryan, “Man Will Conquer Space Soon: What Are We Waiting For?” Collier’s (March 22, 1952): pp. 23–24.
This wasn’t the first meeting Jared S. Buss, “Willy Ley, the Science Writers, and the Popular Reenchantment of Science” (PhD. diss., University of Oklahoma, 2014), pp. 266–268.
Physically, he could Michael J. Neufeld, Von Braun: Dreamer of Space, Engineer of War (New York: Knopf, 2007), p. 43.
He wore thick-lens eyeglasses “Longines Chronoscope,” kinescope, CBS-TV, National Archives and Records Administration (August 4, 1952), 200LW124.
Over glasses of wine Buss, “Willy Ley,” pp. 266–268.
Von Braun revealed Here the discussion between Ley and von Braun on the evening of December 6, 1946, is used to tell von Braun’s history from 1932 to 1945; it also references other post-war accounts that von Braun gave about World War II.
“We hit the big time!” Wernher von Braun, interview in “Hitler’s Secret Weapon,” Nova, WGBH Boston (January 5, 1977).
As their conversation continued Buss, “Willy Ley,” p. 269.
Von Braun revealed that “Hitler’s Secret Weapon,” Nova.
When the screening ended “Hitler’s Secret Weapon,” Nova.
Two days before von Braun Frederick Graham, “Nazi Scientists Aid Army on Research,” NYT (December 4, 1946).
Someone unimpressed Buss, “Willy Ley,” pp. 269–270; Robert Heinlein letter to Captain Cal Laning (January 12, 1947), in “Willy Ley,” p. 268.
It was while quartered Neufeld, Von Braun, pp. 229–230.
Unfortunately for von Braun Neufeld, Von Braun, p. 246.
“Despite the grief” Wernher von Braun, letter to British Interplanetary Society, Daniel Lang, “A Reporter at Large: A Romantic Urge,” The New Yorker (April 21, 1951).
During his brief return Neufeld, Von Braun, p. 233.
“It is a sad reflection” “Plan On Germans Scored; Admission of Scientists with Citizenship Offer Attacked,” NYT (January 5, 1947).
But after seven decades Beverly S. Curry, The People Who Lived on the Land that Is Now Redstone Arsenal (Summerland Key, FL: B. S. Curry, 2006).
The German engineers who arrived Lang, “A Reporter at Large,” The New Yorker.
Without much further discussion Buss, “Willy Ley,” pp. 317–318.
Over cocktails, Ryan Wernher von Braun, draft of speech, in Von Braun, p. 256.
In April 1951 Lang, “A Reporter at Large,” The New Yorker.
In the weeks before the March publication Neufeld, Von Braun, p. 258.
“Space rockets are” Wernher von Braun, letter to Cornelius Ryan, in Von Braun, p. 258.
The former Speaker of the House “Text of Chairman Joe Martin’s Address to GOP Convention,” Arizona Republic (July 10, 1952): p. 15.
Clarke sat up ACC, unpublished speech (July 1952), in Odyssey: The Authorized Biography of Arthur C. Clarke by Neil McAleer (London: Gollancz, 1992) p. 90.
The cover illustration Robert Heinlein, The Green Hills of Earth (New York: New American Library, 1952); Piet Schreuders, James Avati, and Kenneth Fulton, The Paperback Art of James Avati (Hampton Falls, NH: Donald M. Grant, 2005).
Heinlein confessed Robert Heinlein, letter to Sandra Jane Fulton, Robert A. and Virginia Heinlein Archives, UC Santa Cruz.
Writing in an essay ACC, “Sinbad in a Spaceship,” NYT Book Review (November 16, 1952).
In a lengthy diversion Neufeld, Von Braun, pp. 284–285.
Disney’s choice David R. Smith, “They’re Following Our Script: Walt Disney’s Trip to Tomorrowland,” Future (May 1978), p. 57.
“If we were to start” Wernher von Braun, “Man in Space,” Disneyland (March 9, 1955).
Forty million Willy Ley, “The How of Space Travel,” Galaxy Science Fiction 11, no. 1 (October 1955): p. 60.
Polling conducted William Sims Bainbridge, The Meaning and Value of Spaceflight: Public Perceptions (New York: Springer, 2015), p. 6.
And in a final act Rocket Experts Become Americans, American newsreel (April 14, 1955).
The Disney studio A Walt Disney Science Factual Production: Man in Space, Educational Film Division, Walt Disney Productions, Burbank, CA.
Released in late 1955 Challenge of Outer Space, 16mm, Department of Defense (October 20, 1955).
Von Braun believed Neufeld, Von Braun, p. 298.
“The statement would hurt” Wernher von Braun, letter to Ward Kimball (August 30, 1955), Smith, “They’re Following Our Script,” p. 59.
At Redstone Arsenal and in the city Paul Dickson, Sputnik: The Shock of the Century (New York: Walker, 2001), p. 90.
Four days after the White House’s John Hillaby, “Soviet Planning Early Satellite; Russian Expert in Denmark Says Success in 2 Years Is ‘Quite Possible,’ ” NYT (August 3, 1955).
Korolev distrusted the German engineers Anatoly Zak, “The Rest of the Rocket Scientists,” Air & Space (September 2003).
It was approaching midnight McAleer, Odyssey, p. 141.
“As of Saturday” ACC, “Free Zone Urged in Outer Space,” NYT (October 10, 1957).
Singer’s paper was titled S. F. Singer, “Interplanetary Ballistic Missiles: A New Astrophysical Research Tool,” VIIIth International Astronautical Congress Barcelona 1957, eds. P. J. Bergeron, Friedrich Hecht (Berlin: Springer, 1958).
“Blown out of proportion” S. Fred Singer, interview with Allan A. Needell and David DeVorkin, American Institute of Physics, oral-history interviews (April 23, 1991).
After Sputnik was launched Dickson, Sputnik, p. 132.
Magazine features George Barrett, “Visit with a Prophet of the Space Age,” NYT Magazine (October, 20, 1957); “The Seer of Space,” Life (November 18, 1957).
“The rocket that launched” NBC News special report, “Russians Launch Sputnik 2,” 16mm kinescope, NBC Universal Archives [clip no. 511243217] (November 3, 1957).
Democrats with eyes Senator Henry “Scoop” Jackson, “The Satellite Sky,” PBS New York, Robert Stone Productions, Ltd. (December 3, 1990).
Taking von Braun’s lead Robert Caro, Master of the Senate: The Years of Lyndon Johnson (New York: Knopf, 2002), p. 1028.
“We have no enemies” Stephen Ambrose, Eisenhower: Soldier and President (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991), p. 462.
“Unless we develop” John D. Morris, “Bigger Rocket an Urgent Need, von Braun and Medaris Warn,” NYT (December 15, 1957).
CBS News’s Harry Reasoner Michael D’Antonio, A Ball, a Dog, and a Monkey: 1957—The Space Race Begins (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007), pp. 120–121.
In the days that followed “Coverage at Canaveral,” NYT (December 24, 1957).
NBC News used a motorcycle Harold Baker, “Above & Beyond: ‘Aw, Hell, Television Is Here,’ ” Air & Space (January 2001).
Led by a call “A Jupiter-Based Jubilation,” Life (February 10, 1958).
The mayor joined Ale
x Thomas, “Wail of Sirens Brings in Era on Space Here,” The Huntsville Times (February 1, 1958).
When he appeared in Washington Ed Buckbee, interview with Robert Stone (April 14, 2015).
Von Braun signed Neufeld, Von Braun, p. 325.
He felt out of place “Top Scientist in Man’s Efforts to Shoot Moon,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch (August 10, 1958).
“They should send old” John Elder, “The Experience of Hermann Oberth,” History of Rocketry and Astronautics: Proceedings of the Twenty-Fifth History Symposium of the International Academy of Astronautics (San Diego: American Astronautical Society, 1997), pp. 302, 308–309.
“Our rocketry is good” Milton Esterow, “World Scientists Laud Soviet Shot,” NYT (January 4, 1959).
The Air Force argued Walter McDougall, The Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age (New York: Basic Books, 1985), p. 166.
Its Special Weapons Center William J. Broad, “U.S. Planned Nuclear Blast on the Moon, Physicist Says,” NYT (May 16, 2000).
His announcement in late July “An Explanatory Statement Prepared by the President’s Science Advisory Committee,” Introduction to Outer Space (March 26, 1958).
“This is not science fiction” President Dwight Eisenhower, “Statement by the President,” Introduction to Outer Space (March 26, 1958).
Korolev sent a memo Sergei Khrushchev, “How Rockets Learned to Fly,” in Epic Rivalry: The Inside Story of the Soviet and American Space Race by Von Hardesty and Gene Eisman (Washington: National Geographic, 2007), p. xi.
While the Soviet space program’s principal Sergei Khrushchev, interview with Robert Stone (February 25, 2015).
In fact, during NASA’s first year Audra J. Wolf, Competing with the Soviets: Science, Technology, and the State in Cold War America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 2103), p. 92.
