Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun was a German-American aerospace engineer and space architect. He was a member of the Nazi Party and Allgemeine SS, the leading figure in the development of rocket technology in Nazi Germany, and later a pioneer of rocket and space technology in the United States.
This article gives a concise timeline of rocket and missile technology.
Herman Potočnik was an Austro-Hungarian Army officer, electrical engineer and astronautics theorist. He is regarded as an early theorist of modern space flight and is remembered mainly for his work concerning the long-term human habitation of space.
Hermann Julius Oberth was an Austro-Hungarian-born German physicist and rocket pioneer of Transylvanian Saxon descent. He is considered one of the founding fathers of rocketry and astronautics, along with Robert Esnault-Pelterie, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Robert H. Goddard and Herman Potočnik. Oberth supported Nazi Germany's war effort and received the War Merit Cross in 1943.
Chesley Knight Bonestell Jr. was an American painter, designer, and illustrator. His paintings inspired the American space program, and they have been influential in science fiction art and illustration. A pioneering creator of astronomical art, along with the French astronomer-artist Lucien Rudaux, Bonestell has been dubbed the "Father of Modern Space art".
Willy Otto Oskar Ley was a German and American science writer and proponent of cryptozoology. The crater Ley on the far side of the Moon is named in his honor.
Men Into Space is an American black-and-white science fiction television series, produced by Ziv Television Programs, Inc., that was first broadcast by CBS from September 30, 1959, to September 7, 1960. The series depicts future efforts by the United States Air Force to explore and develop outer space. The series' star, William Lundigan, played Col. Edward McCauley.
"Man Will Conquer Space Soon!" was the title of a series of 1950s magazine articles in Collier's detailing Wernher von Braun's plans for human spaceflight. Edited by Cornelius Ryan, the individual articles were authored by such space notables of the time as Willy Ley, Fred Lawrence Whipple, Dr. Joseph Kaplan, Dr. Heinz Haber, and von Braun. The articles were illustrated with paintings and drawings by Chesley Bonestell, Fred Freeman, and Rolf Klep, some of the finest magazine illustrators of the time.
Curtis Peebles was an American aerospace historian for the Smithsonian Institution, a researcher and historian for the Dryden Flight Research Center, and the author of several books dealing with aviation and aerial phenomena.
Ron Miller is an American illustrator and writer who lives and works in South Boston, Virginia. He now specializes in astronomical, astronautical and science fiction books for adults and young adults.
Space art, also known as astronomical art, is a genre that focuses on visual representations of the universe. This genre includes various styles, such as realism, impressionism, abstract imagery, and sculpture. Though artists have long produced art with astronomical elements, the space art genre began only when technological advancement allowed for more detailed observation of the night sky. Space art also attempts to communicate ideas about space, often including an artistic interpretation of cosmological phenomena and scientific discoveries. In some cases, space artists use more than illustration and painting to communicate astronomy or works depicting space. Several space artists work directly with scientists developing spaceflight technology in attempts to expand the arts, humanities, and cultural expression relative to space exploration.
Robert Godwin is a British author who has written about rock music and spaceflight. Early in his career he was a rock music impresario who managed a venue in Burlington, Ontario, and founded Griffin Music.
The year 1954 saw the conception of Project Orbiter, the first practicable satellite launching project, utilizing the Redstone, a newly developed Short Range Ballistic Missile.
The Redstone family of rockets consisted of a number of American ballistic missiles, sounding rockets and expendable launch vehicles operational during the 1950s and 1960s. The first member of the Redstone family was the PGM-11 Redstone missile, from which all subsequent variations of the Redstone were derived. The Juno 1 version of the Redstone launched Explorer 1, the first U.S. orbital satellite in 1958 and the Mercury-Redstone variation carried the first two U.S. astronauts into space in 1961. The rocket was named for the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama where it was developed.
The Mars Project is a 1952 non-fiction scientific book by the German rocket physicist, astronautics engineer and space architect Wernher von Braun. It was translated from the original German by Henry J. White and first published in English by the University of Illinois Press in 1953.
Mary Sherman Morgan was a U.S. rocket fuel scientist credited with the invention of the liquid fuel Hydyne in 1957, which powered the Jupiter-C rocket that boosted the United States' first satellite, Explorer 1.
Walter Charles Williams was an American engineer, leader of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) group at Edwards Air Force Base in the 1940s and 1950s, and a NASA deputy associate administrator during Project Mercury.
Hans Hermann Hüter was a German-Swiss rocket engineer.
Paul Ehmayr was a German-Austrian rocket engineer. He was a precision mechanic. His masterpiece was a barometer.
