Where did humanity get the idea that outer space is a frontier waiting to be explored? Destined for the Stars unravels the popularization of the science of space exploration in America between 1944 and 1955, arguing that the success of the US space program was due not to technological or economic superiority, but was sustained by a culture that had long believed it was called by God to settle new frontiers and prepare for the inevitable end of time and God's final judgment. Religious forces, Newell finds, were in no small ...
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Where did humanity get the idea that outer space is a frontier waiting to be explored? Destined for the Stars unravels the popularization of the science of space exploration in America between 1944 and 1955, arguing that the success of the US space program was due not to technological or economic superiority, but was sustained by a culture that had long believed it was called by God to settle new frontiers and prepare for the inevitable end of time and God's final judgment. Religious forces, Newell finds, were in no small way responsible for the crescendo of support for and interest in space exploration in the early 1950s, well before Project Mercury--the United States' first human spaceflight program--began in 1959. In this remarkable history, Newell explores the connection between the art of Chesley Bonestell--the father of modern space art whose paintings drew inspiration from depictions of the American West--and the popularity of that art in Cold War America; Bonestell's working partnership with science writer and rocket expert Willy Ley; and Ley and Bonestell's relationship with Wernher von Braun, father of both the V-2 missile and the Saturn V rocket, whose millennial conviction that God wanted humankind to leave Earth and explore other planets animated his life's work. Together, they inspired a technological and scientific faith that awoke a deep-seated belief in a sense of divine destiny to reach the heavens. The origins of their quest, Newell concludes, had less to do with the Cold War strife commonly associated with the space race and everything to do with the religious culture that contributed to the invention of space as the final frontier.
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Add this copy of Destined for the Stars: Faith, the Future, and America to cart. $11.92, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Dallas rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 2019 by University of Pittsburgh Press.
Add this copy of Destined for the Stars: Faith, the Future, and America to cart. $11.92, fair condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Reno rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reno, NV, UNITED STATES, published 2019 by University of Pittsburgh Press.
Add this copy of Destined for the Stars: Faith, the Future, and America to cart. $14.94, very good condition, Sold by Midtown Scholar Bookstore rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Harrisburg, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2019 by University of Pittsburgh Press.
Add this copy of Destined for the Stars: Faith, the Future, and America to cart. $34.30, good condition, Sold by Midtown Scholar Bookstore rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Harrisburg, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2019 by University of Pittsburgh Press.
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HARDCOVER Good-Bumped and creased book with tears to the extremities, but not affecting the text block, may have remainder mark or previous owner's name-GOOD Standard-sized.
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