audiobook The Pagan Origins of Christian Holidays by Elisha J. Israel in History

Description

The course of the Space Age underwent a fundamental shift during the decade of the 1980's. The heady era of Sputnik; Apollo; and the Cold War-fueled space race shifted to an era of more methodical activities as space operations became popularly mundane. Similarly; seminal works pertaining to the history of conspicuous early space projects have been joined on the library shelf by words examining less glamorous; but still important topics. The big; visible space projects existed as much for reasons of politics and national prestige as for scientific research; and thus attracted the early attention of historians. The advancement of human knowledge and skill; however; owed at least as much and perhaps more to smaller projects and research conducted out of the spotlight. A facility devoted to such projects still operates on the East Coast of the lower Delmarva Peninsula. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Wallops Flight Facility has; since its establishment in 1945; launched over 14;000 rockets; making it one of the most prolific launch sites in the world as well as one of the least known. Currently a subsidiary of Goddard Space Flight Center; Wallops has always been among the smaller of America's aerospace research facilities. Despite; and possibly because of; the administrative and budgetary chaos that often characterized this nation's space effort; Wallops evolved from a highly specialized; test facility to a more generalized; multi-faceted research center. The history of the base reaches back to the early days of U.S. involvement in space research; and reflects most of the major controversies encountered therein. An historical examination of the base; therefore; has value not only because of the comparative lack of such attention; but also because it allows a unique vantage point from which to view what is; to paraphrase policy historian John Logsdon; “the great adventure of our lifetime.” This thesis will focus on the political; administrative; and social history aspects of the base from 1957 to 1966. This period began with the launch of the Soviet Union's Sputnik 1; continued through the creation of NASA; and culminated at the height of the Project Apollo escalation. A fast-paced era; it also includes the second of the three most important periods in Wallops history to date.