posted 05-01-2016 06:32 AM               

S. Fischer Verlag correspondence to Professor E. Colwell at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, cancelled June 1, 1953, from Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The letter's cancel pictures Wernher von Braun's concept of a cargo rocket high above the Pacific Ocean enroute to a United States' space station, a "Station im Weltraum!"

Space Cover #366: A Station in Space!

The concept of a cargo rocket in Earth orbit, enroute to a United States' space station, appeared in the March 1952 issue of "Collier's" magazine catching people by surprise. The futuristic article affirming "Man Will Conquer Space Soon," was startling in how this would be done.

German rocket scientist, Wernher von Braun, now a U.S. citizen, had collaborated with "Collier's" artist Chesley Bonestell, submitting detailed engineering drawings to him of spaceships and his ideas of astronauts traveling, living, and working in space.

Working closely with Bonestell, von Braun presents fantastic views of space travel and space exploration to the artist. He describes Earth, lunar, and planetary landscapes and vistas of the solar system as they will be seen and explored by astronauts in the not too distant future.

Businessman Walt Disney contacts von Braun and asks him to work with his engineers to help them design his futuristic entertainment theme park, Disneyland, being built at Anaheim, California, near Los Angeles. A fourth section of the park is called Tomorrowland and is centered on humans in space, space exploration, and a manned spaceflight to the Moon.

Disney also asks von Braun to work with his team to produce a TV special, "Man In Space" to appear on his television show, The Wonderful World of Disney, extolling wonders of space travel to be seen in the near future. Disney's television special resonates and is a smash hit, watched by an estimated 42 mission Americans in October 1954.

Von Braun's view of the future of exploring, living, and working in space as presented in "Collier's" and as showcased by Walt Disney on his television special is visionary in scope and defines in considerable detail the nascent United States' space program and its goals. The goals include powerful rocket ships, lunar and planetary missions of the solar system, an Earth orbiting space station, and people living and working together in space.

And, surprisingly, much of what was shown by von Braun and Chesley Bonestell and presented by Walt Disney has come true.