Where did humanity get the idea that outer space is a frontier waiting to be explored? Destined for the Stars considers the way in which a scientific idea often owes its genesis to the religious history of the culture from which it came.
Catherine Newell examines the popularization of the science of space exploration in America between 1944 and 1955. She argues 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, God's final judgment.