Escape from earth : a secret history of the space rocket
MacDonald, Fraser (Lecturer in human geography)2021
Books
The untold story of the engineers, dreamers and rebels who started the American space programme. In particular, it is the story of Frank Malina, founder of what became Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the scientist who cracked the, as he called it, problem of escape from the Earth by rocket. It's a wild ride. Jack Parsons, Malina's chemistry-expert research partner, was a bed-hopping occultist with delusions of grandeur. We get all the horrible details: drug parties and sex magic, cameos by Aleister Crowley and L. Ron Hubbard, and an ill-fated attempt to start a mail-order religion. Armed with hitherto unpublished letters, journals, and documents from the Malina family archives, Fraser MacDonald reveals what we didn't know.
Main title:
Escape from earth : a secret history of the space rocket / Fraser MacDonald.
Author:
Imprint:
London : Profile Books, 2021.
Collation:
371 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (black and white) ; 20 cm
Notes:
Originally published: 2019.Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:
9781781259719 (pbk. :)
Dewey class:
629.40922629.409629.4092
Language:
English
Subject:
Malina, Frank J.Malina, Frank J. -- Friends and associatesParsons, Jack, 1914-1952Parsons, Jack, 1914-1952 -- Friends and associatesJet Propulsion Laboratory (U.S.) -- HistoryAstronautics -- United States -- History -- 20th centuryCommunism -- United States -- History -- 20th centuryOccultism -- United States -- HistoryTransport
BRN:
1178727
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