Across the Space Frontier

Across the Space Frontier by Wernher von Braun, Willey Ley, Fred Whipple, Joseph Kaplan, et al. Ed. Cornelius Ryan. Illus. Chesley Bonestell, Fred Freeman, Rolf Klep. NYC: Viking, 1952.

Non-fiction collection and expansion of articles in Collier's magazine (1952 f.), followed by Conquest of the Moon and The Exploration of Mars. "The articles and books were also the basis for a series of three television programs by Walt Disney (Man in Space, Man and the Moon, and Mars and Beyond) that were broadcast on ABC in 1955 and 1957 [...]." Listed in Benford and Zebrowski's Skylife: Space Habitats in Story and Science and relevant here for describing (and advocating)

the creation of a 250-foot diameter rotating space station. It would have three decks and a crew of 80, and be ferried to orbit with about a dozen flights using 3-stage fully re-usable rockets. The station would be at a highly inclined 2-hour circular orbit at an altitude of 1075 miles, chosen to provide a view of the entire Earth every 24 hours. It would rotate every 22 seconds, providing an artifical gravity of 1/3.

It was predicted that the station could become a reality by 1963 at a cost of $4 billion including the development of the 3-stage re-usable rockets [...].

Reviewed by David Brandt-Erichsen for the National Space Society, 1 May 2007, our main source and whom we quote above; as of June 2022, available at link here.[1]

RDE, finishing, 13Jun22