Disney's Man in Space

Guide ship XR-1 maneuvers small cargo rocket into the space orbit.
from Walt Disney's Man in Space, Dell comic No. 716, 1956

Bill Dana: First Man in Space

"What do you plan to do once you're up in space?"

. . . pause . . .

"I plan to cry alot..."

	Bill Dana as Jose Jimenez - The Astronaut .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Into Outer Space

Advertisment for the new selection of authentically recreated Strombecker space craft model kits, after those seen in Disney's "Man in Space" designed by Wernher von Braun.

from the Royal Air Force Flying Review, October 1959

Moon Base

cutaway drawing depicts how men manning moon base would live: note helicopter landing roof and hanger cut into rock

from The Mystery of Other Worlds Revealed
Fawcett Books, 1952

The XSL-01 Assembly Sheet

Assembly instruction diagram for the Revell 1/96th scale model kit of thier XSL-01, dated 1958.

The XSL-01 spaceship was designed by rocket scientist Ellwyn E. Angle of Systems Laboratories Inc. The design has a detailed manned top stage with full interior with a removable top, main and booster stages (dertachable to recreate all phases of the flight from Earth takeoff, lunar landing and the return to Earth), flight and ground crew and fully detailed launch gantry. The kit includes the "XSL-01 Operations Manual" instructing each phase of piloting this spaceship in spaceflight.

Martian War Machine

You can just make out the tripod leg "rays" supporting the ship. Though the H.G. Wells story War of the Worlds was updated for modern movie-goers, producer George Pal wanted to stay somewhat true to the original walking tripod idea, rather than have the Martian war machines be free-flying. Remember, these "ships" were carried inside the Martian pod spacecraft, and were not the spacecraft themselves. The basic design of Pal's machine was inspired by the shape of a cobra's hood, ready to strike. Also bucking the current science fiction trend in 1953 to depict all rockets, spaceships and alien craft in gleaming silver, Pal made the Martian machines of polished copper, which lent them to be even more alien from the norm.

Man in Space - The Ferry Rocket

Man in Space is an episode of Disneyland which originally aired on March 9, 1955 and later, was edited into a featurette to play in theaters.

The episode was converted into a 32 page comic book ("Dell Comics" (#716)) in 1956. Under the title Walt Disney's Man in Space: A Science Feature from Tomorrowland.

It was also made into a "Tomorrowland adventure" book for classroom use in 1959 as Man in Space: A Tomorrowland Adventure.