Destination Moon (1950)

Images from the production of "Destination Moon," 1950, from the photographers of LIFE magazine. With sets conceived by Chesley Bonestell, co-scripted by Robert Heinlein, it drew upon all resources available at the time to depict such a journey as accurately as possible.

Secrets of Space Flight

Spaceship on cover is a realistic model of the future, made by the rocket expert G. Harry Stine and photographed on White Sands desert

"Secrets of Space Flight"
Fawcett How-To Book, Number 298
by Lloyd Mallan
published by Fawcett Publications, 1956
144 pages

Contents

1. Ships That Probe the Unknown
2. Space Medicine Forges Ahead
3. Men, Mammals and Gravity
4. Escape Capsules and Rocket Sleds
5. Developement of the Space Suit
6. Spaceship in the Basement
7. Launch Into the Statosphere
8. Searching Through Space
9. School for Future Space Pilots
10. Checkout in a Rocket Ship
11. Research Rocket Takeoff
12. Engines of Tomorrow
13. Giant Step Into Space
14. From the Mouse to the Moon to Mars
15. Men who Make Spaceflight Possible
16. Flying Saucers Brought Up To Date

Profusely illustrated with photos and diagrams (b/w), topics cover rocket developement, test pilots, space medicine and current developments relating to space flight. Some movie stills from "This Island Earth."

Original price $.75

They Came from Out of the Toy Box

With the imminent possibility of an outer space menace threatening to invade American soil, your first priority is to assure your family's survival. “A prudent man foresees the difficulties ahead and prepares for them."

It is with the highest priority that we teach our sons and our daughters these words:

"Watch Out!" "Always be alert" and to "Always be prepared."

Ideally we should begin our children's training at the youngest possible age...

We do this through their toys.

Tom Corbett Space men Figures - These two are definitely up to no good

Tin litho Target Game to become a sure-shooting Space Ace

Captain Video space men figures

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This Flying Saucer featurette is also published on the blog Atomic Living

Rocket Rider

rocket man, originally uploaded by hastingsgraham.

An astronaut spaceman rides in the cockpit of a Space Patrol Scout Ship on display at the 15th Annual American Toy Fair in New York City. March 10, 1953.

X-minus One: "Lulu"

"Lulu"
by Clifford Simak
Originally aired: 1957

	X-Minus One - Lulu .mp3
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Space Boy in a Bubble Helmet

space boy, originally uploaded by hastingsgraham.

What a lucky lad. He means business as he's out to save the solar system with his official Space Patrol bubble helmet and Super Beam Signal Ray gun. Notice that the wallpaper in his bedroom is space-themed with rockets, planets and stars.

Space Station

Detail of the Space Station in earth orbit, as proposed by Dr. Wernher von Braun

The Space Station with a space taxi just leaving its landing berth . . . the two men on the outside of the station are secured by lines hooked to holding rings which are provided for this purpose. These two men follow the rotation of the Space Station and if not fastened to it would be thrown off tangentially.

The Space Station is 1075 miles above the Pacific Ocean, above a point 800 miles south bu east of the Galapagos Islands. The visual angle of the picture is 50 degrees, the horizon 3000 miles away, and the area of the picture about 4 million square miles . . . The area that would be visible from the station at any moment is a circle with a diameter of 6000 miles, or about 29 million square miles.

painting by Chesley Bonestell
from Across the Space Frontier
edited by Cornelius Ryan
1952

First Trip to Our Moon

The first trip to our moon will be without landing, in a ship designed to travel in space only, taking off near the Space Station and returning to it. Here the round-the-moon ship is some 240,000 miles from earth, 50 miles above the lunar surface. The large crater is Aristillus (diameter 35 miles); the other crater is Autocylus; the distant mountains are the lunar Apennines.

painting by Chesley Bonestell
from Across the Space Frontier
edited by Cornelius Ryan
1952

Individual orientation in space, under zero gravity conditions, will demand superb physical conditioning and control. Completely weightless, the spaceman will lose all reference as to what constitutes an "up" and "down."

illustration by Fred L. Wolff
"Worlds in Space"
by Martin Caidin
published 1954

Whoops!

Can Man Explore the Moon?

"here, a famous artist shows his idea of the equipment needed for moon exploration."

From the Natural Museum of Natural History: a painting by A. Leydenfrost
(The Mystery of Other Worlds Revealed, 1952)

A Warning and an Ultimatum

The Day the Earth Stood Still
Company: 20th Century Fox
Director: Robert Wise
Year: 1951


Cast: Sam Jaffe, Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Hugh Marlowe, Billy Gray, Frances Bavier, Lock Martin, Elmer Davis, H.V. Kaltenborn, Drew Pearson, Gabriel Heatter

Plot: A visitor from outer space lands his saucer in Washington, D.C. and announces to the people of Earth that they must live peacefully or faces the consequences as a threat to other planets.

The movie is based on a story by Harry Bates - “Farewell to the Master” which was originally published in the October 1940 issue of Astounding. You can read this in its entirety: Farewell to the Master.

Score: Bernard Hermann utilize the eerie and other-worldly theremin for the first time for the soundtrack of a screen production. You can hear a sample of this music here.

"They've Landed"

On January 4, 1954 the Lux Radio Theater presentated it's own transcribed adaptation of "The Day The Earth Stood Still." And as in the original 1951 movie, the part of the other-worldy main character, Klaatu, is played by Michael Rennie. The radio version stays faithful to the no-nonsense movie, seeming almost to be using the same shooting script, although be it slightly shortened for the alotted air time.

Thanks to nomig.net for providing this radio play for free downloading.

Imagination Unlimited

More illustrations from the ink of Edd Cartier - imagination unlimited. His depictions of alien lifeforms and futuristic gadgetry are unparalleled.

Edd Cartier - Artist of the Other Worldly

A favorite artist of the SF pulp/digest magazine era - Edd Cartier illustration from the pages of Astounding Science Fiction. Never one to fall short on imagination, the artist even created illustrations for an entire interseller zoo in the book "Travelers of Space."

Edd Cartier (born 1914) is an American pulp magazine illustrator. After studying at Pratt Institute in the 1930s he worked for Street and Smith, publishers of the Shadow, to which he contributed many interior illustrations, and the John W. Campbell, Jr.-edited magazines Astounding Science Fiction and Unknown.

Outside Links:

• Edd Cartier at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• An interview with Cartier
• Edd Cartier gallery

Interplanetary Traveler

from "The Mystery of Other Worlds Revealed" (Fawcett Book 166), 1952.