One Century of Space History: Major Trends in Space Endeavors

Stephen B. Johnson

NASA MSFC and the Center for Space Studies, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. General Editor of Space Exploration and Humanity: A Historical Encyclopedia (2010), and author of The Secret of Apollo: Systems Management in American and European Space Programs (2002), and The United States Air Force and the Culture of Innovation 1945-1965 (2002).

Abstract

This paper and presentation will discuss major trends in the history of space endeavors, from the creation of rocket concepts, technologies, and societies before World War II, through the development of ballistic missiles and spacecraft in the Cold War, the Space Race in human spaceflight and science, through the emergence of economic competition from Europe in the 1970s and then around the world with the end of the Cold War in the 1990s. The paper derives from insights gained from the writing and editing of the first comprehensive space history encyclopedia (shown above), in which scientific, technical, military, economic, political, business, and cultural articles and sections formed major parts. These together provide perhaps the single broadest view of space history and development to date, and this paper will glean the major trends across and between these fields as gleaned from the comprehensive information in this encyclopedia.

Presented at ISDC 2011 - Huntsville. Paper and presentation charts are not available.