"Man on the Moon: The Journey"

Originally published in Collier's, October 18, 1952; reprinted from Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civil Space Program, Volume I: Organizing for Exploration, published in 1995

On March 22, 1952, Collier's magazine began a series of issues that outlined, in impressive detail, how humans could and would explore space, land on the Moon, and visit the planet Mars. By the time the final issue reached newsstands in April 1954, the popular imagination had been changed forever. Exploring the outer reaches of space no longer seemed a fantastical dream, but an inevitable reality. The German-born physicist Wernher von Braun (1912–1977) was a central figure in ushering in this change.

When von Braun was approached by Collier's magazine to contribute to their series...