With the 50th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing in mind, one remembers straight-arrow rows of white men in white shirts at Mission Control. However, the origins of the multi-stage rocket that carried Apollo 11 into space is a bit less all-American.
Escape from Earth pokes around the 1930s origins of the pathfinding Jet Propulsion Laboratory in a group of Caltech students and their friends. They numbered occultists in thrall to Britain’s Aleister Crowley and cardholding Communists navigating the tricky policy shifts emanating from Moscow. British historian Fraser MacDonald focuses mostly on the latter group, especially the tempestuous life of Frank Malina. Swept away by the postwar Red Hunt and stripped of his passport, Malina ended in French exile. Ironically, the communist made a comfortable living from his aerospace stock (which soared in value with the Cold War).
Escape from Earth tries to blend science with politics and arrives at uneven results. It’s worth reading for MacDonald’s many witty observations and for shedding light on a period when most any interesting American had an FBI file.
