Introduction to Outer Space

Introduction to Outer Space is a pamphlet about space exploration edited by the White House the 26 March 1958. At first, a report of the President's Science Advisory Committee presided by Dr James R. Killian in the aftermath of the Sputnik 1 launch, Dwight D. Eisenhower found it so informative and interesting that he decided to make it available to everybody for 15 cents. It presents in simple terms to the layman the future of space exploration.

It has been suggested^[1] that the Introduction to Outer Space, produced in an effort to garner support for a national space program in the wake of the Sputnik flight, was the origin of the phrase "Where no man has gone before", as the booklet read on its first page:

The first of these factors is the compelling urge of man to explore and to discover, the thrust of curiosity that leads men to try to go where no one has gone before. Most of the surface of the earth has now been explored and men now turn on the exploration of outer space as their next objective.^[2]

References

1. Dwaybe A. Day, "Boldly going: Star Trek and spaceflight", in The Space Review, 28 November 2005. URL accessed on 15 August 2006.
2. "Introduction to Outer Space". The White House. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington D.C., 26 March 1958. URL accessed on 15 August 2006.

External links

• Introduction to Outer Space (scan) on fas.org
• Introduction to Outer Space (text) on umd.edu