Into The Unknown Together The Dod Nasa And Early Spaceflight Mark Erickson by Mark Erickson 9781585661404, 1585661406 instant download after payment.

The decision in 1958 to separate the military and civilian space programs in the United States set in motion a dicey collection of issues and circumstances that fundamentally shaped the direction of space policy in the nation through the end of the Cold War. Air Force Lt. Col. Mark Erickson's important new study of this evolution provides an excellent explanation of the unfolding of these issues over the decades of the latter 1950s and 1960s. Starting as a dissertation in history at George Washington University, Into the Unknown Together concentrates on the human element of spaceflight. It demonstrates the hesitancy with which the Department of Defense (DoD)—especially the U.S. Air Force—allowed the newly created civil space agency—the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)—to assume responsibility for piloted spaceflight. At sum, the DoD capitulated to overwhelming political pressure to give primacy for the mission to a civil agency rather than a military one and because of a lack of a clear-cut military mission for humans in space.