Exploring how America launched into Space Age

“Chasing the Moon,” a companion book to the upcoming PBS film, showcases well-known individuals and some forgotten names that were just as essential in fulfilling the dream of sending us into outer space.

The first known scientific look at the practicality of rockets came in 1903 when Russian Konstantin Tsiolkovsky published a paper that used a mathematical formula to take the rocket’s mass to its velocity. He was a fan of Jules Verne’s “From the Earth to the Moon,” and while the idea of traveling in outer space and visiting other worlds was standard

science fiction, Tsiolkovsky’s paper was the first to prove it could be accomplished.

Sadly, his findings would take another 20 years to be appreciated.

A young man named Archie Clarke discovered a book when he was a teenager called “The Conquest of Space.” He thought it was fiction, so what he found was completely unexpected as it showed that space travel was theoretically possible. It sparked his imagination, and it eventually led him to write classics such as “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

“Chasing the Moon” mentions the famous names such as Wernher von Braun and Robert Goddard, but it’s also about Newton Minow, who believed the future of telecommunications was in using satellites.

The authors showcase the human side of what began as a flight of fancy and those pioneers that pursued the dream to see humanity reach the stars. They embraced the chase to the moon and beyond.

The book is a perfect appetizer to what seems to be a stellar documentary, set to debut July 8 on PBS.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration/PBS Ed White, the first American to walk in space, on 1965’s Gemini 4 mission, in a still from “Chasing the Moon,” debuting July 8 on PBS.

“Chasing the Moon” By Robert Stone and Alan Andres (Ballantine Books, $32)