Author Description

Beyond Horizons: A Half Century of Air Force Space Leadership is a study of the United States Air Force in space. Of all the military services, the Air Force has been preeminently involved for the past fifty years in initiating, developing, and applying the technology of space-based systems in support of the nation's national security. Yet there has been no single-volume overview of the Air Force space story to serve as an introduction and guide for interested readers. In November 1992, a high-level Air Force Blue Ribbon Panel on Space, chaired by then Lieutenant General Thomas S. Moorman, Jr., commander of Air Force Space Command, concluded there was a specific need to better educate people, both in the service and among the general populace, about the history of Air Force space activities. Beyond Horizons has been written to meet this need. Beyond Horizons begins with a review of pre-World War II rocketry developments and the forging of the important partnership between the Army Air Forces' Chapter 1 focuses on space and missile efforts prior to the launch of the Soviet Sputnik satellites in late 1957. Beginning with analysis of the Rand satellite report, the chapter examines the policy, organizational, and funding constraints, based largely on inter- and intra-service rivalries, that Air Force missile and space advocates had to overcome during the late 1940s and early 1950s in order to establish an effective enterprise. In a sense, the Air Force entered the space age on the coattails of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) development and President Dwight D. Eisenhower's determination to protect the nation from surprise attack. Chapter 2 focuses on the important policy and organizational steps taken after Sputnik which helped the Air Force achieve leadership of the nation's military space activities. Initial Air Force hopes of leading a national space program ended with the establishment of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Chapter 3