Early life; education at Harvard University and at University of Wisconsin in the 1930s. Teaching cadets at University of Maryland; war work at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL); reaction to news of the atomic bomb; development of early rocket-sonde program at the NRL, 1945-1946; upper atmospheric research; establishment of V-2 Panel (later Rocket and Satellite Research Panel); impressions of early rocket researchers such as Edward O. Hulbert, Herbert Friedman; development of new rockets for scientific research; Vanguard satellite program at NRL; the International Geophysical Year program; reaction to Russian launch of Sputnik satellite in 1957; post-Sputnik debate over a new space agency; creation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1958; move from NRL to NASA, 1958; development of space science programs in the new agency; astronomical experiments and the use of big satellites; thoughts on manned space program and effect on space science around 1961; debate by scientists about a manned space program; funding for NASA space science; international cooperation; administration of NASA space science in the 1960s; problems with the first Orbiting Astronomy Observatory and the Small Astronomy Satellite program; long-term NASA planning; effects of Vietnam and economy on space missions; the Space Telescope and Space Shuttle; and planetary missions, past and future. Also prominently mentioned are: Philip Abelson, Lloyd Viel Berkner, George David Birkhoff, Werner von Braun, Hugh Dryden, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Harvey Fletcher, Herbert Friedman, Harry Goett, Leo Goldberg, Ross Gunn, John Hagen, Edward Olson Hulburt, Lyndon B. Johnson, John F. Kennedy, Ernie Krause, Richard Milhouse Nixon, Otto Oldenburg, Tom Paine, Milton Rosen, Robert J. Seamans, Eugene Merle Shoemaker, Abe Silverstein, Richard Tousey, John Townsend, James Van Allen, Alan Tower Waterman, James Webb; Aerobee (Rocket), American Science and Engineering, Inc., Explorer (Satellite), Goddard Space Flight Center, International Geophysical Year, International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Mariner (Spacecraft), National Academy of Sciences (U.S.) Space Science Board, National Science Foundation (U.S.), Naval Research Laboratory (U.S.), Orbiting Astronomical Observatory, Orbiting Solar Observatory, Skylab, Small Astronomy Satellite Program, Space Science Summer Study, Space Shuttle, Sputnik (Spacecraft), United States Congress, United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration Manned Spacecraft Center, United States Navy, University of Maryland, V-1 (Rocket), V-2 (Rocket), Vanguard Group, Viking (Rocket), Voyager (Spacecraft), and WAC Corporal (Rocket).