CaltechLive! continues its Behind the Book series with Fraser MacDonald, author of “Escape from Earth: A Secret History of the Space Rocket,” in conversation with Erik M. Conway, Historian at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, and Peter Sachs Collopy, Caltech archivist.
The book tells the long-buried truth about the dawn of the Space Age: lies, spies, communism, and sex magic, in 1930s Pasadena, where everyone knows that rockets are just toys, the stuff of cranks and pulp magazines.
Engineering student Frank Malina, with help from his friend Jack Parsons, embarks on a journey that takes him from junkyards and desert lots to the heights of the military-industrial complex. He designs the first American rocket to reach space and establishes JPL. But trouble soon finds him: the FBI suspects Malina of being a communist. And when some classified documents go missing, will his comrades prove as dependable as his engineering?
Drawing on an astonishing array of untapped sources, including FBI documents and private archives, “Escape from Earth” tells the inspiring true story of Malina’s achievements – and the political fear that has kept them hidden.
Fraser MacDonald is a geographer and historian at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. His research has ranged across historical geography, geopolitics, and the history of science. He was a senior lecturer in geography at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He has an MA in Geography from the University of Glasgow and an MSc in Environmental Change from Oxford.
While doing doctoral research, also at Oxford, and conducting fieldwork in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides, MacDonald became interested in a Cold War rocket testing range. This led to writing about the history of the Corporal missile and its original architect, Frank Malina, and the JPL story.
“Escape from Earth: A Secret History of the Space Rocket” was published in 2019 and shortlisted for the Saltire Society’s First Book Award.
Erik M. Conway received his PhD from the University of Minnesota in 1998 with a dissertation on the development of aircraft landing aids. His most recent book was “Exploration and Engineering: The Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Quest for Mars,” published in 2015. He recently received a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Peter Sachs Collopy is currently department head at the Caltech Archives and Special Collections, where he leads a team that facilitates the understanding of Caltech’s role in the history of science and technology by curating research collections and public exhibitions.
This event is virtual on Thursday March 24, and starts at 5 p.m. It’s free and open to the public, but registration is required.
To register for the event, visit https://events.caltech.edu/series/behind_the_book/Fraser_MacDonald.
For more information, call (626) 395-4652.
