The ability to communicate with others is necessary in all avenues of life, but in space science and technology it is critical to the successful furtherance of spaceflight objectives because of the lesser importance that most individuals assign to the endeavor. Indeed, a central feature of communication efforts throughout the space age has been the coupling of the reality of spaceflight with the American imagination for exploring the region beyond Earth. Without it, humans might never have slipped the bonds of Earth, ventured to the Moon, and sent robots to the planets. In the process, the dreams of science fiction afficionados have been combined with developments in technology to create the reality of a spacefaring people.

An especially significant spaceflight "imagination" came to the fore after World War II (1939-1945) and urged the implementation of an aggressive spaceflight...