The Disney-Von Braun Collaboration and Its Influence on Space Exploration

摘要

In 1965, 10 years after 'Man in Space' first aired, von Braun invited Disney and others involved in the 1950s films to tour the Marshall Space Flight Center. von Braun and his employees clearly hoped that the reunion might rekindle Disney's enthusiasm for space exploration. One Marshall official wrote, 'Out of this we would at least establish good will, and maybe (if we play our cards right) we could get something going that would be of tremendous benefit to MSFC, Apollo, NASA, and the entire space effort.' Von Braun himself wrote that the Disney tour 'may easily result in a Disney picture about manned space flight.' On April 13, 1965, Walt Disney, his brother Roy, and other Disney executives visited the Marshall center. In an interview with the Huntsville Times, Disney said, 'If I can help through my TV shows... to wake people up to the fact that we've got to keep exploring, I'll do it.' In reality, the tour at Marshall and other NASA sites did not inspire Disney to use the 1950s television series as a model for a new film about space exploration. No doubt, Wernher von Braun was well qualified to imagine what the show and the future American space program might have looked like if Disney had chosen to do so.