Space Craze: America’s Enduring Fascination with Real and Imagined Spaceflight

by Margaret A. Weitekamp

A space historian's tour through astounding spaceflight history and the Smithsonian's collection of space and science fiction memorabilia

Winner of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics' 2024 Gardner-Lasser Aerospace History Literature Award

Spanning from the 1929 debut of the futuristic Buck Rogers to present-day privatization of spaceflight, Space Craze celebrates America's endless enthusiasm for space exploration. Author Margaret Weitekamp, curator at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum, writes with warmth and personal experience to guide readers through extraordinary spaceflight history while highlighting objects from the Smithsonian's spaceflight collection. 

Featuring historical milestones in space exploration, films and TV shows, literature and comic strips, toys and games, and internet communities, Space Craze is a sci-fi lover's dream. The book investigates how spaceflight, both real and imagined, has served as the nexus where contemporary American concerns, such as race, gender, sexuality, freedom, and national identity, have been explored and redefined. Chronological chapters  


Chapter 1: Buck Rogers, Ray Guns, and the Space FrontierChapter 2: Space Forts, Television, and the Cold War MindsetChapter 3: John Glenn, the Apollo Program, and Fluctuating Spaceflight EnthusiasmChapter 4: Star Trek, Star Wars, and Burgeoning FandomsChapter 5: Generation X, the Space Shuttle, and Promoting EducationChapter 6: Space Stations, Spaceflight Enthusiasm, and Online FandomChapter 7: Streaming Services, Battling Billionaires, and Accelerated Change
From the almost 650 million viewers who tuned in to watch the first steps on the Moon, to the ardent Star Trek fandom that burgeoned into a cultural force, Space Craze taps into the country’s enduring love affair with space.

Genres: Nonfiction, Space

303 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 18, 2022

Reviews

[Tyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Margaret Weitekamp is a longtime curator at the National Air and Space Museum who has overseen the collection of several thousand pieces of memorabilia from real and imagined spaceflight. She has drawn on this experience here to write a book about the ways that Americans have expressed their fascination with spaceflight over the last century. She begins with Buck Rogers, a science fiction hero who appeared in comic strips beginning in the 1920s. This character established several standards for the ways that Americans interpreted spaceflight, such as the use of rockets as the means of transportation, ray guns as accessories, and storylines based on Westerns. She then explores the ways that these standards have evolved over time. For instance, famous franchises like Star Trek and Star Wars eventually established that women and people of color could serve vital roles aboard spacecraft. Along the way, fans of science fiction space adventures expressed their enthusiasm in a multitude of ways, from buying action figures, to conversing with one another on social media, to attending conventions with one another. Weitekamp intersperses all of this with the ways that Americans have expressed their fascination for real spaceflight as well. Here as well, standards evolved to favor the inclusion of women and people of color while Americans rushed to purchase memorabilia such as buttons, pins, mission patches, and clothing that reflected their fascination with the missions. Weitekamp writes well and draws upon an enormous array of research in supporting her points, so I definitely recommend this book.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

From ‘A Trip to the Moon’ and Buck Rogers, to ‘The Martian’ this book travels pop culture’s influence along side real space programs. Excellent read!

[maggie · Rating 3 out of 5]

i think this would have been great if my teacher gave me more than 5 days to actually read the whole thing

[Addison Vallier · Rating 2 out of 5]

On the other hand, read this for the same class and did not enjoy it. Although, I may simply have been bitter about the circumstances of the assignment. Tomato, tomato.

[Arnold Grot · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Space Craze” is the Planetary Society August's book club selection. In early fantasy about space travel the worldview was a male, white and Wild West narrative. Discernment changed this slowly only after the Apollo missions with an involving effort to include women and people of color. There was pushback, perhaps peeking during the pandemic and the George Floyd incident, when a social art Billboard project boldly stated “There’s black people in the future.” Pressure cause this “racist“ message to be removed. Yet, space enthusiasts are staying on course by questioning new innovations with “Is this a good idea, should we be doing this or is it a passing fad?” Scientific investigation and fantasy build on each other in amazing ways!