A group of correspondence and printed material relating to the 1960s, pre-Apollo American space programs de (SPACE RACE) [NASA] - 1962

V.p., 1962. 4to to 8vo. Very good. 4to to 8vo. A compelling group of material relating to the U.S. Space program of the 1960s, prior to the Apollo moon missions. The material was collected by a Mr. Peter Eisner (aka Peter Paul) of Miami, president of the Junior Philatelic Americans, to whom all of the correspondence is addressed. Comprising:

HOLMES, D. Brainerd. TLS, 1 p, Washington, D.C., October 5, 1962, on NASA letterhead; letter from the Director of the Office of Manned Space Flight, iterating the goal of reaching the moon "at the earliest possible time within this decade."

GILRUTH, Robert R. TLS, 1 p, Houston, October 23, 1962, on NASA letterhead, the goal of reaching the moon by the end of the decade: "we are, of course, making every effort to make our manned lunar exploration as soon as practicable."

WEBB, James E. TLS, 1 p, Washington, December 3, 1962, on NASA letterhead; regarding Mercury Astronaut Gordon Cooper's designation as "pilot for the next U.S. manned orbital space flight" scheduled for April 1963.

MACNABB, B.G. TLS, 2 pp, April 3, 1963, on General Dynamics Astronautics letterhead, providing a capsule history of the development of the Atlas missile, and citing Karel J. Bossart as the originator of the project.

BOSSART, K.J. TLS, 1 p, April 19, 1963, on General Dynamics Astronautics letterhead, enclosing a picture (present) and descriptive literature (not present) of the Atlas Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, and with a fact-sheet on Brossart also on GDA letterhead

DOUGLAS, Donald W. TLS, 1 p, October 4, 1962, on Douglas Aircraft Co letterhead; regarding the history of his Cloudster aircraft.

LEY, Willy. TLS, 1 p, March 30, 1964, about the history of rocketry, the work of Goddard, and parallel work in Germany and Russia.

COOPER, Gordon. 'For a time we looked like history's shortest eight-day mission,' magazine article (incomplete) written by Gordon and signed by him.

FAGET, Maxime A. and Robert O. Piland. "Mercury Capsule and Its Flight Systems", reprinted from Aero/Space Engineering, Vol 19 No 4, April 1960, incomplete, inscribed by Faget.

U.S.S. NOA, DD-841 first day cover, Feb 23, 1962.

WELSH, Edward C. Signature on small sheet of National Aeronautics and Space Council stationery.