Clayton R. Koppes | 1982 | ISBN: 0300024088 | English | 320 pages | PDF | 34 MB

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, in its heyday was the world's premier space installation. It began in 1936 as the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory, California Institute of Technology (GALCIT) rocket project, a loose band of six amateurs risking their meager Depression-era earnings under the aegis of an eminent Hungarian-born professor, Theodore von Kerman. Although this book pays appropriate attention to technology and science, it is not, in the end, primarily a history of science or technology per se. JPL as an institution reflects some of the central questions about the role of science and technology in modern American society, and this history attempts in particular to address some of those societal concerns.