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Docking Bay 26 Satellite .
In the late 1920s and early 30s, Dr. Goddard was the foremost rocket authority in America.
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In 1929, John F. Dille, president of the National Newspaper Service in Chicago, wanted to create a futuristic ’hard’ SF strip showing space travel. Introduced in the year just prior to the depression, the new Buck Rogers daily adventure strip was intended to be a scientifically accurate as well as a wild adventure in a far distance future as witnessed by a contemporary (1920s) man.
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He asked his scientific adviser to recommend the most recognizable, scientifically accurate design information for a spaceship to be used in the new Science Fiction strip. Because they were American, the recommendation was naturally to use Dr. Goddard's successful 1926 liquid fueled rocket design.
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This is how the first spaceship in the famous Buck Rogers daily comic strip was born. Christened the Satellite, the ship is unique because it has its rockets located in the nose instead of its tail. This feature was exactly the same as Dr. Goddard's 1926 history making liquid fueled rocket.
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The reason for this feature was that at the time there was disagreement among experts as to whether a rocket should be pulled or pushed through space in order to be more stable in flight. At the time, there were proponents of both methods. And, if one were to try to make a "tractor style" rocket this would be a good design for doing so.
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It would be through this space ship, in a comic strip, printed daily in newspapers around the world that millions were first shown the effects of a trip to the moon as seen through the eyes of American science of the 1930s. For the first time many saw the effects of weightlessness and acceleration. They saw the first images of a space suit and ‘swimming’ in space. They saw what happened to liquid in zero G. It was the first (and only) education about space that many people would ever receive.
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But the purpose of Buck Rogers’ Satellite was not just to educate, it was to be the primary vehicle for an adventure story, a story to entertain. And so, the Satellite flew Buck, Wilma, and millions of readers off to Mars to discover that Martians could be a mean adversary in any Space-Time Continuum.
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Links to Additional information available in the Trade Zone.
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A Precision Design Drawing of this Spaceship -----------------------------------------
Click on Image to LEARN MORE or BUY NOW.
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Complete background information is available in the Spaceship Handbook
Click on Image to LEARN MORE or BUY NOW.
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This Spaceship is also featured in “Ad Astra per Aspera”
Click on Image to LEARN MORE or BUY NOW.
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