NASA History Listserv Readers:

 

Please join us on February 24, 2021 at 12pm ET for our virtual History Brown Bag with Dr. Teasel Muir-Harmony presenting her research on Project Apollo.

 

Webex meeting invitation: NASA History Brown Bag with Dr. Teasel Muir-Harmony
When: February 24, 2021 12:00 PM ET
Webex Link for event: https://nasaenterprise.webex.com/nasaenterprise/onstage/g.php?MTID=e453184773098eb6e7caf1af1043ceb3b

 

Abstract: For this talk, Dr. Muir-Harmony discusses the research behind her recent work, Operation Moonglow: A Political History of Project Apollo (2020). Her work considers how and why the moon landing became one of the most decisive geopolitical events of the 20th century. In the wake of the Soviet Union’s pioneering launch of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in 1961, and a humiliating defeat at the Bay of Pigs days later, President John F. Kennedy proposed Project Apollo as a solution to restoring America’s tarnished geopolitical standing. With Cold War tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States approaching an all-time high, Kennedy argued that ramping up the space program would inspire global confidence in American excellence -- and might even persuade people in developing countries to pick American “freedom” over Soviet “tyranny.”

 

Dr. Teasel Muir-Harmony is the curator of the Project Apollo collection at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and teaches at Georgetown University. She is the author of Apollo to the Moon: A History in 50 Objects and a contributor to the television series Apollo’s Moon Shot. She lives in Washington, DC.

 

Best,
Brian