Is the Future in the Past? Sputnik, Star Trek and Space

by William S. Kowinski

It was the day that confirmed the dream of space travel which Star Trek would later dramatize and in many ways represent. But it was also the day that accelerated the dangers and the fears that, by the late 1960s, Star Trek would respond to, with an unusual message of hope for an apparently hopeless future.

Yet in the real world, a lack of knowledge about this history, and a general lack of awareness concerning real dangers in space, threaten to make the Star Trek dream unrealizeable for future generations.

That day was fifty years ago--October 4, 1957. My childhood recollections as well as newly revealed history, and information on the current state of space, may shed light on both the origin of Star Trek and its future.
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