Spaceport U.S.A. (1953)

Spaceport U.S.A. (1953) is a recent arrival in my space library. As I have said I really like punch-out books about space. This one seemed to be a little harder for find but also a little more expensive. Luckily I have low standards :)

I was able to find a partially used copy, which explains why the first image looks strangely incomplete. Here is a scan of someone else's copy with the full cover.

It does have the (more or less) complete back cover.

It is these images of our brave new future that brought me to these books. Even if inspired by the Television space heroes I think that showing children what could be coming soon is thrilling.

I am a fan of the 1950s building designs, so even if this image is incomplete I still like the suggeestion of our spacebase in the Rocky Mountains.

And of course, where would we be without our base on the Moon. Except of course that IS Saturn in the sky next to Earth. Maybe we will move the planets around in the future to create more inspiring sky scenes. Or maybe Saturn is so cool to look at that artists can't resist sticking it in any picture.

The last illustration to share seems to be of the "moon children." It seem like there is another helpful race of folks around to help with our space future. More likely it will be the relaxing of child labor laws that will allow children out into space. My new cry for future children is not: "You will go to the Moon!" but rather "You must go to the Moon!" (To build our bases please).