Abstract

The term “rocket” is commonly employed to designate the vehicle that is used to carry a spacecraft from Earth’s surface to space, usually to low Earth orbit or beyond. This word can also describe a particular type of engine that generates thrust by burning fuel. It can also be used to refer to any flying vehicle that uses such an engine to accelerate without using any surrounding air. 

Rocket technologies have been primarily used and developed for military purposes. During the Twentieth Century and the Cold War, rocket technology changed in significant proportions, and rockets became even more central to warfare with the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles. Simultaneously, rocketry became the enabling technology for the Space Age. Thus, the significance of rocket technology underwent a transition from military domains to scientific and pacific endeavours.

Historians of technology have highlighted the strong synergies between space launchers and ballistic missiles. They have studied how certain missiles have been transformed into launchers and have shown how, in general, the space industry emerged from the missile industry. The purpose of this presentation is to explore the cultural aspects of this history in the French national context. 
To this end, I chart the circulation and construction of key ideas about rocketry and interplanetary travel through a large range of periodicals and cultural practices from the the 1920s to the Cold War arms race between East and West. I identify central actors of this process and analyse the role they played in the meaning shift that occurred. I insist particularly on the importance of informal children’s science education in this shift.

Tea/coffee, cake and fruit will be served @2pm.