The Dwight Eisenhower administration and its response to the space race will be the topic of discussion at a virtual event this week hosted by the Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum. According to the organization, the next monthly virtual Lunch & Learn program will be Tuesday, November 16th, at noon. NASA Johnson Space Center Historian Jennifer Ross-Nazzal addresses the subject of Eisenhower and the space program. Her talk explores the launch of Sputnik and its impact upon the United States and the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower. She will explore how his response left him politically vulnerable and forced to create NASA. In doing so, Eisenhower created the space race he never wanted and the Apollo Program.Dr. Ross-Nazzal has served as the JSC Historian since 2004. She holds the unique distinction of being a scholar of NASA history and women’s history. She is an accomplished oral historian and author of many articles on NASA, the Space Shuttle, and woman suffrage. In 2011, she published her first book, Winning the West for Women, a biography of suffragist, Emma Smith DeVoe. Her latest manuscript, Making Space for Women, focuses on the history of JSC through the experiences of its female employees and will be published later on this month by the Texas A&M Press.
Join Online:
Google Meet URL: meet.google.com/vfo-wwfs-qvd
Phone: 617-675-4444 (PIN: 927 598 692 1481#)
Please join 10 minutes early so the program may begin on time.
Photo via Eisenhower Library Archives – September 8, 1960 Dwight D. Eisenhower tours the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.