FEBRUARY 1952

TOWARD SPACE--"Long before the first Earth-dweller makes a landfall on the Moon, there will be other firsts, and in a sense, man is even now probing across the borders of space. In a recent experimental flight, the Douglas Skyrocket, a pilot-carrying craft with a rocket motor, rose to an altitude--reportedly 15 miles--where more than 96 per cent of the Earth's atmosphere lay below the pilot's feet. As far as his oxygen supply is concerned, man crosses the borders of space at an altitude of about 10 miles. The pilot of the Douglas Skyrocket crossed this border. In order to do so he had to be encased in an airtight envelope inside his cabin--i.e., he wore a spacesuit."

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