Before 1950, only Werner Von Braun and his team of other captured German rocket scientists (and a similar bunch of captives in Russia) took the idea of space travel seriously. Then Collier's Magazine published these paintings by Chesley Bonestall and Americans got all excited by the idea. President Eisenhower immediately called a meeting and offered funding that set in motion the eventual creation of NASA. Chesley was guessing mostly but it is the beauty of his images, rather than the accuracy, that matters.