The Three Rocketeers

In 1935, three California experimenters - John Whiteside ("Jack") Parsons, Edward Forman and Frank Malina - got together to develop and test rocket engines. Parsons and Forman were barely more than enthusiastic kids fresh out of high school, and Malina was a 22-year-old graduate student at Caltech. They would go on to become founders of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the Aerojet Engineering Corporation. The fascinating story of this trio and the early days of American rocketry research can be found in two new books, Strange Angel, by George Pendle, and Astro Turf, by M. G. Lord.

Jack Parsons, of course, is the famous occultist and disciple of Aleister Crowley.