in heavily for space-travel adventures.

As a natural result of this, the first serious rocket experiments in
this country were labeled screwball stunts, about on a par with
efforts to break through the sonic barrier. The latter had been
"proved" impossible by aeronautical engineers; as for rocket flight,
it was too silly for serious consideration. Pendray, Goddard, and
other rocket pioneers took some vicious ridicule before America woke
up to the possibilities.

Meantime, German scientists had gone far ahead.

{p. 98}

Their buzz bomb, a low-altitude semi-guided missile, was just the
beginning. Even the devastating V-2, which soared high into the
stratosphere before falling on England, was just a step in their
tremendous space program. If the Nazis could have hung on a year or
two more, the war might have had a grimly different ending.

When the Allies seized Nazi secrets, some of the German plans were
revealed. Among them was one for a huge earth satellite. From this
base, which would circle the earth some five hundred miles away,
enormous mirrors would focus the sun's rays on any desired spot. The
result: swift, fiery destruction of any city or base refusing to
surrender.

First publication of this scheme brought the usual jeers. Many people,
including some reputable scientists, believed it had been just a
propaganda plan that even Goebbels had discarded as hopeless.