The US federal budget reaches $85.5 billion, up from $4 billion in 1932. A full 57.2% is allocated to the Department of Defense. President Eisenhower tries to halt this upward trend, warning the American people that the cost of a modern American bomber is that of a brick school in more than thirty cities, or two power plants, or two hospitals, or 50 miles of concrete highway… This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.” It is in this climate that Wernher von Braun arrives to ask for more money to build rockets to go into space and to the moon…
