In 1959 the Select Committee on Astronautics and Space Exploration, charged to create an official report for Congress, publishes a 241-page Space Handbook. It begins with a teaser: perhaps astronautics will show man that he is not alone in the universe.

The report proceeds with a simple illustration of the solar system, as if to remind congressmen long out of school just what's out there. It's like studying a map of your district - here's Earth, there's Mars, just across the way, and there's Saturn, represented by its rings. At the center of everything, of course, is Mr. Sun, so big he can't even be pictured fully on the page.