Intro; Contents; Preface to the Paperback Edition; Acknowledgments; List of Figures; Abbreviations; Notes on Contributors; Introduction; Chapter 1 European Astrofuturism, Cosmic Provincialism: Historicizing the Space Age; I Defining astroculture; II Introducing Europe; III Fictionalizing science, scientizing fiction; IV Transcending the future; V Structuring this volume; Part I Narrating Outer Space; Chapter 2 Space, Time and Aliens: The Role of Imagination in Outer Space; I The cultural history of outer space; II Space and the imagination: how has space affected our imagination?

III The imagination and space: how has imagination affected space exploration?IV Space and our Weltanschauung: how has space exploration affected our world view?; Chapter 3 Heaven on Earth: Tunguska, 30 June 1908; I The Tunguska Event; II The literary perspective or, the narrative; III The scientific perspective or, the space; IV The perspective of light or, metaphysical reasoning; V The pictorial perspective or, the contribution of the arts; VI Traditional hermeneutics as a framework; Chapter 4 Imagining Inorganic Life: Crystalline Aliens in Science and Fiction Thomas Brandstetter

I Crystalline aliens enter the sceneII Speculating about another basis for life; III Living crystals; IV The cybernetic view on silicon life; V Recognizing life; VI Conclusion; Part II Projecting Outer Space; Chapter 5 Projecting Landscapes of the Human Mind onto Another World: Changing Faces of an Imaginary Mars Rainer Eisfeld; I Deceptive world; II Arcadian Mars; III Advanced Mars; IV Frontier Mars; V Cold War Mars; VI Terraformed Mars; Chapter 6 'Smash the Myth of the Fascist Rocket Baron': East German Attacks on Wernher von Braun in the 1960s Michael J. Neufeld

I Julius Mader's attack on von BraunII Frozen Lightning; III The Dora trial in Essen; IV Divided discourses; Chapter 7 Transcendence of Gravity: Arthur C. Clarke and the Apocalypse of Weightlessness; I Mythological fuel for rockets of reality; II Science, fiction and apocalyptic myth; III The apocalyptic teleology of Clarke's writings; IV Gravity and apocalyptic thought; V The discarded body and the end of man; VI Prelapsarian props: myth and motivation in the pro-space movement; Part III Visualizing Outer Space

Chapter 8 Per Media Ad Astra? Outer Space in West Germany's Media, 1957-87I Spaceflight and the media; II Germany's crux: the military dimension of space; III Including the West Germans: universalist versus nationalist interpretations of spaceflight; IV Technocracy and astrofuturism; V Via media to the stars?; Chapter 9 Balloons on the Moon: Visions of Space Travel in Francophone Comic Strips; I A primer on comics and space; II V-2 realism and the shift in comic strip representations of space; III The double pioneer: Hergé opens the moon ball; IV The other realist wave: Buck Danny