Meet the Founding Ensemble:

 Wernher von Braun

• SS officer and Nazi rocket scientist
• Brought to the US via Operation Paperclip
• Designed the V-2 bombs that killed civilians
• Became NASA’s poster boy for peaceful space exploration
• Frequently photographed with Disney, telling children about rockets

Walt Disney

• Partnered with von Braun to produce “Man in Space” for 1950s television
• Helped seed the visual mythology of space travel long before rockets launched
• Gave NASA the mass-media horsepower it needed to become untouchable

L. Ron Hubbard

• Science fiction writer turned founder of Scientology
• Former Navy man with a flair for manipulation and mysticism
• Claimed to have mastered the secrets of the universe — not unlike NASA

Jack Parsons

• Co-founder of JPL (which later became part of NASA)
• Devout follower of Aleister Crowley’s Thelemic magick
• Performed occult rituals intended to summon entities and open portals
• Blew himself up in a mysterious lab explosion

Aleister Crowley

• The “Great Beast” and father of modern occultism
• Jack Parsons' spiritual mentor via written correspondence
• Advocated personal godhood, ritual magic, and... space exploration?

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