As an enormous Superman fan, I’ve lengthy needed to personal Motion Comics No. 419, the difficulty printed in 1972 with an iconic cowl exhibiting the Man of Metal hurtling into the sky, seeming to fly proper off the web page. That’s why, earlier this 12 months, I used to be delighted to lastly monitor down a replica within the secondhand part of my native comedian store.
However I shortly found that this comedian has one other declare to fame. Inside its pages, Superman turned concerned in probably the most vital chapters within the historical past of area science.
On the primary web page, reporter Clark Kent, Superman’s alter ego, covers the launch of a brand new NASA satellite tv for pc whereas onboard an area shuttle. “I’m in orbit with NASA’s Large Space Telescope, the LST. Here, well above the haze of our atmosphere, astronomers will get a crystal-clear view of the stars and planets,” Kent says within the comedian.
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Proper there on the web page was a useless ringer for the real-life Hubble Area Telescope. I used to be baffled: How did the cartoon model of an area telescope that launched in 1990 get into a comic book printed in 1972?
On the primary web page of Motion Comics No. 419, Superman visits the Massive Area Telescope.
There was a clue within the story’s credit. Pete Simmons, then director of area astronomy at Grumman Aerospace Company (now Northrop Grumman), is credited with “technical assistance.” This was sufficient data for a Google search, which turned up a documentary clip from 1997.
What I discovered amazed me. The Massive Area Telescope was Hubble. Whereas the mission was named after astronomer Edwin Hubble in 1983, NASA had been growing plans for what it referred to as a Massive Area Telescope because the late Sixties. The company had efficiently launched its first profitable area telescope, the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory 2 (OAO-2), in 1968, and by 1971 it had begun to conduct feasibility research for a bigger instrument to see deeper into the cosmos.
However such an costly mission can be a troublesome promote in Congress. Simmons, who had beforehand labored on the OAO-2, took on the problem of demonstrating to the general public—and to Congress—that the LST was a worthy scientific funding. At some point Simmons was on a airplane to New York Metropolis when he seen a baby within the seat subsequent to him studying a Superman comedian, he recalled in an episode of the documentary collection Individuals Close to Right here, produced by Mountain Lake PBS.
“I thought, ‘Gee, those are pretty popular,’” he mentioned within the documentary. He invited staff of DC Comics to the Grumman labs and confirmed them fashions of the LST, which satisfied them that they need to characteristic the telescope in a Superman story. The consequence was Motion Comics No. 419. The comedian offered nicely, as Superman comics often did, giving Simmons tangible proof of the American public’s curiosity within the LST that he might share with Congress.
“I went down to Washington, [D.C.]…, and we gave every member of Congress a copy of this Superman comic,” he recalled. “I remember asking as many as I could find…, ‘If I can get the Large Space Telescope talked about in Superman comics, would you think it’s popular enough…?’ Then I’d give them a copy of this issue.”
I wanted to know extra. My two nice pursuits—comedian books and area science—had been colliding. May we actually have Superman to thank for all of the essential discoveries and beautiful photos made by the Hubble Area Telescope?
Sadly, Simmons died in 2018. So I contacted Charles Robert O’Dell, an observational astronomer and lead scientist on the Massive Area Telescope mission from 1972 to 1983.
O’Dell informed me that within the early days of the mission, the destiny of the LST was not solely within the palms of Congress. Proponents additionally needed to persuade their fellow astronomers, lots of whom would have most well-liked the cash be spent on Earth-based telescopes, that the LST was a worthy funding.
“We organized what we called ‘dog and pony shows’ of NASA engineers and managers,” he says. “[We] went to [Harvard University, the University of Chicago and the California Institute of Technology] and spoke at those places, proselytizing the LST. And this did sway people.”
However within the eyes of astronomers, Motion Comics No. 419 wasn’t precisely a promoting level for the LST. “In fact, it was a turnoff,” O’Dell says. “Remember how conservative astronomy was as a body at that time…. And so, seeing a comic—it was just an alien concept.”
To persuade Congress, O’Dell believes that the comedian would solely actually have been helpful within the palms of a pure salesperson like Simmons. “[Simmons] would go in with this enormous salesman’s enthusiasm for the project and pull that comic out…. He could pull something like that off,” O’Dell says.
O’Dell can’t verify how a lot affect the comedian had on Congress. And the telescope nonetheless had a troublesome combat for funding forward. In 1974 and 1976 astronomers undertook campaigns to foyer help for the mission in Congress. They despatched letters and telegrams and even made private visits to Capitol Hill.
In 1977 the legislature lastly authorised funding of the LST. 13 years later, below a brand new title, the Hubble Area Telescope was launched. It has been working for greater than three many years, and it was the primary observatory to detect parts from the early universe, picture the floor of a star apart from the solar and make sure the presence of supermassive black holes. And it owes its existence, I discovered, extra to the exhausting work and keenness of individuals like O’Dell and Simmons than to any fictional superhero.
However in some way I believe Superman would like it that means.
