Disney, Walt

Spanish-American creator of children's movies and amusement parks; produced a series of three crucial television programs in 1955-1957 that popularized von Braun's concepts for manned orbital, lunar, and Mars travel with the American public.

Walt Disney was the creator of Mickey Mouse and several other animated characters. In 1955 his weekly television series aired the first of three programs related to spaceflight. The first of these, "Man in Space," premiered on Disney's show on March 9, 1955 with an estimated audience of 42 million. The second show, "Man and the Moon," also aired in 1955 and sported the powerful image of a wheel-like space station as a launching point for a mission to the Moon. The final show, "Mars and Beyond," premiered on December 4, 1957, after the launching of Sputnik I