Social Media publications claim that Walt Disney and four others, including occult practitioners and a former Nazi party member, were the “founders” of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). This is misleading; While two of the individuals on the list were scientists involved in rocket development (one of whom played a key role in the early space program), the agency was created by an act of Congress and founded by former president Dwight Eisenhower.
A post shared on Facebook on May 10, 2024, includes five photos purporting to show the “Founders of NASA.” Between to them: Disney, “Ronald Hubbard, Founder of Scientology,” “Wernher Von Braun, Former Nazi,” “Jack Parsons, Themelite occultist,” and “Aleister Crowley, the world’s worst man.”
Similar posts, some dating back several years, also spread across Instagram, X, Reddit and TikTok.
While some of the men on the list have ties to the former American space program, claims that they founded NASA are untrue.
The National Aeronautics and Space Act established the agency in 1958 (archived here ). When the United States moved to respond to the Soviet Sputnik program, Eisenhower appointed T. Keith Glennan as its first administrator (archived here ).
“At the most basic level, NASA was founded by the U.S. government, not by a group of people,” said Teasel Muir-Harmony, curator of the Project Apollo collection at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. said. May 20, 2024.
The historian of science and technology added that NASA recognized former President Lyndon Johnson, congressional investigator Eileen Galloway and many others for their contributions to science. program (archived here and here).
AFP examined the role of each person mentioned in the posts.
Von Braun
At the end of World War II, the United States recruited more than 100 German scientists, including von Braun, to work on ballistic missiles and related research in a program called Project Paperclip (archived here ). Some participated in the space program.
Von Braun was a member of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) Special Committee on Space Technology (archived here ). NASA.
NASA
Before the United States drafted him, von Braun joined the Nazi party in 1937 and became an officer of the feared paramilitary Schutzstaffel (SS). A key architect of Germany’s V-2 rocket under Adolf Hitler, von Braun later became director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and chief architect of the Saturn V launch vehicle that would send Americans to the Moon.
The German scientist “was a very important figure in the history of space exploration in the United States,” Muir-Harmony said.
“He had influence and input into conversations about what NASA should look like. He was also instrumental in the decision to send humans to the Moon.”
Disney
Disney, the animator who created Mickey Mouse and the company that became an entertainment empire, had no direct involvement with the US space program. But the “Land of Tomorrow” TV shows helped popularize the idea of space travel at a time when the United States and the Soviet Union were locked in a race for space supremacy.
Disney produced three “scientific factual” shows in the mid-1950s featuring von Braun as narrator and depicting future space travel (archived here). According to the Disney Family Museum, Eisenhower requested that the first program, “Man in Space,” be shown at the Pentagon as “a training ground primer.”
Muir-Harmoney said Disney played a role in building public support but was “not involved in the initial space program” other than giving von Braun a “platform.”
Parsons, Hubbard and Crowley
Parsons was a graduate student at the California Institute of Technology and helped develop solid-fuel rocket technology that would later be used in the U.S. space program. After the first experiment in 1936, Parsons co-founded the school’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is now funded by NASA (archived here).
Muir-Harmony said Parsons was involved in early rocket experiments but “certainly cannot be considered the founder of NASA.”
Parsons died in an explosion in 1952, years before the agency was founded. She was also no longer in a relationship with J.Meat Propulsion Laboratoryaccording to abill by historian of science William from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Ashworth.
Ashworth wrote that Parsons’ legacy was marred by his following of Thelemite occult leader Crowley and his subsequent association with science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard, who later founded the Church of Scientology.
Muir-Harmony said he was unaware of any role Crowley and Hubbard played in the U.S. space program other than their relationship with Parsons. AFP found no evidence linking the men to NASA.
AFP contacted the agency for additional comment but did not receive a response.
AFP fact-checked other claims about NASA here and here.