education and training
- B.A., University of Calgary
- M.A., Johns Hopkins University
- M.A., University of British Columbia
- Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University
- Websites
Neufeld, Michael
Curator, Historian
Positions
- Senior Curator, National Air & Space Museum
German rocketry; early rocket development; U.S. space and guided-missile history; planetary exploration; World War II, the Holocaust, and strategic bombing.
Geographic Focus
- Europe Continent
- Germany Country
- United States Country
Background And Education
Professional Biography
- Clarkson University, 1983-85; SUNY Oswego 1985-86; Colgate University, 1986-88; NASM fellow 1988-90; NASM curator, 1990-
awards and honors
Publications
selected publications
-
article
- Destination Moon: The National Air and Space Museum's New Look at Lunar Exploration 2021
- Destination Moon: The Smithsonian Exhibit and the Apollo Collection 2018
- The difficult birth of NASA’s Pluto mission 2016
- Practicing for space underwater: inventing neutral buoyancy training, 1963–1968 2015
- First Mission to Pluto: Policy, Politics, Science, and Technology in the Origins of New Horizons, 1989–2003 2014
- Transforming solar system exploration: The origins of the Discovery Program, 1989–1993 2014
- Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center, by Ray Monk 2013
- Integrating Women into the Astronaut Corps: Politics and Logistics at NASA, 1972-2004 2012
- Soviet Space Culture: Cosmic Enthusiasm in Socialist Societies 2012
- The Nazi Aerospace Exodus: Towards a Global, Transnational History 2012
- The Three Heroes of Spaceflight: The Rise of the Tsiolkovsky-Goddard-Oberth Interpretation and Its Current Validity 2012
- Was the rocket invented or accidentally discovered? Some new observations on its origins 2012
- Space Artifact or Nazi Weapon? Displaying the Smithsonian's V-2 Missile, 1976-2011 2011
- Von Braun and the Lunar-Orbit Rendezvous Decision: Finding a Way to Go to the Moon 2008
- Review of Near Miss: The Army Air Forces Guided Bomb Program in World War II 2007
- Review of Project Mars: A Technical Tale 2007
- Review of Spacecraft Technology: The Early Years by Mark Williamson 2007
- Wernher von Braun's Ultimate Weapon 2007
-
blog posting
- Almost Blind and Completely Exhausted: Gene Cernan's Disastrous Gemini Spacewalk 2021
- First American in Space: The Flight of Alan B. Shepard 2021
- Mars Project: Wernher von Braun as a Science-Fiction Writer 2021
- Spinning out of Control: Gemini VIII's Near-Disaster 2021
- The First Launch of a V-2 Rocket From America Was 75 Years Ago Today 2021
- The Sinking of Liberty Bell 7: Gus Grissom's Near-Fatal Mission 2021
- 'Wonder Weapons' and Slave Labor 2020
- A "Wonder Weapon" Against Japan? The American V-1 2020
- Air and Space Stories 2020
- Failure to Launch: The Heart-Stopping Pad Shutdown of Gemini VI-A 2020
- The Myth of the German "Wonder Weapons" 2020
- Abe Silverstein and the Race to the Moon 2019
- Bob Gilruth: Architect of Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo 2019
- Remembering Chris Kraft: Pioneer of Mission Control 2019
- First to the Moon: Apollo 8 and the Soviet Union 2018
- What First Man Got Right About Neil Armstrong 2018
- Robert Goddard and the First Liquid-Propellant Rocket 2016
- The First Pictures from the Moon’s Surface 2016
- First Mission to Pluto: The Difficult Birth of New Horizons 2015
- Remembering Milton W. Rosen 2015
- The World’s First Space Rendezvous 2015
- The World’s First Space Rendezvous 2015
- “Vengeance Weapon 2”: 70th Anniversary of the V-2 Campaign 2014
- “‘Buzz Bomb’: 70th Anniversary of the V-1 Campaign.” 2014
-
book
- Spaceflight: A Concise History 2018
- The Rocket and the Reich: Peenemunde and the Coming of the Ballistic Missile Era 2013
- Von Braun: Inżynier Nazistów i Amerykanów 2011
- Von Braun: Krigsingeniør og rumfartsvisionær 2009
- Wernher von Braun: Visionär des Weltraums—Ingenieur des Krieges 2009
- Von Braun : dreamer of space, engineer of war 2007
-
chapter
- Cold War-But No War-in Space 2021
- Early Pluto Science, the Imperative for Exploration, and New Horizons 2021
- Wernher von Braun and the Development of Rocketry 2018
- The Discovery Program: Competition, Innovation, and Risk in Planetary Exploration 2017
- The Invention and Diffusion of Neutral Buoyancy Training 2017
- Mercury Capsule Friendship 7 2014
- Wernher von Brauns Faustischer Pakt 2014
- Introduction 2013
- "Smash the Myth of the Fascist Rocket Baron": East German Attacks on the Wernher von Braun in the 1960s 2012
- The "Van Braun Paradigm" and Trends in the US Manned Space Program 2012
- The Von Braun Paradigm and NASA's Long-Term Planning for Human Spaceflight 2010
- V-2 2010
- Wernher von Braun 2010
- Ellrich (Erich, Mittelbau II) 2009
- Ellrich/Woffleben (Lager B-12) 2009
- Mittelbau Main Camp (aka Dora) 2009
- Creating a Memory of the German Rocket Program for the Cold War 2008
- Von Braun, Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr 2008
- "One-stick" Repulsor Rocket Nozzle 2007
- Alan Shepard's Mercury Spacecraft Training Diagram 2007
- Friendship 7 Ansco Camera 2007
- Gemini Heat Shield 2007
- Gemini IV Umbilical 2007
- Gemini VII Spacecraft 2007
- Promoting Space Exploration before Sputnik: The Collier's Space Series, 1952-1954 2007
- Vengeance Weapon 2: The V-2 Ballistic Missile 2007
- Von Braun, Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr 2007
-
review
- Dark Skies: Expansionism, Planetary Geopolitics, and the Ends of Humanity, by David Deudney 2021
- Ronald Reagan and the Space Frontier by John D. Logsdon 2020
- Taking Nazi Technology: Allied Exploitation of German Science After the Second World War, by Douglas M. O'Reagan 2020
- The Hidden Nazi: The Untold Story of America's Deal with the Devil 2020
- Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic Mission to Pluto by Alan Stern and David Grinspoon. 2018
- The Long Space Age: The Economic Origins of Space Exploration from Colonial America to the Cold War 2018
- Calculated Risk: The Supersonic Life and Times of Gus Grissom 2017
- Faith 7: L. Gordon Cooper, Jr., and the Final Mercury Mission 2017
- How to Make a Spaceship: A Band of Renegades, an Epic Race and the Birth of Private Space Flight 2017
- The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars 2017
- After Apollo? Richard Nixon and the American Space Program, by John M. Logsdon 2015
- Exploration and Engineering: The Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Quest for Mars, by Erik M. Conway 2015
- No Requiem for the Space Age: The Apollo Moon Landings and American Culture, by Matthew D. Tribbe 2015
- Review: Operation Paperclip 2015
- Review: The Nazis Next Door 2015
- The Nazis Next Door: How America Became A Safe Haven for Hitler's Men, by Eric Lichtblau 2015
- The Rocket into Planetary Space, by Hermann Oberth 2015
- NASA in the World: Fifty Years of International Collaboration in Space 2014
- Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program that Brought Nazi Scientists to America, by Annie Jacobsen 2014
- Eisenhower’s Sputnik Moment: The Race for Space and International Prestige, by Yanek Mieczkowski 2013
- Visionary: The Odyssey of Sir Arthur C. Clarke 2013
- 50 Years of Rockets & Spacecraft: NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Commemorative History by Ed Buckbee 2012
- Continental Defense in the Eisenhower Era: Nuclear Antiaircraft Arms and the Cold War 2011
- Dark Side of the Moon: Wernher von Braun, the Third Reich, and the Space Race 2011
- Falling to Earth: An Apollo 15 Astronaut's Journey 2011
- Physics and Politics: Research and Research Support in Twentieth Century Germany in International Perspective, edited by Helmuth Trischler and Mark Walker 2011
- A Fiery Peace in a Cold War: Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon 2010
- Truth, Lies and O-Rings: Inside the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster 2010
- Truth, Lies, and O-Rings: Inside the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster 2010
- Decoding the Heavens: A 2,000 Year-Old Computer-and the Century-Long Search to Discover its Secrets 2009
- Red Prometheus: Engineering and Dictatorship in East Germany, 1945-1990 2009
- Trischler, Helmuth Schrogl, Kai-Uwe, eds., Ein Jahrhundert im Flug: Luft- und Raumfahrtforschung in Deutschland 1907-2007 2009
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webpage
editor of
Other
Location
- National Air & Space Museum Academic Department
