German rocketry; early rocket development; U.S. space and guided-missile history; planetary exploration; World War II, the Holocaust, and strategic bombing.
Michael J. Neufeld is a Senior Curator in the Space History Division of the National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, where he is responsible for the early rocket collection and for Mercury and Gemini spacecraft. He is also the lead curator of the Destination Moon exhibit project. Born and raised in Canada, he has four history degrees, including a PhD from Johns Hopkins University in 1984. Dr. Neufeld has written four books, The Skilled Metalworkers of Nuremberg (1989), The Rocket and the Reich (1995), Von Braun (2007) and Spaceflight (2018). He has edited five others: Planet Dora, The Bombing of Auschwitz, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Spacefarers, and Milestones of Space. In 2017 Secretary David Skorton gave him the Smithsonian Distinguished Scholar Award, the highest research award of the Institution.
Publications
selected publications
article
Neufeld, Michael J. 2022. "The Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum and "The Romance of Technological Progress":." Journal of Educational Media, Memory, and Society, 14, (1) 76–97. https://doi.org/10.3167/jemms.2022.140105.
2022
Neufeld, Michael J. 2021. "Destination Moon: The National Air and Space Museum's New Look at Lunar Exploration." , February/March.
2021
Neufeld, Michael J. 2021. "NASA, the Search for Life, and Missions to Europa." Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly 28 (4):9-32.
2021
Neufeld, Michael J. 2018. "Destination Moon: The Smithsonian Exhibit and the Apollo Collection." Western Pennsylvania History 101 (no. 3 (Fall 2018)):26-37.
2018
Neufeld, Michael J. 2013. "Introduction." in Spacefarers: Images of Astronauts and Cosmonauts in the Heroic Era of Spaceflight, edited by Neufeld, Michael J., 1-8.
2013
Neufeld, Michael J. 2013. "Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center, by Ray Monk." ,
2013
Neufeld, Michael J. 2009. "Ellrich/Woffleben (Lager B-12)." in The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945. Vol. 1, Early Camps, Youth Camps, and Concentration Camps and Subcamps under the SS-Business Administration Main Office (WVHA), edited by Megargee, Geoffrey P., 981. Indiana University Press, in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
2009
Neufeld, Michael J. 2007. ""One-stick" Repulsor Rocket Nozzle." in After Sputnik: 50 Years of the Space Age, edited by Collins, Martin J., 16. Smithsonian Books/HarperCollins.
2007
Neufeld, Michael J. 2007. "Alan Shepard's Mercury Spacecraft Training Diagram." in After Sputnik: 50 Years of the Space Age, edited by Collins, Martin J., 67. Smithsonian Books/HarperCollins.
2007
Neufeld, Michael J. 2007. "Gemini Heat Shield." in After Sputnik: 50 Years of the Space Age, edited by Collins, Martin J., 90. Smithsonian Books/HarperCollins.
2007
Neufeld, Michael J. 2007. "Gemini VII Spacecraft." in After Sputnik: 50 Years of the Space Age, edited by Collins, Martin J., 105. Smithsonian Books/HarperCollins.
2007
Neufeld, Michael J. 2007. "Review of Project Mars: A Technical Tale." Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly 14 (3):63-63.
2007
Neufeld, Michael J. 2007. "Review of Spacecraft Technology: The Early Years by Mark Williamson." Space Policy 23:131-131.
2007
Neufeld, Michael J. 2007. "Von Braun, Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr." in New Dictionary of Scientific Biography, 172-176. Charles Scribner's Sons.
2007
Neufeld, Michael J. 2007. "Wernher von Braun's Ultimate Weapon." Bulletin of the Atomic July/August:50-57; 78.
2007
Neufeld, Michael J. 2016. "Robert Goddard and the First Liquid-Propellant Rocket." AIRSPACE BLOG: Behind the Scenes at the National Air and Space Museum2016
Neufeld, Michael J. 2016. "The First Pictures from the Moon's Surface." AIRSPACE BLOG: Behind the Scenes at the National Air and Space Museum2016
Neufeld, Michael J. 2013. The Rocket and the Reich: Peenemunde and the Coming of the Ballistic Missile Era. Smithsonian Books.
2013
Neufeld, Michael J. 2011. Von Braun: Inżynier Nazistów i Amerykanów. Świat Ksiązki.
2011
Neufeld, Michael J. 2009. Von Braun: Krigsingeniør og rumfartsvisionær. Schønberg.
2009
Neufeld, Michael J. 2009. Wernher von Braun: Visionär des Weltraums—Ingenieur des Krieges. Siedler ; Vintage Books.
2009
Neufeld, Michael J. 2007. Von Braun : dreamer of space, engineer of war. 1st ed. A.A. Knopf.
2007
chapter
Neufeld, Michael J. 2021. "Cold War-But No War-in Space." In Militarizing Outer Space: Astroculture, Dystopia and the Cold War. Geppert, Alexander C. T., Brandau, Daniel, and Siebeneichner, Tilmann, editors. 45–68. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95851-1_2.
2021
Neufeld, Michael J., Lunine, Jonathan I., Stern, S. Alan, Young, Leslie A., and Binzel, Richard P. 2021. "Early Pluto Science, the Imperative for Exploration, and New Horizons." in The Pluto System after New Horizons, edited by Stern, S. Alan, Binzel, Richard P., Grundy, William M., Moore, Jeffrey M., and Young, Leslie A., 9-20. University of Arizona Press.
2021
Neufeld, Michael J. 2018. "Wernher von Braun and the Development of Rocketry." in Apollo to the Moon: A History in 50 Objects, edited by Muir-Harmony, Teasel., 90-91. National Geographic Books.
2018
Neufeld, Michael J. 2017. "The Discovery Program: Competition, Innovation, and Risk in Planetary Exploration." in NASA Spaceflight: A History of Innovation, 267-290. Palgrave Macmillan.
2017
Neufeld, Michael J. and Charles, John B. 2017. "The Invention and Diffusion of Neutral Buoyancy Training." in History of Rocketry and Astronautics: Proceedings of the Forty-Ninth History Symposium of the International Academy of Astronautics, edited by Inbar, Tal., 59-71. Univelt, Inc., for the American Astronautical Society.
2017
Neufeld, Michael J. 2014. "Mercury Capsule Friendship 7." in Milestones of Space: Eleven Iconic Objects from the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, edited by Neufeld, Michael J., 6-19. Zenith Press.
2014
Neufeld, Michael J. 2014. "Wernher von Brauns Faustischer Pakt." in Outer Space: Faszination Weltraum, edited by Bundeskunsthalle., 33-36. Nicolai.
2014
Neufeld, Michael J. 2010. "V-2." in Space Exploration and Humanity: A Historical Encyclopedia, edited by American Astronautical Society and Johnson, S. B., 1194-1197. ABC-CLIO.
2010
Neufeld, Michael J. 2010. "Wernher von Braun." in Space Exploration and Humanity: A Historical Encyclopedia, edited by American Astronautical Society and Johnson, S. B., 1169-1171. ABC-CLIO.
2010
Neufeld, Michael J. 2009. "Ellrich (Erich, Mittelbau II)." in The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945. Vol. 1, Early Camps, Youth Camps, and Concentration Camps and Subcamps under the SS-Business Administration Main Office (WVHA), edited by Megargee, Geoffrey P., 979-981. Indiana University Press, in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
2009
Neufeld, Michael J. 2009. "Mittelbau Main Camp (aka Dora)." in The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945. Vol. 1, Early Camps, Youth Camps, and Concentration Camps and Subcamps under the SS-Business Administration Main Office (WVHA), edited by Megargee, Geoffrey P., 966-971. Indiana University Press, in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
2009
Neufeld, Michael J. 2008. "Von Braun, Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr." in New Dictionary of Scientific Biography, vol. VII, edited by Koertge, Noretta., 172-176. Charles Scribner's Sons.
2008
Neufeld, Michael J. 2007. "Friendship 7 Ansco Camera." in After Sputnik: 50 Years of the Space Age, edited by Collins, Martin J., 77. Smithsonian Books/HarperCollins.
2007
Neufeld, Michael J. 2007. "Gemini IV Umbilical." in After Sputnik: 50 Years of the Space Age, edited by Collins, Martin J., 94. Smithsonian Books/HarperCollins.
2007
Neufeld, Michael J. 2007. "Promoting Space Exploration before Sputnik: The Collier's Space Series, 1952-1954." in After Sputnik: 50 Years of the Space Age, edited by Collins, Martin J., 36. Smithsonian Books/HarperCollins.
2007
Neufeld, Michael J. 2007. "Vengeance Weapon 2: The V-2 Ballistic Missile." in After Sputnik: 50 Years of the Space Age, edited by Collins, Martin J., 22. Smithsonian Books/HarperCollins.
2007
review
Neufeld, Michael J. 2022. [Book review] "Educating the Enemy: Teaching Nazis and Mexicans in the Cold War Borderlands." Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly, 29, (2),
2022
Neufeld, Michael J. 2021. [Book review] "Dark Skies: Expansionism, Planetary Geopolitics, and the Ends of Humanity, by David Deudney." Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly. 65-66.
2021
Neufeld, Michael J. 2020. [Book review] "Ronald Reagan and the Space Frontier by John D. Logsdon." Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly. 67-68.
2020
Neufeld, Michael J. 2020. [Book review] "The Hidden Nazi: The Untold Story of America's Deal with the Devil." Quest. 67-68.
2020
Neufeld, Michael J. 2018. [Book review] "Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic Mission to Pluto by Alan Stern and David Grinspoon.." Quest. 71-72.
2018
Neufeld, Michael J. 2018. [Book review] "The Long Space Age: The Economic Origins of Space Exploration from Colonial America to the Cold War." Journal of American History. 132-133. https://doi.org/10.1093/jahist/jay0202018
Neufeld, Michael J. 2017. [Book review] "Calculated Risk: The Supersonic Life and Times of Gus Grissom." Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly. 63-64.
2017
Neufeld, Michael J. 2017. [Book review] "Faith 7: L. Gordon Cooper, Jr., and the Final Mercury Mission." Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly. 72.
2017
Neufeld, Michael J. 2017. [Book review] "How to Make a Spaceship: A Band of Renegades, an Epic Race and the Birth of Private Space Flight." Physics Today. 62-64.
2017
Neufeld, Michael J. 2017. [Book review] "The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars." Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly. 63.
2017
Neufeld, Michael J. 2014. [Book review] "Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program that Brought Nazi Scientists to America, by Annie Jacobsen." Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly. 51-52.
2014
Neufeld, Michael J. 2011. [Book review] "Continental Defense in the Eisenhower Era: Nuclear Antiaircraft Arms and the Cold War." The Journal of Military History. 971-973.
2011
Neufeld, Michael J. 2011. [Book review] "Falling to Earth: An Apollo 15 Astronaut's Journey." Space Policy. 253-254.
2011
Neufeld, Michael J. 2011. [Book review] "Physics and Politics: Research and Research Support in Twentieth Century Germany in International Perspective, edited by Helmuth Trischler and Mark Walker." Technology and Culture. 649-650. https://doi.org/10.1353/tech.2011.01242011
Neufeld, Michael J. 2010. [Book review] "A Fiery Peace in a Cold War: Bernard Schriever and the Ultimate Weapon." The Journal of Military History. 644-645.
2010
Neufeld, Michael J. 2010. [Book review] "Truth, Lies and O-Rings: Inside the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster." Isis. 644-645.
2010
Neufeld, Michael J. 2010. [Book review] "Truth, Lies, and O-Rings: Inside the Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster." Isis. 452-453.
2010
Neufeld, Michael J. 2009. [Book review] "Decoding the Heavens: A 2,000 Year-Old Computer-and the Century-Long Search to Discover its Secrets." Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly. 62-63.
2009
Neufeld, Michael J. 2009. [Book review] "Red Prometheus: Engineering and Dictatorship in East Germany, 1945-1990." Isis. 194-195.
2009
Neufeld, Michael J. 2009. [Book review] "Trischler, Helmuth Schrogl, Kai-Uwe, eds., Ein Jahrhundert im Flug: Luft- und Raumfahrtforschung in Deutschland 1907-2007." H-German, H-Net Reviews. 1-2.
2009
