Jack Whiteside Parsons was an unusual man. He co-founded both the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Aerojet Engineering Corporation, created pyrotechnics for the film industry, wrote a book of poems, and masturbated onto “magical tablets” in an attempt to conjure a lover. At Wired UK, Olivia Solon intertwines her interview with biographer George Pendle with a look into the rocket engineer’s occult-tinted history. While it’s arguable if Parsons is the “forgotten figure” Pendle paints him to be, it is still amazing to see how a disciple of the notorious Aleister Crowley contributed to space technology.
The occultist who co-founded NASA’s JPL
Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.
