Jules Verne, a popular science fiction writer, provided inspiration for many early rocketeers. From the Earth to the Moon, written in 1865, tells the story of three men who launch from Earth in a cannon-like vehicle with the goal of landing on the Moon.

Despite writing the book almost 100 years before humans achieved this feat, many of Verne’s details appeared to foreshadow the future. Some of the book’s mission scenarios are strikingly similar to NASA’s Apollo program activities. The location of the launch, the size of the crew capsule, and the approximate time to reach the Moon proved to be very close to reality.