Lebanon's short-lived venture into outer space
In the early 1960s, the Lebanese Rocket Society developed rockets to explore space and for other peaceful purposes, but its projects quickly attracted the attention of governments seeking military advantage.
BEIRUT — “Back in the 1940s [when I was a child in Jerusalem], schools were often closed due to regional conflicts,” Manoug Manougian, former head of the Lebanese Rocket Society (LRS), told Al-Monitor. “To entertain myself, I read science fiction books.… It was Jules Verne’s ‘From the Earth to the Moon’ that was the genesis of my fascination with space exploration.”
Even in Manougian’s youth, his passion for space travel and the pursuit of knowledge were closely tied to the politics of the time. This relationship would see him create, and then leave, the Lebanese space program in the 1960s. He had been attracted to the program's potential for groundbreaking technological feats, but repelled by the government's increasingly militaristic goals.
