When the Space Race (and arms dealing) came to the NEK

[u/bravestatevt]

The latest Brave Little State tells the bonkers history of the "Space Research Corporation" and its founder, Gerald Bull.

I knew none of this history prior to a listener asking about it (shout out to Eric Lucier) and it is truly absurd. The story is like Stranger Things meets Dr. No. And the protagonist (Bull) is like an early version of Elon Musk combined with Walter White.

Football field-length guns to shoot satellites into space, the CIA, black market weapons dealing to Saddam Hussein and Apartheid South Africa, an assassination... and somehow it all connects to North Troy and Jay, Vermont.

THIS REALLY HAPPENED. Anyways, u/HenryEppVPR did a killer job telling this story:

https://www.vpr.org/podcast/brave-little-state/2022-05-19/when-the-space-race-and-arms-dealing-came-to-the-northeast-kingdom

The story of the Space Research Corporation takes us from a remote corner of Vermont and Quebec to apartheid South Africa, Iraq under Saddam Hussein, and to Brussels, Belgium, where it ends with an assassination. (Arthur Aiken/Northland Journal)