From the Earth to the Moon is the name of a novel written by Jules Verne in 1865. In that book a rocket is fired from a launch pad in America - Florida to be precise - and after reaching its destination returns back to the Earth again, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.
In 1901 H G Wells wrote The First Men in the Moon, a science fiction romance in which, by means of an anti-gravity shield, two adventurers are propelled to the Moon.
And then, in 1902, Le Voyage dans La Lune, or A Trip to the Moon, was the first science fiction film to be given a public screening. Based on the novels of both Verne and Wells, it was written and directed by Georges Melies and it shows a rocket being fired straight into the eye of The Man in the Moon. (Admittedly, this was the year following Queen Victoria's death and therefore not strictly Victorian. But the VV thinks it fair to say that the film's creation would have been under way well before the actual screening day.)
And the point of this post is simply to ask whether or not you agree with the VV that there is something oddly familiar about those stories of space travel - something rather similar to events that occurred in the 1960's. Sometimes fact does emulate fiction - particularly in the scientific realms.
A scene from Le Voyage dans La Lune
You can download a free version of Le Voyage dans La Lune