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About the Editor here is no doubt that the last 50 years have witnessed numerous accomplishments in Steven J. Dick is the Chief Historian for NASA and what has often been termed “the new Director of the NASA History Division. He worked ocean” of space, harkening back to a long as an astronomer and historian of science at the U.S. tradition of exploration. Earth is now circled by Naval Observatory in Washington, DC for 24 years thousands of satellites, looking both upward into before coming to NASA Headquarters in 2003. space at distant galaxies and downward toward Earth Among his recent books are Societal Impact of for reconnaissance, weather, communications, nav- Spaceflight (NASA SP 4801, 2007, edited with Roger igation, and remote sensing. Robotic space probes Launius), Critical Issues in the History of Spaceflight have explored most of the solar system, returning (NASA SP- 4702, 2006, edited with Roger Launius), astonishing images of alien worlds. Space telescopes The Living Universe: NASA and the Development of have probed the depths of the universe at many Astrobiology (2004, with James Strick), and Sky and wavelengths. In the dramatic arena of human Ocean Joined: The U.S. Naval Observatory, 1830 -2000 spaceflight, 12 men have walked on the surface of the (2003). Dr. Dick is the recipient of the Navy Moon, the Space Shuttle has had 119 flights, and the Meritorious Civilian Service Medal, two NASA International Space Station—a cooperative effort of Group Achievement Awards, and the 2006 LeRoy E. 16 nations—is almost “core complete.” In addition to Doggett Prize for Historical Astronomy of the Russia, which put the first human into space in April American Astronomical Society. 1961, China has now joined the human spaceflight club with two Shenzhou flights, and Europe is readying for its entry into the field as well. After 50 years of robotic and human space­ flight, and as serious plans are being implemented to return humans to the Moon and continue on to Mars, it is a good time to step back and ask questions that those in the heat of battle have had but little time to ask.What has the Space Age meant? What if the Space Age had never occurred? Has it been, and is it still, important for a creative society to explore space? How do we, and how should we, remember the Space Age? On the cover: The Space Age begins. Top left: A technician puts the finishing touches on Sputnik I in ISBN 978-0-16-081723-6 F asro le b yt eh S epu ir tn e edn tn fo D co mu e tn s , .U S . G evo r emn tn irP tn i Ogn eciff I tn re en :t skoob t ro e .Popgenoh .vog : lot l f ree ( 0081 215 )-;668 DC a re a( 0081 215 )-202 the fall of 1957. Top middle and right: The Soviet 90000 aF :x ( M4012 a215 )-202 :li S t Ipo DCC, W ihsa gn t no , D C 20402 - 1000 Union launched Sputnik I —the first artificial Earth ISBN 978-0-16-081723-6 satellite —on October 4, 1957. Bottom: Explorer 1— America’s first Earth satellite— was launched January 31, 1958. Pictured left to right are William 9 780160 817236 H. Pickering, director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory that built and operated the satellite; James A. van Allen of the State University of Iowa who designed and built the instrument that discovered the Van Allen Radiation Belts; and Wernher von Braun, On the back cover: Fifty years after the Space Age leader of the U.S. Army’s Redstone Arsenal team began, the International Space Station orbits the which built the first stage Redstone rocket that Earth. It is the result of a cooperative effort of 16 launched Explorer 1. The photo was taken at a press nations led by the United States. conference at the National Academy of Sciences NASA SP-2008-4703 building in the early hours of February 1, 1958. viii Societal Impact of Spaceflight REMEMBERING the SPACE AGE ISBN 978-0-16-081723-6 F asro le b yt eh S epu ir tn e edn tn fo D co mu e tn s , .U S . G evo r emn tn irP tn i Ogn eciff I tn re en :t skoob t ro e .Popgenoh .vog : lot l f ree ( 0081 215 )-;668 DC a re a( 0081 215 )-202 90000 aF :x ( M4012 a215 )-202 :li S t Ipo DCC, W ihsa gn t no , D C 20402 - 1000 ISBN 978-0-16-081723-6 9 780160 817236 ISBN 978-0-16-081723-6 F ro as el b yt eh S pu e ir tn e dn e tn fo D co mu e tn s, .U S . G vo er mn e tn P ir tn i gn O eciff I tn re en :t koob s . ro t e opg . vog P noh e : lot l f eer ( 668 ) 215 - 0081 ; DC a er a ( 202 ) 215 - 0081 90000 aF :x ( 202 ) 215 - 4012 Ma :li S t po I DC ,C W a hs i gn t no , D C 20402 - 1000 ISBN 978-0-16-081723-6 9 780160 817236 REMEMBERING the SPACE AGE Steven J. Dick Editor National Aeronautics and Space Administration Office of External Relations History Division Washington, DC 2008 NASA SP-2008-4703 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Remembering the Space Age / Steven J. Dick, editor. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. 1. Astronautics--History--20th century. I. Dick, Steven J. TL788.5.R46 2008 629.4’109045--dc22 2008019448 CONTENTS Acknowledgments .......................................vii Introduction ........................................... ix PART I. N ATIONAL AND GLOBAL DIMENSIONS OF THE SPACE AGE Chapter 1: Gigantic Follies? Human Exploration and the Space Age in Long-term Historical Perspective—J. R. McNeill .................3 Chapter 2: Spaceflight in the National Imagination—Asif A. Siddiqi.... 17 Chapter 3: Building Space Capability through European Regional Collaboration—John Krige ..................................37 Chapter 4: Imagining an Aerospace Agency in the Atomic Age— Robert R. MacGregor .....................................55 Chapter 5: Creating a Memory of the German Rocket Program for the Cold War—Michael J. Neufeld ..........................71 Chapter 6: Operation Paperclip in Huntsville,Alabama— Monique Laney ..........................................89 Chapter 7:The Great Leap Upward: China’s Human Spaceflight Program and Chinese National Identity—James R. Hansen..........109 Chapter 8:“The ‘Right’ Stuff: The Reagan Revolution and the U.S. Space Program”—Andrew J. Butrica.......................121 Chapter 9: Great (Unfulfilled) Expectations:To Boldly Go Where No Social Scientist or Historian Has Gone Before— Jonathan Coopersmith ....................................135 PART II. REMEMBRANCE AND CULTURAL REPRESENTATION OF THE SPACE AGE Chapter 10: Far Out: The Space Age in American Culture— Emily S. Rosenberg ......................................157 vi Remembering the Space Age Chapter 11:A Second Nature Rising: Spaceflight in an Era of Representation—Martin Collins ...............................185 Chapter 12: Creating Memories: Myth, Identity, and Culture in the Russian Space Age—Slava Gerovitch .....................203 Chapter 13:The Music of Memory and Forgetting: Global Echoes of Sputnik II—Amy Nelson ................................237 Chapter 14: From the Cradle to the Grave: Cosmonaut Nostalgia in Soviet and Post-Soviet Film—Cathleen S. Lewis ................253 Chapter 15: Examining the Iconic and Rediscovering the Photography of Space Exploration in Context to the History of Photography —Michael Soluri ........................................271 Chapter 16: Robert A. Heinlein’s Influence on Spaceflight— Robert G. Kennedy, III ....................................341 Chapter 17:American Spaceflight History’s Master Narrative and the Meaning of Memory—Roger D. Launius.................353 PART III. REFLECTIONS ON THE SPACE AGE Chapter 18:A Melancholic Space Age Anniversary— Walter A. McDougall .....................................389 Chapter 19: Has Space Development Made a Difference?— John Logsdon ...........................................397 Chapter 20: Has There Been a Space Age?—Sylvia Kraemer.........405 Chapter 21: Cultural Functions of Space Exploration—Linda Billings .. 409 About the Authors ........................................413 Acronyms and Abbreviations ..............................425 NASA History Series .....................................429 Index.................................................441 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank the members of the conference organizing committee, including Roger Launius (National Air and Space Museum), Linda Billings (SETI Institute), Asif Siddiqi (Fordham University), Slava Gerovitch (MIT), Bill Barry (NASA Headquarters Office of External Relations), and, on the staff of the NASA History Division, Stephen Garber and Glen Asner. I also want to thank Michael Neufeld, who took over from Roger Launius as the Chair of the National Air and Space Museum Division of Space History during our planning and gave us his full support. My thanks to Nadine Andreassen in the NASA History Division for her usual good work in planning the logistics for the meeting, as well as Kathy Regul and Ron Mochinski for their logistical work. Finally, thanks to the Communications Support Services Center team at NASA Headquarters for their crucial role in the production of this book. viii Societal Impact of Spaceflight INTRODUCTION ifty years ago, with the launch of Sputnik I on October 4, 1957 and the Fflurry of activity that followed, events were building toward what some historians now recognize as a watershed in history—the beginning of the Space Age. Like all “Ages,” however, the Space Age is not a simple, straightforward, or even secure concept. It means different things to different people, and, space buffs notwithstanding, some would even argue that it has not been a defining characteristic of culture over the last 50 years and therefore does not deserve such a grandiose moniker. Others would find that to be an astonishing viewpoint, and argue that the Space Age was a saltation in history comparable to amphibians transitioning from ocean to land.1 There is no doubt that the last 50 years have witnessed numerous accomplishments in what has often been termed “the new ocean” of space, harking back to a long tradition of exploration.

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