Contents Volume 21 • Number 1 2014 www.spacehistory101.com

Features FROM THE ARCHIVES

4 Atlas vs. a Ford Galaxie: Ground Handling Incidents in the Cold War Era By Joel W. Powell

11 Flying in Deep Space: The Galileo Mission to Jupiter (Part II) By David Clow

26 An Interview with Charles “Chuck” Friedlander Former Chief of the Astronaut Support Office, Cape Kennedy By Donald Pealer

39 Rethinking the Overview Effect By Jordan Bimm 48 Navigation, Guidance, and Control of a Saturn Rocket and Its Predecessors By Ed Durbin While searching for high-resolution images to accompany the article on “Primate Lives”, volume 20 #4, we came across this undated, uncredited image. Book Reviews FROM THE ARCHIVES 62 An Acre of Glass: A History and Forecast of Gordon Cooper up to Apollo 13. Of course, if I had received command of the Telescope Normal Apollo crew rota- Apollo 13, it would have been Book by J. B. Zirker tions from back-up crew to my “lost moon.” I would not Review by Gregory A. Good prime flight crew was as fol- have been able to walk on the lows—the back-up crew would moon because of the flaw in the oxygen tank which caused the 63 Eyes in the Sky: Eisenhower, the CIA, and be named the prime crew of the third mission down the line in explosion…If I had been select- Cold War Aerial Espionage the Apollo flight program. ed for command on Apollo 13, Book by Dino Brugioni Based on this rotation, I should there would not have been a falling behind in training Review by James David have been selected as com- mander of Apollo 13. However, because of my extensive work office “politics” in the Astronaut experience during back-up on 64 Pseudoscience Wars: Immanuel Corps, the return to flight status Apollo 10. Shepard was very Velikovsky and the Birth of the Modern Fringe of Alan Shepard after the cor- fortunate to be pulled from rection of an inner ear disorder, command of “13” and placed on Book by Michael D. Gordin and the view points of certain “14.” As it turned out, he was Review by Roger D. Launius NASA managers allowed for the only one of us Mercury guys the selection of Shepard ahead to actually fly to and land on the Cover Image of me for command of Apollo moon. Artist’s view of Galileo flying past Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io. The 13. Shepard fell behind in train- RR Auction, Lot 540, image incorrectly shows the spacecraft’s high gain antenna in its ing and was allowed to switch 21 November 2013 fully deployed position. Credit: NASA to commander of Apollo 14, moving Jim Lovell and his crew RETHINKING THE OVERVIEW EFFECT

4 2013 Winner of the Sacknoff is now influencing spacecraft design. Environmental and peace movements have Prize for Space History also evoked the overview effect to justify “whole ” or “borderless” perspectives. Launched in 2011, the peer- Advocates for space science and technology reviewed prize is awarded annually have used the idea in attempts to accelerate to a university student and is investment and speed technological change, designed to encourage research and and have even begun work on virtual reali- scholarship in space history. ty and immersive video design with the hopes of triggering the overview effect via Rules and details can be found at: simulation here on Earth. The overview www.spacehistory101.com effect has been such a successful idea that, real or not, it has become a self-fulfilling prophesy. People now go to space expecting been lopsided in favor of overview existing. By Jordan Bimm to experience it.5 In 2008, Frank White Then, I present three archival data sets that founded The Overview Institute in complicate White’s claim that the overview Washington, DC, to consolidate support and effect is a timeless, pre-existing natural phe- I have left the world. There is only the further popularize the idea.6 nomenon that affects all people in a similar ship to identify myself with… and with This paper looks at three historical way. First, I investigate the Cold War mili- this adrenaline inflicted state floats the data sets from the archive that complicate tary origins of three key ideas White uses to feeling of detachment. the evidence for, and conclusions drawn support “overview”: James Lovelock’s from, White’s concept of the overview Gaia hypothesis, Richard Buckminster William Bridgeman effect. In Overview, White’s argument is Fuller’s concept of “spaceship Earth,” and test pilot, 1955 that the overview effect is a reliably pro- ’s famous “blue marble” photo- duced mental effect—a naturally occurring graph, which became emblematic of these Introduction phenomenon “between the environment “total system,” cybernetic visions. Drawing In his 1987 book, The Overview and the human mind” that is triggered when on scholarship in the history of science, and Effect: Space Exploration and Human the brain gets a realistic view of Earth from science and technology studies, I will first Evolution, American author Frank White high up above. White argues that the grow- argue that these models of Earth are deeply coined “the overview effect” to describe a ing number of astronaut tales about experi- political objects, asserting a claim of collection of positive mental experiences encing a “conversion” of sorts on seeing the American control and technological mas- reported by astronauts and cosmonauts Earth from space reflects a natural feature tery at a global scale, and that the overview returning from outerspace. Since then, of the universe that affirms ambitions to effect implicitly adopts these cultural White’s idea that viewing the Earth from colonize outerspace. For White, overview is claims. Second, because astronaut tales space fundamentally changes people “for “natural” and not a product of history, cul- comprise the main evidence for the the better” has resonated with a number of ture, or any other external social factor. overview effect, I look to the history of important groups, including space psychol- However, a look in the archive sug- American space psychology, where there ogists, space industry advocates, politicians, gests—ironically—that “overview” is an have long been questions about the reliabil- members of environmental and peace all-too-narrow view of the possible ways of ity of astronaut self-reporting, and tension movements, and most recently, members of seeing and experiencing planet Earth. In among astronauts and psychological data the public with an interest in space explo- this paper, I suggest the overview effect is gatherers. The last data set I draw from doc- ration, who in 2013 shared the short film only one possibility among many for the uments a historical alternative to the Overview via social media.1,2 In 1997, U.S. human experience of viewing the Earth overview effect, something that 1950s President Bill Clinton referenced the from , and that it is worthwhile American aviation and space medicine overview effect in his opening remarks at to reconsider the origins and implications of experts described as “the break-off phe- The White House Conference on Climate White’s idea. First, to better introduce the nomenon”—feelings of separation, anxiety, Change.3 In space psychology, the concept, I review the existing literature on and depression that were being reported by overview effect has become an axiom guid- both sides of the debate surrounding the military pilots after viewing the Earth from ing research and development projects, and existence of the overview effect, which has very high altitudes. These three data sets

Q U E S T 21:1 2014 39 www.spacehistory101.com complicate and call into question White’s that we are a member of the whole human collective unconscious of humanity since conclusion that the overview effect consti- family. It goes beyond being a citizen of the dawn of awareness.”12 This implies tutes an ontologically pre-existent natural- the Earth—you are really a citizen of the that technological types exist in stable ly occurring “sign from the universe” indi- universe. When you are in orbit, you ask forms independent of when human cul- cating that humans should colonize outer yourself, ‘Why do people have the differ- tures make and use them. White argues space as quickly as possible. ences that they have down on Earth?’ You that the “effect” represents “a message” or see that Earth is just a small part of a large “a signal” from the universe itself: “the universe, and you have a feeling about it larger environment [the universe] is sup- Background: What Is the 9 Overview Effect? that is hard to describe.” porting these positive directions in evolu- tion because humanity has something use- On an internet radio show in 2007, - - - ful to offer the universe as a whole.”13, 14 White described the overview effect as: Jake Garn (STS-51-D): “You fly One of White’s core beliefs is that humanity’s destiny is to colonize the entire That experience of seeing the over Ethiopia and you have vivid pictures universe by passing through three Earth from orbit, or from the Moon, in your mind of those starving little kids Kardashev-like stages of development that and having a realization of the inherent with their bony ribs, or Iran and Iraq and he refers to as “three civilizations”: Terra unity and oneness of everything on the the war that is going on there, or (the earth), Solarius (the solar system), and planet. It’s a realization that we are all Afghanistan or Nicaragua, and you look at Galaxia (the galaxy, and beyond). In the one in terms of our place in the uni- the trouble spots. You fly over Africa and later chapters of the book, White attempts verse and our destiny… It’s a shift in you recognize what occurs in so many of to convert readers into “Terranauts.”15 consciousness, a shift in awareness, the Third World counties around the world, This, as White describes, is a type of per- and identity, and a harbinger of many and you think, ‘how sad,’ because certain- son who has not been to space themselves, more evolutionary transformations.7 ly we have the natural resources to take care of all of God’s children...You recog- but constantly thinks in terms of the overview effect, and dutifully promotes White’s primary sources are the self- nize that the Russians, the Nicaraguans, the development of space science and tech- reported experiences of a number of astro- the Canadians, the Filipinos—it doesn't nology in everyday life. “Ask yourself nauts and cosmonauts as communicated matter where they're from—all they want daily,” White instructs potential through public speeches, published mem- is to raise their kids and educate them, just Terranauts, “how does my life support the oirs, media interviews, and White’s own as we do...As you fly around you look at positive evolution of the human future?”16 series of interviews conducted in the 1980s the controlled countries compared to the and 1990s with 22 people who have been democratic ones, and there is such a vast to space. The final third of his book, The difference. It made me feel even more Critics and True Believers Overview Effect: Space Exploration and strongly that as Americans who enjoy so Since 1987, the conversation about Human Evolution (1987), compiles these much, we really have an obligation and the overview effect has been lopsided in interviews in digest form. Here are three responsibility to our fellow human beings favor of White’s claims. However, one examples of the astronaut tales that White to try to help them have freedom and early critic, historian Stephen J. Pyne, had 10 has gathered together under the banner of opportunity.” this to say in a 1989 book review published the overview effect: - - - in the journal Futures:

- - - From these astronaut tales, White If throwaway allusions to Marc Garneau (STS-41-G): crafts a grand teleological narrative about Columbus and to ‘Christian thought’ “Looking down at Earth. It’s very, very humanity’s past, present, future, and inher- as a ‘mental technology’ that laid low beautiful. There are wars going on, there’s ent purpose in the universe. For White, the Roman Empire satisfy your yearn- pollution down there, but these are not vis- these astronaut reports constitute a giant ing for historical explanation, then this ible from up above. It just looks like a very cosmic road sign indicating that humanity book is for you. If not, then the book beautiful planet, particularly when you see is headed in the right direction: “[space- may strike you as a muddled fly-by of it interface along the edge with space. flight] represents a great hope for the human history, a recapitulation of the There you suddenly get the feeling that, future of humanity because it is aligned U.S. National Commission on Space’s 11 ‘Hey, this is just one small planet which is with universal purpose.” In short, White report fluffed with intellectual saw- lost in the middle of space.’”8 argues that these tales should be interpret- dust, a pep-talk better suited for life as ed together as a natural affirmation of the a banquet speech to New Age devotees - - - imperative to colonize outerspace. White’s than as a compelling argument for the view is ontologically realist and determin- Al Sacco Jr. (STS-73): “Once you impact of the space programme and istic with regard to social, biological, and get into space, I tell them about something the need to continue it. Unless you technological change. For example, with I call ‘The Astronaut’s Secret.’ It’s a real- already accept its premises, the book is regard to the latter, White writes, “The 17 ization all of the astronauts have, which is gibberish. human space program has existed in the

Q U E S T 21:1 2014 40 www.spacehistory101.com He also adds that White’s fashioning of “Terranauts” is best read as an attempt to turn into a cultish “conver- sion experience.”18 Enthusiastic support for White’s concept is much easier to find. Before introducing White on the internet radio call-in show The Space Show, on 17 June 2007, host David Livingstone said:

I can’t count the number of times I have said it, Frank White, who wrote The Overview Effect, that is my favorite space book, and that book is more responsible for The Space Show than anything else I have ever come across, encountered, been with, discussed, or had anything to do with space or any- thing related to The Space Show… remember everybody, we don’t support or endorse business propositions, and things like that, although tonight I’m telling you right off the bat that I sup- NASA astronaut Clayton C. Anderson, 2007. port the overview effect, and what only our place in the created universe, but Credit: NASA 21 Frank [White] and David [Beaver] are our role as well.” 19 doing. Full force. - - - academic complex, fashioned a number of A glance at the roster of the Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides (founder ideas about the “whole Earth” as a “total Overview Institute confirms that of Yuri’s Night and partner of Virgin system” in service of the space race and Livingstone is far from alone in his devo- Galactic CEO George Whitesides): “When other globally-scaled projects motivated tion to White and the popularization of the I first came upon Frank’s book in the by fears of Soviet expansion. Two ideas overview effect. Twenty scientists, schol- school library in the early 1990s I felt like and one image from this work are continu- ars, and even Apollo astronaut Edgar someone had finally put to words the part ally evoked by White in The Overview Mitchell, are listed as members. On the of space that I was most excited about. I Effect: James Lovelock and Lynn institute’s website, each member offers a read it cover-to-cover and took it up as an Margulis’s “Gaia hypothesis,” statement of support for White’s world- explanation of the huge promise of space, Buckminster Fuller’s concept of view. its ability to transform our current level of “Spaceship Earth,” and the “Blue Marble” thinking from the level of nation states to photograph of the Earth surrounded by the - - - the level of planets. I am still inspired 22 void of space, captured by the crew of Alan Ladwig (NASA and Northrop about it to this day.” Apollo 17 on their return voyage from the Grumman manager): “To see the planet - - - Moon in 1972. from an extraterrestrial perspective reveals Historian of science Peder Anker a fragile spaceship protected by a thin argues that military work on enclosed atmosphere. Many who have had the priv- Immediate Predecessors of The Overview Effect space cabin ecological systems in the ilege to experience this view have returned 1950s and 1960s changed the way that we Many of the astronaut conversion with a new sense of purpose and percep- think about living on planet Earth. narratives that make up White’s body of tive that is more global, more spiritual, and Describing Cold War-era, military-funded evidence include a common pivot point: more humane.”20 work on maintaining human life in small, the sudden appreciation of the “whole enclosed, hermetically sealed cabins, - - - Earth” as “a total system,” or some close Anker aptly points out how the “technolo- variation on this. However, the concept of Ray Idaszak (computer simulation gy, terminology, and methodology devel- Earth as a single bounded system has a and special effects specialist): “Simulating oped for ecological colonization of space deep military history at odds with the the Overview Effect is humankind’s run- became tools for solving environmental seemingly—peaceful veneer of overview. way to the actual experience enabling all problems on Earth.”23 Research into a Beginning in the 1960s, scientists working of us—as collective stewards of planet sealed cabin’s “carrying capacity” for within the American military industrial Earth—to understand more holistically not astronauts in space was repurposed into a

Q U E S T 21:1 2014 41 www.spacehistory101.com Through its creation in the context of the Cold War space sciences, ecological sys- tems thinking became deeply enmeshed with the political, intellectual, and techno- logical goals of the military industrial aca- demic complex, a connection that persists but is not always as apparent as it should be. These ideas greatly influenced White’s concept of the overview effect. Besides a section titled “Spaceship Earth,” in which he agrees with Fuller’s view that “humanity is as essential to the universe as life is to Earth,” White’s figuration of his disciples as “Terranauts” also heavily draws on Fuller’s declaration that “we are all astronauts.”28 At the beginning of White’s final chapter, he writes: “If the Earth is a natural spaceship, then everyone on it is either a passenger or a crew mem- ber. R. Buckminster Fuller was one of the first people to realize that the Earth is not only a spaceship, but that it needs a crew. He was certainly one of the first pilots of the ship. Today, we need mission special- ists, payload specialists, citizen partici- pants, and more. Those who qualify are the human space program’s 29 Buzz Aldrin, Gemini XII, 1966. Credit: NASA Terranauts.” White uses the lexicon of graph shows the Earth as a full circle, sur- shuttle crew designations to describe a new way of being human on Earth: you way to think about how many humans rounded on all sides by the darkness of space.25 can be a payload specialist on spaceship “Spaceship Earth” could support. Earth! Anker points out that one of the first In 1974, James Lovelock and Lynn Margulis proposed the Gaia hypothesis, White also includes a section titled nonspecialists to popularize this way of “Gaia Hypothesis” in which he backcasts, thinking was R. Buckminster Fuller, who based on work Lovelock had done for NASA on developing a method for detect- claiming that Gaia “can be seen as a result in 1969 published his Operating Manual 30 ing the presence of life on Mars. Lovelock of the overview effect.” White uses for Spaceship Earth, in which he famous- Gaia to make the case for political action 24 believed that life could be detected on a ly proclaimed, “we are all astronauts.” in support of space science, noting that Fuller argued that techniques developed planetary scale by examining the composi- tion of a planet’s atmosphere for imbal- every part of a self-regulating system can for managing life in sealed space cabins effect the whole. Also, by claiming that his should be transferred and applied to glob- ances in the predicted mix of gases. This work on Mars led the pair to then turn and concept anachronistically influenced ally scaled environmental problems on Lovelock’s early work, White legitimizes Earth. postulate that Earth is also one giant self- regulating system or “superorganism,” the overview effect as “an outstanding spin Apollo astronauts supplied impor- 31 which works to maintain an equilibrium off from space research.” It is worth tant visual aids for thinking in this manner 26 reflecting further on the implications of when they took the first color photographs suitable for life-as-we-know-it. These artifacts reflect a historical Anker’s point that views of “the whole of the Earth from a significant distance out Earth” as a self-regulating “total system” in space. The “” photograph, moment in America where the promise of space science and technologies was cou- were products of Cold War projects. depicting a three-quarters-full Earth loom- Both the concept of “Spaceship ing over the edge of the Moon’s surface, pled with concerns about Soviet commu- nism, threatening technologies, population Earth” and the “Gaia hypothesis” are taken by the crew of Apollo 8 in December cybernetic visions of Earth as a closed sys- 1968, was the first in this new photograph- growth, and pollution. As Anker nicely points out, “building cabin-ecology sys- tem constantly undergoing processes of ic genre. However, the most famous was self-regulation. In “The Ontology of the “,” taken in 1972, as the tems for astronauts later served as models for the ecological remodeling of life on Enemy,” historian of science Peter Galison crew of Apollo 17 left the Moon at the cautions postmodern theorists about their close of the Apollo program. This photo- Earth,” including the design of fallout shelters and nuclear survival bunkers.27 use of the cyborg as a figure of liberation

Q U E S T 21:1 2014 42 www.spacehistory101.com from social categories by reminding the modification of the whole earth, does it ing teleological worldview, built around reader that the melding of human and make sense to relocate that image as the the idea that humans naturally belong in machine into a single closed system was at special sign of an anti-nuclear, anti-mili- outer space, and that there is a strong uni- first a military project, premised on politics taristic, Earth-focused politics. The reloca- versal imperative to get there soon. White of antagonism, violence, and death. Before tion does not cancel its other resonances; it believes that nothing short of the fate of the cyborg got its catchy name at a space contests for their outcome.”34 It is these humanity is at stake in political decisions medicine conference in 1960, the cybernet- other, older resonances—Galison’s “field to colonize space. ic organism emerged during World War II of meaning”—of the military industrial as a mathematical approximation of a cold, academic complex that first provided the The Limits of Astronaut calculating, enemy bomber pilot.32 Soon political impetus and material infrastruc- Self–Reporting after, the pilot’s nemesis, the allied anti-air- ture for the creation of ideas like “space- The main ingredients in White’s con- craft gunner, was similarly abstracted and ship Earth,” and the “Gaia hypothesis,” cept of the overview effect are stories told abducted into the loop of information and “The Blue Marble” photograph, that by astronauts who have flown on NASA or between scope, computer, and gun barrel. have been adopted wholesale into the Soviet/Russian space missions. White Galison reminds the reader that people overview effect. The implicit political assumes that because astronauts are care- who make ideas and artifacts imbue them argument here—that this way of experi- fully selected for their exemplary military, with politics that continually constrain and encing the Earth is “nature’s way”— scientific, or engineering backgrounds that shape all that is done with them, even if eclipses and discredits other ways of see- they must also always be reliable reporters; this effect slips out of everyday view. ing, experiencing, and thinking about the that their stories of subjective experiences Critiquing Haraway’s vision of the cyborg planet. Spaceship Earth is simply assumed are still objective observations and are ren- as an emancipatory figure, Galison points to be an American (or at the very least dered faithfully without any influencing 35 out that what was first a category of enemy “Western”) ship. factors. However, space psychologists at cannot simply be recast as the enemy of all White, who was educated at Harvard NASA and in academia have long worried categories. The specific historical circum- and Oxford, views spaceflight through a that sociological pressures within astronaut stance of any idea or artifact’s creation lens that is eerily similar to American man- culture routinely dissuade members of the imbues it with a “field of meaning” that has ifest destiny. But rather than America being corps from truthfully revealing to mental a kind of constricting momentum going destined to colonize the West, White health professionals (and presumably any- forward. Galison’s point about the check- argues that humanity is supposed to colo- one taking notes for a book) how they real- ered history of the cybernetic organism nize space: “The role frontiers play in soci- ly feel during . applies just as well to these “overview” ety’s evolution not only allows civilization Since the 1950s, aviation and space precursor concepts that figure the Earth as to expand outward into empty spaces, but psychologists have worried that test pilots 36 a sort of cybernetic planet. The military they also allow consolidation at home.” and astronauts habitually resist telling history of the cybernetic planet has been His monolithic regard for “civilization,” them (or anyone else) the truth about their eclipsed in a similar way as the figure of and the supposedly “empty spaces” that it emotions and feelings during missions for the cyborg. Beginning in the 1960s, ideas inevitably expands to fill, is evidence of a fear that any negative or abnormal reports like “the whole Earth perspective,” and lingering colonial worldview. He believes will result in being removed from flight- “the Earth as a superorganism” were that the overview effect is the universe ready status. In short, psychologists uncritically adopted and repurposed by confirming that western “civilization” is assume that a subtle “lie to fly” culture per- environmental and peace groups opposed the “best” form of human culture because sists, and that it influences what astronauts to the American military industrial aca- it was the first to develop technologies of will tell them. Ever since Deke Slayton 33 demic complex. The military origins spaceflight (supposedly a goal for humani- was bumped from a Project Mercury flight have slipped out of everyday view, but if ty set by the universe long ago). Western in 1962 for a having minor heart defect, all one tugs at the history of these concepts, culture is ethnocentrically assumed to be astronauts have known that their careers in connections to Cold War military politics the default logical social model to carry space depend on their continued presenta- emerge from the tangle. forward in an ever-expanding sphere of tion of perfect mental and physical health. With regard to “The Blue Marble” colonial activity in outer-space. Even as Rigid selection requirements and a grow- photograph, Haraway’s work on situated White tries to get readers to visualize ing pool of candidates means that astro- knowledges nicely shows us that the view humanity and the Earth as a total system nauts know that they are easily replace- of Earth from space is still a view from devoid of cultural barriers like political able.37 While physical abnormalities are somewhere, taken at some time, made pos- boarders, his ethnocentric assumption of hard to mask from biomedical detection, sible by a particular assemblage of certain cultural superiority and colonial-style mental feelings are harder defined, some- humans and machines. She writes, “the expansionist destiny permeates just below times impossible to detect, and therefore ‘whole Earth’, the lovely, cloud-wrapped, the surface of the entire overview philoso- easier to hide from investigators. blue, planet Earth… could only exist if a phy. In Choosing The Right Stuff: The camera on a satellite had taken the picture. For White, the overview effect is Psychological Selection of Astronauts and Only in the context of the space race in the more than a collection of stories, or a new Cosmonauts (1994), former NASA psy- first place, and the militarization and com- psychological phenomenon; it is a totaliz- chologist Patricia A. Santy discusses this

Q U E S T 21:1 2014 43 www.spacehistory101.com epistemic impasse in the mental manage- the popularization of such narrative types These reports prompted a focused study of ment of astronauts. “The expression of into a sort of self-fulfilling prophesy. the phenomenon by Brant Clark, a profes- emotions such as sadness or fear is consid- sor of psychology at San Jose State ered a weakness. The pilot/astronaut cul- The Break-Off Phenomenon College, and Ashton Graybiel, director of ture is overtly hostile to the expression of In the 1950s, American aviation and the Naval Aeromedical Institute at such problems—in themselves and others. space medicine experts working for the Pensacola, Florida, and later, part of 38 Denial is the name of the game.” To U.S. military became anxious about pilots NASA’s Project Mercury. The results of combat this, NASA has tried to promote a reporting quite different feelings at very their study were published in the April strict doctor-patient confidentiality among high altitudes. They called this diverse col- 1957 edition of The Journal of Aviation astronauts and space medicine experts, but lection of disconcerting pilot stories “the Medicine. despite these efforts there are always a break-off phenomenon.”43 By bringing For their study, they interviewed 137 number of well-known exceptions, like this historical concept into the conversa- naval and marine pilots about “break-off” how the expression of “any symptom or tion with the present-day overview effect, I by asking each if they had experienced “a condition [which] might negatively affect hope to show how in a different moment in feeling of physical separation from the safety of flight” can lead to a permanent time, a different group of data gatherers Earth when piloting an aircraft at high alti- 39 46 desk job. To this point, one of the con- looked at a similar situation, but reached tude.” They found that 48 of the 137 clusions reached by the expert panel that different conclusions about what it might pilots (35 percent) had personally experi- authored Safe Passage: Astronaut Care for mean to see the Earth from high up above. enced feelings like this. However, due to Exploration Missions (2001), a report pub- I hope the comparison will suggest, at a the same self-reporting problem discussed lished by the Institute of Medicine on the general level, that human feelings at very above, the pair of researchers guessed that state and future directions of space medi- high altitudes vary across people and cul- some held back despite promises of cine and psychology, was that “implica- tures, and change over time. While these anonymity, noting that many answered that tions regarding disclosure and use of clini- pilots were not traveling into outer space, it was a “very personal” experience, and 47 cal data may have led to the underreporting they were viewing the Earth from very “not the sort of thing flyers talk about.” 40 of relevant information”. high altitudes, and in fact, in the opening They concluded that the break-off Writing in Psychology and Space paragraph of The Overview Effect, White phenomena, like the onset of anoxia, pre- Exploration: Contemporary Research in claims that “anyone who flies in an air- sented itself in slightly different ways in Historical Perspective (2011), Albert A. plane has an opportunity to experience a each case. However, they were able to Harrison and Edna Fiedler observe that mild version of [the overview effect].”44 offer a qualified generalization: “Those “Astronauts remain sensitive to possible In the 1950s, the nascent field of pilots who experienced it characterized the threats to flight assignments and careers,” space medicine (the preventative medical break-off effect as a feeling of being isolat- and that this has been an enduring obstacle practice of selecting and protecting ed, detached, or separated physically from to psychological research on, and psychi- humans sent to outerspace) was a purely the Earth. They perceived themselves as 41 atric support for astronauts. This prob- speculative exercise investigating a num- somehow losing their connection with the 48 lem remains so acute that psychologists are ber of analog situations to model different world.” Here are three samples of the developing “a computer-interactive video aspects of future human spaceflights. anonymous pilot tales that Clark and countermeasure technology for the preven- Because many early space medicine Graybiel grouped together under the tion and treatment of depression,” so that experts came to the field via careers in mil- break-off phenomenon: astronauts can access mental health advice itary aviation medicine, test-pilot popula- anonymously while in space, ostensibly tions were most often used as analogs for Pilot 1: “It seems so peaceful; it seems without the knowledge of flight surgeons future astronauts. In the United States, like you are in another world… I feel 42 back in mission control. white, male, Christian, military test pilots like I have broken the bonds of the ter- 49 Clearly there exists a systemic were the only humans permitted to fly restrial sphere.” incentive for astronauts to not report or at experimental planes on experimental flight least to underreport negative feelings (such paths, and this took them to very high alti- Pilot 2: “He feels alone, light, remote, as anxiety, stress, fear, or loneliness) on tudes. Space medicine experts predicted and insecure. He is unhappy until he their return to Earth. This has serious that astronauts would face many of the gets to a lower altitude. He feels the implications for the evidence at the core of same mental and physical problems during need to have an important objective to 50 White’s concept of the overview effect. If spaceflight, and so took test pilots up as take his mind off of it.” astronauts are encouraged to only report objects of investigation. positive experiences, then of course it will In 1956, aviation medicine experts Pilot 3: “You do have a feeling of appear to a data gatherer such as White that conducting a routine survey of naval pilots loneliness…It’s very lonely alone at space is the sure-fire transformative expe- reported hearing about something new that high-altitude. I’d rather fly at 20,000 rience that he hopes it will be. But this pat- the pilots themselves had labeled “break- or 25,000 feet…at 44,000 feet you are 51 tern, or, “realization all of the astronauts off.” This was defined as “a feeling of pretty lonely up there.” have,” may be the result of skewed and physical separation from the Earth when Despite noting differences in the sto- biased self-reporting, now reinforced by piloting an aircraft at high altitude.”45 ries and experiences, the researchers con- Q U E S T 21:1 2014 44 www.spacehistory101.com cluded that the break-off phenomenon was break-off phenomenon to some of the the break-off phenomenon represents an “a clearly defined…condition of spatial strange mental states reported by experi- idea that is currently displaced by White’s orientation in which the pilot conceives ments in sensory deprivation conducted by positive conversion narrative. Few remem- himself to be isolated, detached, and phys- J. P. Henry and John C. Lilly.57 ber a time when looking at the Earth from ically separated from the Earth..”52 In 1965, another “exploratory study” very high altitudes was sometimes very Another study, this time of Italian jet into the break-off phenomenon was con- scary, and fostered feelings of disconnec- pilots, was conducted by T. Lomonaco in ducted at the Pensacola Naval School of tion rather than feelings of human unity 1958 and found that 52 of 388 (13 percent) Aviation Medicine, this time by base psy- and communion with a newly revealed inter viewees reported experiencing break- chiatrist John A. Sours. During a period of “whole Earth.” Pilots frequently reported off as defined by Clark and Graybiel. In six months, Sours surveyed all naval and feeling more connected to outer space or 1958, U.S. Air Force space medicine marine pilots who (for various reasons) their vehicle than to any sort of pan- expert David G. Simons, spoke about received psychiatric evaluations, about human, or total-Earth system. It remains experiencing the break-off phenomenon whether or not they had also experienced quite possible that some astronauts have during one of his experimental high-alti- the break-off phenomenon. Out of 37 had disturbing or negative feelings in orbit tude balloon flights (Manhigh II) in pilots, seven reported experiencing “break- similar to the break-off phenomenon, but August 1957, as part of the First off” before experiencing more intense felt unwilling or unable to report them. International Symposium on Submarine “signs and symptoms of a psychiatric dis- This will likely remain the case unless and Space Medicine.53 Simons noted that order.”58 Sours concluded that feelings of steps are taken to change the nature of he did not experience the effect during his “break-off” can be an early indication of astronaut and astronaut management cul- ground-based, 24-hour claustrophobia test, future “acute anxiety attacks,” which could ture. but during the day-long flight that took build up to a “fear of flying reaction.”59 It The break-off phenomenon also him above 100,000 feet, he experienced is interesting to note that despite the very serves as a reminder that the human expe- feelings he interpreted as break-off at four small sample size, Sours found great diver- riences of environments are never fixed, different times, in four slightly different sity in the reports of “break-off”: “the pre- and are never the same for everyone. Data ways. dominant findings were affective, either gatherers working in military aviation and arousal or exhilaration resulting in a desire space medicine recorded a wide array of I experienced a sense of detach- to fly higher or faster; or, on the other feelings that they tried to group together as ment from the Earth at four different hand, reduced awareness, apprehension, or “the break-off phenomenon” for practical times. The first was before sunset when frank anxiety associated with feelings of purposes. Unlike the overview effect, they the cloud formations gave a “cliff” detachment, isolation, or physical separa- were never seen as conversion narratives effect which provided a frame of refer- tion.”60 or expanded into a grand vision of human- ence that helped to emphasize the true The final study of the break-off phe- ity. The earlier work of these military sci- vertical distances involved…during nomenon appeared in the Journal of entists demonstrates how human feelings the night I felt in much closer contact Aviation Medicine in 1973. This study, in extreme environments can be studied with the stars and space above than I conducted by A. J. Benson at the Royal Air without scaling up to a grand narrative did with the beautiful, but remote, Force Institute of Aviation Medicine in about universal human purpose. It is also a clouds below.54 Farnborough, England, surveyed aircrew reminder of the military origins of this sent in for clinical assessment after experi- field of concern (how does going to high Simons makes the case that break- encing “disorientation in flight.”61 Out of altitudes affect human consciousness?) off can happen during balloon flights to 78 pilots, 29 described “incidents in which that White enters into in the 1980s. While very high altitudes and that the phenome- they experienced feelings of unreality and the overview effect has been interpreted as non is not specific to powered flight. He detachment.”62 He concluded that the a reason to be hopeful and bold, the reiterates and amplifies Clark and effect was still “inadequately understood” breakoff phenomenon was taken to signal Graybiel’s anxiety that this effect could but not “a serious threat to flying person- caution, if anything. The break-off phe- cost the military men and machines. nel.”63 nomenon also illustrates the root problem Frozen in a “break-off” moment, operators After this, the term “break-off phe- of pilot self-reporting in a culture of mas- would be in a state “equivalent to sleep or nomenon” disappears from aviation and culine peer-pressure and career anxieties, a state of reversible self-hypnosis, preclud- space medicine literature. No NASA astro- now seen as affecting astronauts by those ing useful activity.”55 From a Cold War nauts ever reported experiencing the charged with assessing their mental health. military perspective, when seconds count- break-off phenomenon during a space- ed more than ever, these strange feelings flight, but it is important to note that at Conclusion could compromise the human factor at a present this is impossible to know for sure, In Alien Ocean (2009), Stefan critical moment. Simons saw potential because of the fact that starting in 1961, Helmreich argues that the ocean is both a problems for NASA: “In spaceflight, soli- NASA greatly restricted the access of psy- natural and cultural object that changes tude, monotony, and generally reduced chologists and psychiatrists to astro- throughout time in the minds of the differ- 64 variety and intensity of sensory stimula- nauts. ent humans who think about it and interact 56 tion, must be expected.” He likens the In the context of the overview effect, with it. He argues that views of the ocean

Q U E S T 21:1 2014 45 www.spacehistory101.com have radically changed, depending on who References Pyne, Stephen J. “Born Again Space was looking at the ocean, for what reason, Anker, Peder. “The Ecological Travel.” Futures [April 1989]: 218-219. and in which cultural context.65 For Colonization of Space.” Environmental Helmreich, the ocean is “a material thing History 10: 2 [April 2005]: 239-268. Robinson, Julie A.; Kelley J. Slack, Valerie that becomes meaningful only through per- A. Olsen, Michael H. Trenchard, Kimberly ception, belief and action.” I think the Benson, A. J. “Spatial Disorientation and J. Willis, Pamela J. Baskin, and Jennifer E. overview effect (the effect of seeing the the ‘Break-Off’ Phenomenon.” The Boyd. “Patterns in Crew Initiated Earth from very high altitudes) is also both Journal of Aerospace Medicine [August Photography of Earth from the ISS—Is a natural and cultural object. It is this cul- 1973]: 944-952. a Salutogenic tural valence that has been rendered invisi- Experience?” Psychology of Space ble by claims that the effect is simply the Bryant, William Harold. “Whole system, Exploration: Contemporary Research in result of “nature” affirming culture. This whole earth: the convergence of technology Historical Perspective. Editor, Douglas A. paper has presented three historical data and ecology in twentieth-century American Vakoch. Washington DC, NASA History sets that complicate simple claims to nature culture.” PhD dissertation, University of Series [2011]. for the overview effect. The military roots Iowa, 2006. of three foundational concepts: Spaceship Safe Passage: Astronaut Care for Earth, the “Blue Marble,” and Gaia reveal Buckminster Fuller, Richard. Operating Exploration Missions. Washington DC, the implicit cultural bias present in Manual for Spaceship Earth.. Lars Müller National Academy Press [2001]. overview. The history of space psychology Publishers [2008]. provides reason to doubt the veracity of Sandal, Gro Mjeldheim and Gloria R. astronaut self-reporting, and suggests how Clark, Brant and Ashton Graybiel. “The Leon. “From the Past to the Future”; this standard “conversion narrative” has Break-Off Phenomenon: A Feeling of Psychology of Space Exploration: become a self-fulfilling prophesy. Finally, Separation from the Earth Experienced by Contemporary Research in Historical the history of aviation and space medicine Pilots at High Altitude.” The Journal of Perspective. Editor, Douglas A. Vakoch. reveals an early alternative to the overview Aviation Medicine 28:2 [April 1957]: 121- NASA History Series [2011]. effect called “the break-off” phenomenon, 126. where pilots reported feeling depressed, Santy, Patricia A. Choosing The Right Stuff: anxious, and separated from the Earth Clinton, William J. “Opening Remarks at The Psychological Selection of Astronauts when at high altitudes. Together, these the White House Conference on Climate and Cosmonauts. Praeger [1994]. selections from the archive suggest that the Change.” 6 October 1997. Online by view of the Earth from outer space includes Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The Simons, David G. “The Break-Off a reflection of how people see themselves. American Presidency Project. http:// Phenomenon During Balloon Flight in the This historical and reflexive perspective www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=53350 Stratosphere.” Environmental Effects on should be appended to the current discus- Consciousness. Editor, Karl E. Schaefer. sions about how the overview effect will Galison, Peter. “The Ontology of the The Macmillan Company [1958]. influence future spacecraft design, crew Enemy.” Critical Inquiry [Autumn 1994]: selection, and mission planning. 228-266. Sours, John A. “The ‘Break-Off’ Phenomenon: A Precipitant of Anxiety in About the Author Hacking, Ian. “Making Up People.” Jet Aviators.” Archives of General Jordan Bimm is a fourth-year PhD student Historical Ontologies. Harvard University Psychiatry, 13. [November 1965}: 447- at York University’s Graduate Program in Press [2002]: 99-114. 456. Science and Technology Studies (STS) in Toronto, Canada. His forthcoming disser- Haraway, Donna. “A Regenerative Politics “The Overview Institute” http://www. tation focuses on the construction of the for Inappropriated Others.” The Haraway overviewinstitute.org/index.htm American astronaut during the 1950s by Reader. Routledge [2004]. tracing the development of astronaut selec- White, Frank. The Overview Effect: Space tion requirements between a host of related Harrison, Albert A and Edna Fiedler. Exploration and Human Evolution. (second fields including space medicine, space psy- “Behavioural Health.” Psychology of Space edition. American Institute of Aeronautics chology, and human factors engineering. Exploration: Contemporary Research in and Astronautics Inc. [1998]. This research has also led to studies of Historical Perspective. Editor, Douglas A. space medicine’s connections with animal Vakoch. Washington DC, NASA History testing, sports medicine, and mountaineer- Series [2011]. ing, as well as space medicine’s influence on early astrobiology studies. Livingstone, David. The Space Show #732 (aired 17 June 2007); audio recording. http://archive.thespaceshow.com/shows/73 2-BWB-2007-06-17.mp3

Q U E S T 21:1 2014 46 www.spacehistory101.com Notes 19. The Space Show (17 June 2007): 1970s. As the plane flew north of http://archive.thespaceshow.com/shows/7 Washington D.C. I found myself looking down 1. Robinson et al., 79. 32-BWB-2007-06-17.mp3 at the Capitol Building and Washington Monument. From thirty thousand feet they 2. You can watch the short film Overview 20. http://www.overviewinstitute.org/ looked like little toys sparkling in the sun- at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v= AlanLadwig-bio.htm shine.” CHMIfOecrlo 21. http://www.overviewinstitute.org/ 45. Clark and Graybiel, 121. 3. Clinton, 1295. RayIdaszak-bio.htm 46. Clark and Graybiel, 121. 4. Harrison and Fiedler, 29. 22. http://www.overviewinstitute.org/ 47 Clark and Graybiel, 122. One pilot 5. White, 259. As Loren Acton (STS 51-F) LorettaWhitesides-bio.htm responded, “You don’t discuss things like notes in his interview with White (pp. 259): “I 23. Anker, 239. this.” went up expecting that experience, and I had it.” 24. Buckminster Fuller, 10. 48. Clark and Graybiel, 122. 6. http://www.overviewinstitute.org 25. Anker, 246. 49. Clark and Graybiel, 122. 7. The Space Show (17 June 2007): 26. Anker, 246. 50. Clark and Graybiel, 122. http://archive.thespaceshow.com/shows/7 27. Anker, 259. 51. Clark and Graybiel, 123. 32-BWB-2007-06-17.mp3 28. White, 89. 52. Clark and Graybiel, 124. 8. White, 230. Interview occurred 11 July 1986, in Ottawa after his first spaceflight. 29. White, 169. 53. The symposium’s papers were collected 30. White, 87. in the volume, Environmental Effects on 9. White, 277. Interview occurred 14 Consciousness (1958) Karl E. Schaffer, edi- August 1997 in Boston after his spaceflight. 31. White, 87. tor. 10. White, 248. Interview occurred 23 July 32. Galison, 233. 54. Simons, 90-91. 1986. Garn was a sitting Republican senator from Utah at the time of his spaceflight, and 33. These groups included antinuclear prolif- 55. Simons, 92. eration groups, the environmental move- had previously served in the Navy as a jet 56. Simons, 92. pilot. ment, and other counterculture groups. For a rich history of this connection, see Bryant’s 57. It is interesting to note that the next 11. White, 174. 2006 dissertation, “Whole system, whole chapter after Simons in the volume is “The 12. White, 174. earth: the convergence of technology and Effect of Sensory Deprivation on ecology in twentieth-century American cul- Consciousness” by John C. Lilly. 13. White, 171. ture.” 58. Sours, 455. 14. It is interesting to contrast White’s infer- 34. Haraway, 97. ence that reports of mental benefits imply 59. Sours, 448. 35. Here I paraphrase anthropologist Stefan positive feedback from “the universe”, with 60. Sours, 452. the many physiological problems like vision Helmreich’s line in Alien Ocean, “the degradation and muscle atrophy (not to men- acronym for the National Oceanographic and 61. Benson, 944. Atmospheric Administration—NOAA (pro- tion the lack of atmosphere and abundance 62. Benson, 944. of radiation) which, by this logic, would seem nounced “Noah”) suggests that Spaceship to signal “negative feedback” that humans Earth is an ark and the United States its stew- 63. Benson, 944. do not belong in outer-space. ard” [12]. 64. Santy, xvii. 15. Here, White’s ontology of the “Terranaut” 36. White, 109. 65. Helmreich. For example, Helmreich is notably in opposition to Ian Hacking’s con- 37. This was also evidenced by the last- shows how in 19th century America, whales cept of dynamic nominalism—that types of minute replacement of CSM pilot Ken were emblematic of the ocean conceived as people are social creations—White argues Mattingly with alternate Jack Swigert only two a site for work, trade, and natural history, but that “Terranauts” is a timeless category: “like days before the launch of Apollo 13. by the twentieth century this had shifted to the human space program, the Terranaut has the figure of the dolphin, which was associat- 38. Santy, 69. always been there, unrecognized, without a ed with communication, intelligence, and label.” For Hacking’s concept of dynamic 39. Safe Passage, 177. environmental science. Helmreich argues nominalism (“that numerous kinds of human that in the twenty-first century the emblem of 40. Safe Passage, 187. beings and human acts come into being the ocean in western culture has become the hand in hand with our invention of the cate- 41. Harrison and Fiedler, 45. microbe, which paradoxically stands for both gories labeling them.”) see his chapter 42. Sandal and Leon, 202. the genetic origin of life and the ultimate “Making Up People” in Historical Ontologies alien other. (2004). 43. Clark and Graybiel, 121. 16. White, 169. 44. White, 3. White recalls having an air- borne experience of the effect: “My effort to 17. Pyne, 219. confirm the reality of the overview effect had 18. Pyne, 219. its origins in a cross-country flight in the late

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