Societal Impact of Spaceflight

Steven J. Dick, Roger D. Launius

National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Office of External Relations, History Division, 2007 - Business & Economics - 680 pages

Since the dawn of spaceflight, advocates of a robust space effort have argued that human activity beyond Earth makes a significant difference in everyday life. Assertions abound about the "impact" of spaceflight on society and its relationship to the larger contours of human existence. Fifty years after the Space Age began, it is time to examine the effects of spaceflight on society in a historically rigorous way. Has the Space Age indeed had a significant effect on society? If so, what are those influences? What do we mean by an "impact" on society? And what parts of society? Conversely, has society had any effect on spaceflight? What would be different had there been no Space Age? The purpose of this volume is to examine these and related questions through scholarly research, making use especially of the tools of the historian and the broader social sciences and humanities. Herein a stellar array of scholars does just that, and arrives at sometimes surprising conclusions.

Contents

• Has Spaceflight Had an Impact on Society? An Interpretative: 3
• What Are Turning Points in History and What Were They: 19
• In Search of a Red Cosmos Space Exploration Public: 41
• Live from the Moon The Societal Impact of Apollo: 53
• Framing the Meanings of Spaceflight in the Shuttle: 67
• Space in the PostCold War Environment: 89
• The Taikonaut as Icon The Cultural and Political Significance: 103
• COMMERCIAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACT: 119
• The Political Economy of SpaceflightStephen B Johnson: 141
• The Role of Space Development in Globalization: 193
• NASA as an Instrument of U S Foreign Policy: 207
• Impacted the Food Industry and Changed Food Safety Standards: 219
• SatellitesHenry R Hertzfeld and Ray A Williamson: 237
• Satellites and Security Space in Service to Humanity: 267
• For All Mankind Societal Impacts of Applications Satellites: 289
• NASA and the Environment Science in a Political Context: 313
• NAVSTAR the Global Positioning System A Sampling: 331
• DualUse as Unintended Policy Driver The American: 353
• Reconnaissance Satellites Intelligence and National: 369
• Space History from the Bottom Up Using Social History: 387
• Space Science Education in the United States The Good: 407
• NASA in the Nixon Era and Beyond Kim McQuaid: 421
• Economic and Social Impact of the Space Agency on the Southeast: 451
• Peter J Westwick: 467
• Overview Ideology Advocacy and Spaceflight Evolution: 483
• Spaceflight and Popular Culture Ron Miller: 501
• Making Spaceflight Modern A Cultural History of: 513
• CSETI as Fiction On James Gunns The Listeners: 539
• Reclaiming the Future Space Advocacy and the Idea: 555
• Space Activism as an Epiphanic Belief System: 573
• Flights of Fancy Outer Space and the European Imagination: 585
• Are We a Spacefaring Species? Acknowledging: 603
• Production and Culture Together Or Space History: 615
• ABOUT THE AUTHORS: 631
• THE NASA HISTORY SERIES: 649
• INDEX: 659

Bibliographic information

• Title: Societal Impact of Spaceflight; The NASA history series
• Editors: Steven J. Dick, Roger D. Launius
• Publisher: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Office of External Relations, History Division, 2007
• Original from: Purdue University
• Digitized: Jun 6, 2022
• ISBN: 0160801907, 9780160801907
• Length: 680 pages
• Subjects: Business & Economics / Reference; Science / Physics / Astrophysics; Social Science / General; Technology & Engineering / Aeronautics & Astronautics