![]() As Steven Weinberg, a Nobel Prize winning particle physicist at the University of Texas, has recently put it, “human beings don’t serve any useful function in space. Manned missions are extremely expensive and the scientific gains are quite slight. ![]() They may well not, for example, result in better scientific knowledge. If the finances are to stay in the United States, for example, should they not be directed to health care for the least well off?Īnd it is not at all clear that these levels of spending are worthwhile even on their own terms. Public spending on this scale could assist in resolving some of the most pressing needs on earth. Huge expenditures of this kind allocated to new publicly funded projects in space demonstrate that the real winners are not the whole of a nation but what Eisenhower in 1961 called the “military-industrial complex” and what some observers now call the “military-industrial- space complex.” The shareholders of the large aerospace companies are certainly benefiting but it is not at all clear that their interests are identical with the American nation as a whole. When the latter company was awarded an $8.15 billion contract as part of this initiative, its shares predictably rose 7 percent during the five weeks following NASA’s announcement. Northrop Grumman, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin are among those competing for the right to build parts of this program. The cost of the total moon and Mars program has been set at $104 billion, with $12 billion being spent in the first five years. Winners, Losers, and Scientific Exploration This would be the site of permanent bases. One indication of possible things to come is President Bush’s 2004 announcement of a plan for the United States not only to return to the moon but to use it as a stepping stone toward a manned visit to Mars around 2030. (Though it could equally be used for assessing the economic value of asteroids.) But manned flight is now set to resume. This project may contribute to an understanding of how the solar system was formed. The most recent is NASA’s $300 million Dawn Project studying asteroids. And there have since been a number of unmanned missions reinforcing this view. The success of the Apollo 11 Mission is often used to celebrate America’s continuing triumph in the space race. In 1969 the Apollo astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin finally walked on the moon and, on their return, President Nixon announced that “this is the greatest week in the history of the world since the Creation.” In 1961 NASA approved the funds requested by President Kennedy for a manned mission to the moon. Congress created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. But spurred on by these developments and their military implications, the U.S. ![]() The conventional account says that the Soviet Union had an early lead but the United States eventually “won.” In 1961 Yuri Gagarin made a single orbit around the earth and in 1963 the Soviets launched two more cosmonauts: Valentina Tereshkova (the first woman in space) and Valeri Bykovsky. ![]() It is the rich and powerful who are doing the winning. Above all, the focus on nations “winning” or “losing” needs to be rejected. Usually it is argued that the United States unproblematically “won.” But this is a very simplistic picture and one that should be challenged. Last October’s anniversary of the launch of the Sputnik artificial satellite has led to much discussion as to who won the space race. This article is based on the authors’ recent book, Cosmic Society: Towards a Sociology of the Universe (Routledge, 2007). He has an interest in social movements and in the relationship between human beings and the universe. James Ormrod is a lecturer in sociology in the School of Applied Social Science, University of Brighton, UK. Peter Dickens is an environmental sociologist working in the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. ![]()
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