Spaceflight in the Shuttle Era and Beyond: Redefining Humanity’s Purpose in Space

295 Pages·2017·3.632 MB·English

by  Valerie Neal

Spacefl ight in the Shuttle Era and Beyond
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Spacefl ight in
the Shuttle Era
and Beyond
Redefi ning
Humanity’s
Purpose in Space
Valerie Neal
| new haven and london
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Yale University Press, in association with the Smithsonian National Air and Space
Museum.
Copyright © 2017 by the Smithsonian Institution.
All rights reserved.
Th is book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, including illustrations, in any
form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright
Law and except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from
the publishers.
Yale University Press books may be purchased in quantity for educational, business, or
promotional use. For information, please e-mail [email protected] (U.S. offi ce) or
[email protected] (U.K. offi ce).
Set in Adobe Garamond and Th e Sans types by Newgen North America.
Printed in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016957558
isbn 978-0-300-20651-7 (hardcover : alk. paper)
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Th is paper meets the requirements of ansi/niso z39.48–1992 (Permanence of Paper).
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To my son
Bryan Guido Hassin
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Contents
Preface, ix
Acknowledgments, xi
Introduction, 1
1 Spacefl ight: Discerning Its Meaning, 7
2 Space Shuttle: Going to Work in Space, 36
3 Astronauts: Reinventing the Right Stuff , 63
4 Science: Doing Research in Space, 99
5 Space Station: Campaigning for a Permanent Human
Presence in Space, 134
6 Plans: Envisioning the Future in Space, 163
7 Memory: Preserving Meaning, 191
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viii Contents
Notes, 217
Index, 259
Color plates follow page 80
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Preface
A book on spacefl ight began to form in my mind when the space
shuttle and my career launched simultaneously; my professional life spans the
shuttle era. For thirty-plus years, I have worked in various roles on the periph-
ery of the ambitious endeavor of human spacefl ight. What has that meant? Th e
question is both biographical and cultural. Th is book is my eff ort to discern the
cultural meaning of human spacefl ight—its formation and transformations—in
this era.
I completed graduate school in interdisciplinary American studies in the
1970s under the infl uence of the “myth and symbol” tradition of intellectual
and cultural history. Th is approach to American culture through the humani-
ties analyzed the history of ideas and their synthesis in literature and the arts
to illuminate broad themes in American experience and thought. From the
social sciences and history of science came other intellectually fertile concepts
for understanding how meaning is created, understood, codifi ed, and modifi ed;
“paradigm shifts,” “social construction,” “framing,” and “imaginaries” entered
the scholarly lexicon. Innovative scholarship and analytical trends in humani-
ties and social sciences research continue to invigorate the study of American
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