Remembering the Space Age. - Black Vault Radio Network (BVRN)

118 reMeMBerING the SpaCe aGe
regrettably, none of the books examined in this essay said much of
anything about China’s space program. Given that Zhao’s book was published
in 2004, one might think that at least his book would have done so. In an
e-mail to professor “Sam” Zhao at the University of Denver, I asked how
he would apply the thesis of his book to the recent history of China’s space
program, particularly its recent achievements and present ambitions for human
spacefight. Zhao answered my inquiry: “China develops its space program
because it sees the program as refecting its comprehensive national strength
and is an indication of China’s growing levels of science and technology. the
human spacefight program will enhance China’s international prestige and
status and increase the ninjiu li, or ‘cohesiveness,’ of the Chinese people and
the nationalist credential of the government domestically. also, it will position
China in the future competition for outer space resources.” 18
although interesting and concise, Zhao’s response was not very satisfying, as
there must be more to deconstruct about the political,social,and cultural meanings
of the Chinese human spacefight program than his response suggested—certainly
much more given how space exploration has been capturing the popular imagination
in China since their frst human spacefight in Shenzhou V in 2003.
In a provocative 1997 book entitled Space and the American Imagination
(Smithsonian Institution press), american University political science professor
howard McCurdy delved deeply into the relationship of american space
exploration to the larger U.S. popular culture. adopting a cultural studies type
approach, McCurdy showed how visions of the inevitability of human space
exploration arising from ideas and imagery in popular science and science fction
connected in powerful ways to preexisting mythologies in american culture, most
notably the myth of “the frontier.”this public perception of space exploration as it
boiled and bubbled in the 1950s and 1960s infuenced the decisions of american
policymakers to pursue exploration, and to pursue it via human spacefight, which
was the predominant vision to capture the popular imagination, rather than going
with the often cheaper, perhaps more scientifcally justifable and technologically
sophisticated unmanned programs.Without this tight linkage between reality and
imagination, McCurdy concluded, the apollo lunar landings would surely not
have even been tried, let alone accomplished so quickly.
What was true for the american experience in terms of dynamic linkages
between reality and imagination must also be true, in similar yet distinct
fashions, for other national cultures. another outstanding example of such a
study into the culture of spacefight rests in the scholarship of historian Michael
Neufeld, particularly his 1990 article in the journal Technology and Culture,
“Weimar Culture and Futuristic technology: the rocketry and Spacefight
Fad in Germany, 1923-1933,” which analyzed how the enthusiasms of German
18. e-mail, Suisheng “Sam” Zhao to author, June 2, 2007.