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

“the ‘rIGht’ StUFF: the reaGaN revOLUtION
aND the U.S. SpaCe prOGraM”
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of the Old West, space was where new resources and new business opportunities
abounded, and where there were no limits save those of the imagination.
another spokesperson for the conservative space agenda, James a. M. Muncy,
Chairman of the Space Frontier Foundation, explained that “space is a natural
extension of the earth’s frontiers, and that opening space to human enterprise
and settlement is a unique american response to some liberals’ calls for limits
to growth as a rationale for ever-more-powerful statism.” 12
Implicit in Gingrich’s writings is an enthusiasm for technological progress
that went hand in hand with an intrinsic disdain for the idea of limits to growth
and the associated notions of a future of lowered expectations and the need for
state control and planning, all of which Gingrich attributed to liberalism. 13
In Gingrich’s mind, which drew upon both futurology and science fction,
technology would take the lead in solving certain social issues. “Breakthroughs
in computers, biology, and space,” he declared, “make possible new jobs, new
opportunities, and new hope on a scale unimagined since Christopher Columbus
discovered a new world.” 14 technology and space were a fundamental part of the
american ethos, the frontier spirit. In this future world driven by the frontier
spirit and technological progress, the handicapped would no longer depend
on welfare, having found gainful (tax revenue-generating) employment thanks
to new technologies—“compassionate high tech”—and scientifc discoveries.
essentially, the compassionate high tech position held that the beneft of
investing in commercial and military space technology (in fulfllment of the
conservative space agenda) would “trickle down” to earth and lighten, if not
resolve, the need for social welfare in a technology-oriented version of what
came to be known as “trickle down economics.” 15
In order to turn this futuristic vision into reality, Gingrich proposed
raising NaSa’s budget to its historic apollo-era high and endorsed (as president
reagan did) both the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station. NaSa’s
budget was way too small, he argued; the agency’s annual budget would run
the Defense Department for only 11 days or health and human Services for
only 8 days. Over 30 corporations—including such NaSa contractors as rCa,
General electric, IBM, Westinghouse, and Western electric—were larger
than NaSa. Gingrich saw nothing inconsistent with being a conservative and
12. Muncy, “after the Deluge: What the GOp takeover Could Mean for Space,” opinion piece
written for Space News, published as Muncy, “after the republican Deluge,” Space News, 4, 51
(December 19-25, 1994): 4, fax copy, folder 644, box 22, X-33 archive, record Group 255,
National archives and records administration, Suitland, Maryland (hereafter, X-33 archive).
13. Newt Gingrich and James a. M. Muncy, “Space: the New Frontier,” in Future 21: Directions for
America in the 21st Century, eds. paul M. Weyrich and Connaught Marshner, (Greenwich, CN:
Devin-adair, 1984), p. 61.
14. Gingrich and Muncy, 62; Gingrich, Window of Opportunity: A Blueprint for the Future (New
York, NY: tom Doherty associates, Inc., 1984), ix; Muncy, interview, 67.
15. Gingrich, 1, 7-9, 10, 27, 46, 49-50, 52, & 65-66.