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

Far OUt: the SpaCe age IN aMerICaN CUltUre
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In cooperation with NaSa, the Science Committee in the house of
representatives, beginning in 1960, published “the practical Values of Space
exploration,” a series of frequently updated studies that detailed productive
new spinofs (a NaSa-coined word) from the space program. a few of the
most celebrated included miniaturized electronics, spray-on foam insulation,
microwaves, freeze-dried dinners, and tefon. Magazines often featured
these down-to-earth bonuses from the space program, and perhaps left the
misleading impression that robust consumer innovation ultimately depended
on governmental expenditures in space. 38
NaSa’s Ofce of public afairs also used flm to publicize NaSa activities,
taking advantage of NaSa’s advanced satellite imagery from research facilities
and space fight centers around the country. Some of the most widely viewed
titles from the frst two Space age decades included The John Glenn Story (1963),
a flm biography; Assignment Shoot the Moon (1967); America in Space—the First
Decade (1968), a history of NaSa; The Eagle Has Landed (1969), on the manned
lunar landing; Who’s Out There? (1975), on the possibility of extraterrestrial
life; and Planet Mars (1979). these flms (some award-winning for their cinema
graphic technique), in addition to rich photographic collections, provided
then, and preserve now, a stirring visual record of space program history. the
National archives currently holds 250 “headquarters Films” made between
1962 and 1981. 39
hollywood-produced flms also found a congenial partner in NaSa.
Movies flmed at the space centers included Apollo 13, Contact, Space Cowboys,
Armageddon, The Right Stuf, the 12-part hBO series From Earth to the Moon, and
a variety of other tV special productions.
the visitors’ centers at the Kennedy and Johnson Space Centers likewise
worked with the media. teague had pushed NaSa to construct visitors’ centers,
providing money for them in the federal budget. he argued that public support
was essential to sustaining NaSa’s appropriations, and he understood the
tourist potential of space exploration. the centers quickly proved to be popular
destinations, with the one at the Kennedy Center topping one million visitors
in 1969. 40 the centers also hosted many foreign visitors and dignitaries, thereby
serving the Cold War purpose of exemplifying the United States as a country of
great prosperity, amazing technological achievement, and unparalleled power over
heavens and earth. In 1966, Congress authorized construction of the National
air and Space Museum, which became one of the most popular destinations on
the National Mall and sponsored programs that attracted media attention.
38. house Committee on Science and technology, Toward the Endless Frontier,“ p. 173; Mark e.
Byrnes, Politics and Space: Image Making by NASA (Westport, Ct: praeger, 1994), p. 101.
39. NaSa history of Space Flight Motion pictures, http://video.google.com/nara.html (accessed
September 15, 2007).
40. house Committee on Science and technology, Toward the Endless Frontier, pp. 177-178.