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

172 reMeMBerINg the SpaCe age
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a clear synergy developed between the space program and the highly
competitive world of image-based media. NaSa projected itself to be an agency
involved in science and technology, but it proved also to be skilled at imagemaking
and public relations. Sensational stories generated by human-piloted
fights meant publicity for NaSa, larger audiences for the media networks, and
positive projections of america’s power in the Cold War world. Many of the
themes that had structured both popular science fction and popular western
tales echoed in the Media age’s presentation of the space race: danger, heroism,
competition, suspense, and problems overcome through ingenuity. Yet the
dramas that played out at Cape Canaveral and houston, as exciting as fction,
had the added attraction of being “real.” the spectacularity of the space race
helped sustain the older print-pictorial media, pioneered a compelling early
version of “reality tV,” and proved attractive to flmmakers and space center
visitors. and this fast-changing and competitive media environment, in turn,
boosted the visual spectacularity of the Space age.
3. the teChNetrONIC age: teChNOCraCY
aNd SpaCeShIp earth
the complexity of research and development in the Space age raised
moral and practical questions. how might new technologies change life and
politics? how might people manage the interrelated systems that comprised
the planet earth within its solar system? Issues about technology and global
management were not new to the Space age, but the rapidity of scientifc and
technological change made them seem more urgent. Moreover, the penetration
of space, by helping to focus attention on earth’s future, provided new terrain
for reimagining age-old concerns about the ultimate fate of humans and their
planet. “technocracy” and “Spaceship earth” became key words in Space ageera
discussions.
although a technocracy Movement, which envisioned greater prosperity
and social progress through the systematic application of technical expertise,
had fourished during the 1930s, the word “technocracy” became a muchdiscussed
concept of the Space age. 41 techno-scientifc and governmental
elites seemed fused together as never before, as NaSa’s budgets soared and
41. On the pre-World War II technocracy movement, see henry elsner, Jr., The Technocrats: Prophets
of Automation (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University press, 1967);William e. akin, Technocracy and
the American Dream:The Technocrat Movement, 1900-1941 (Berkeley, Ca: University of California
press, 1977); and howard p. Segal,“the technological Utopians,” in Imagining Tomorrow: History,
Technology, and the American Future, ed. Joseph J. Corn (Cambridge, Ma: MIt press, 1986), pp.
119-136.