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

aMerICaN SpaCefLIght hIStory’S MaSter NarratIve
aND the MeaNINg of MeMory
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Nixon told an assembled audience that the fight of apollo 11 represented
the most signifcant week in the history of earth since the creation. 6 Clearly,
the president viewed the endeavor as both path breaking and permanent, a
legacy of accomplishment that future generations would refect on as they plied
intergalactic space and colonized planets throughout the galaxy. perhaps the
americans were responsible for the second most important week in the history
of the cosmos, placing an essentially godlike cast upon the nation.
Spacefight has persistently represented a feel-good triumph for the nation
and its people. It conjured images of the best in the national spirit and served, in
the words of journalist greg easterbrook, as “a metaphor of national inspiration:
majestic, technologically advanced, produced at dear cost and entrusted with
precious cargo, rising above the constraints of the earth.” 7 Certainly apollo
represented this in the imagery that became iconic in the public consciousness—
an astronaut on the Moon saluting the american fag served well as a patriotic
symbol of what the nation had accomplished—but so have the later human
missions of the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station, and the robotic
probes and observatories that have pulled back the curtain to reveal a wondrous
universe. this self-image of the united States as a successful nation has been
repeatedly afrmed in the spacefight master narrative since 1957. 8
It might be argued that spacefight represented an expression of national
power in the context of the “positive liberal state” ofered the world by the
united States. In essence, this position celebrates the use of state power for
“public good.” human exploration of the solar system was always viewed as
reasonable and forward-looking and led to “good” results for all concerned,
or so adherents of this master narrative believed. Without perhaps seeking
to do so, apollo ofered an important perspective on a debate that has raged
over the proper place of state power since the beginning of the republic. as
one historian remarked about this philosophy of government, the state would
actively “promote the general welfare, raise the level of opportunity for all
men, and aid all individuals to develop their full potentialities.” It would assert
active control in this process, seeking improvements to society “both economic
and moral, and they did not believe in leaving others alone.” 9
the Democrats of the 1960s believed in activist government, and examples
on the part of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations abound. this
translated into an ever increasing commitment to the use of the government to
6. 10:56:20 PM, EDT, 7/20/69 (New york: CbS News, 1969), p. 159.
7. greg easterbrook,“the Space Shuttle Must be Stopped, Time, february 2, 2003, available online
at http://www.mercola.com/2003/feb/8/space_shuttle.htm (accessed february 24, 2006).
8. I made this argument in relation to apollo in roger D. Launius,“perceptions of apollo: Myth,
Nostalgia, Memory or all of the above?” Space Policy 21 (May 2005): 129-139.
9. Daniel Walker howe, The Political Culture of the American Whigs (Chicago, IL: university of
Chicago press, 1979), p. 20.