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

aMerICaN SpaCefLIght hIStory’S MaSter NarratIve
aND the MeaNINg of MeMory
361
were, in the words of aerospace historian roger e. bilstein, “a cynical mix
of public relations and proft-seeking, a massive drain of tax funds away from
serious domestic ills of the decade, or a technological high card in international
tensions during the Cold War.” 19 Some of those attacks were sophisticated and
involved, others were simplistic and without appeal to all but those with the
predilection to believe them.
for example, vannevar bush, a leading and well-respected scientist who
appreciated the marshaling of the power of the federal government in the
furtherance of national objectives, questioned large expenditures for spacefight.
he wrote to NaSa administrator James e. Webb in april 1963 voicing his
concerns about the cost, versus the benefts, of the human space exploration
program. he asserted “that the [apollo] program, as it has been built up, is
not sound.” he expressed concern that it would prove “more expensive than
the country can now aford,” adding that “its results, while interesting, are
secondary to our national welfare.” 20
Sociologist amitai etzioni was even more critical. In a reasoned, fulllength
critique of the Moon landing program in 1964, he deplored the “huge
pile of resources” spent on space, “not only in dollars and cents, but the best
scientifc minds—the best engineering minds were dedicated to the space
project.” Could not those resources have been better spent on improving the
lives people in modern america? 21 etzioni bemoaned the nation’s penchant
for embracing both high technology and unsustainable materialism: “we seek
to uphold humanist concerns and a quest for a nobler life under the mounting
swell of commercial, mechanical, and mass-media pressure.” 22
as etzioni remarked in a 1962 article that also expressed his concern
about spacefight: “If private foundations or some university professors wish to
continue to satisfy their own and the common human desire to know about
outer space, fne. but can the public spend 30 billion dollars—the amount
required to send one man to the moon—to answer some questions about the
shape of the moon? are we that curious, when the same amount of money would
serve to develop . . . India?” furthermore, he noted, “as emotional as it might
sound, this is truely [sic] a question of investment in feeding starving children
Washington university, 1969); edwin Diamond, The Rise and Fall of the Space Age (garden
City, Ny: Doubleday and Co., 1964).
19. roger e. bilstein, Testing Aircraft, Exploring Space: An Illustrated History of NACA and NASA
(baltimore, MD: Johns hopkins university press, 2003), p. 200.
20. vannevar bush to James e.Webb,administrator, NaSa,april 11, 1963, p. 2, presidential papers,
John f. Kennedy Library, boston, Ma.
21. amitai etzioni, The Moon-Doggle: Domestic and International Implications of the Space Race (New
york, Ny: Doubleday, 1964), p. 70. See alton frye, “politics—the first Dimension of Space,”
Journal of Confict Resolution 10 (March 1966): 103-12, for a review of Moon-Doggle.
22. etzioni, Moon-Doggle, p. 195.