America in Space


Book Description

The story of America's space age is told with more than 400 carefully selected images, beginning with the 1950s test pilots and venturing ever faster and higher into the now-legendary missions that made astronauts into national heroes.




Space in America


Book Description

America's sense of space has always been tied to what Hayden White called the narrativization of real events. If the awe-inspiring manifestations of nature in America (Niagara Falls, Virginia's Natural Bridge, the Grand Canyon, etc.) were often used as a foil for projecting utopian visions and idealizations of the nation's exceptional place among the nations of the world, the rapid technological progress and its concomitant appropriation of natural spaces served equally well, as David Nye argues, to promote the dominant cultural idiom of exploration and conquest. From the beginning, American attitudes towards space were thus utterly contradictory if not paradoxical; a paradox that scholars tried to capture in such hybrid concepts as the middle landscape (Leo Marx), an engineered New Earth (Cecelia Tichi), or the technological sublime (David Nye). Not only was America's concept of space paradoxical, it has always also been a contested terrain, a site of continuous social and cultural conflict. Many foundational issues in American history (the dislocation of Native and African Americans, the geo-political implications of nation-building, immigration and transmigration, the increasing division and clustering of contemporary American society, etc.) involve differing ideals and notions of space. Quite literally, space and its various ideological appropriations formed the arena where America's search for identity (national, political, cultural) has been staged. If American democracy, as Frederick Jackson Turner claimed, is born of free land, then its history may well be defined as the history of the fierce struggles to gain and maintain power over both the geographical, social and political spaces of America and its concomitant narratives. The number and range of topics, interests, and critical approaches of the essays gathered here open up exciting new avenues of inquiry into the tangled, contentious relations of space in America. Topics include: Theories of Space - Landscape / Nature - Technoscape / Architecture / Urban Utopia - Literature - Performance / Film / Visual Arts.




America's Future in Space


Book Description

As civil space policies and programs have evolved, the geopolitical environment has changed dramatically. Although the U.S. space program was originally driven in large part by competition with the Soviet Union, the nation now finds itself in a post-Cold War world in which many nations have established, or are aspiring to develop, independent space capabilities. Furthermore discoveries from developments in the first 50 years of the space age have led to an explosion of scientific and engineering knowledge and practical applications of space technology. The private sector has also been developing, fielding, and expanding the commercial use of space-based technology and systems. Recognizing the new national and international context for space activities, America's Future in Space is meant to advise the nation on key goals and critical issues in 21st century U.S. civil space policy.




How Outer Space Made America


Book Description

In this innovatory book Daniel Sage analyses how and why American space exploration reproduced and transformed American cultural and political imaginations by appealing to, and to an extent organizing, the transcendence of spatial and temporal frontiers. While largely engaging with the historical development of space exploration, it shows how contemporary cultural and social, and indeed geographical, research themes, including national identity, critical geopolitics, gender, technocracy, trauma and memory, can be informed by the study of space exploration.




National Space Policy of the United States of America


Book Description

A memorandum from the President of the United States on December 9, 2020 explains this document: MEMORANDUM FOR THE VICE PRESIDENTTHE SECRETARY OF STATETHE SECRETARY OF DEFENSETHE ATTORNEY GENERALTHE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIORTHE SECRETARY OF COMMERCETHE SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATIONTHE SECRETARY OF ENERGYTHE SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITYTHE DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGETTHE DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCETHE ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT FOR NATIONAL SECURITY AFFAIRSTHE ADMINISTRATOR OF THE NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATIONTHE DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY POLICYTHE CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFFSUBJECT: The National Space PolicySection 1. References. This directive supersedes Presidential Policy Directive - 4 (June 29, 2010) and references, promotes, and reemphasizes the following policy directives and memoranda: a) Presidential Policy Directive 26 - National Space Transportation Policy (November 21, 2013)b) Executive Order 13803 - Reviving the National Space Council (June 30, 2017)c) Space Policy Directive 1 - Reinvigorating America's Human Space Exploration Program (December 11, 2017)d) The National Space Strategy (March 23, 2018)e) Space Policy Directive 2 - Streamlining Regulations on Commercial Use of Space (May 24, 2018)f) Space Policy Directive 3 - National Space Traffic Management Policy (June 18, 2018)g) Space Policy Directive 4 - Establishment of the United States Space Force (February 19, 2019)h) National Security Presidential Memorandum 20 - Launch of Spacecraft Containing Space Nuclear Systems (August 20, 2019)i) Executive Order 13906 - Amending Executive Order 13803 - Reviving the National Space Council (February 13, 2020)j) Executive Order 13905 - Strengthening National Resilience Through Responsible Use of Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Services (February 12, 2020)k) Executive Order 13914 - Encouraging International Support for the Recovery and Use of Space Resources (April 6, 2020)l) Space Policy Directive 5 - Cybersecurity Principles for Space Systems (September 4, 2020)It is, in other words, a vitally important planning documen




Sally Ride


Book Description

The definitive biography of Sally Ride, America’s first woman in space, with exclusive insights from Ride’s family and partner, by the ABC reporter who covered NASA during its transformation from a test-pilot boys’ club to a more inclusive elite. Sally Ride made history as the first American woman in space. A member of the first astronaut class to include women, she broke through a quarter-century of white male fighter jocks when NASA chose her for the seventh shuttle mission, cracking the celestial ceiling and inspiring several generations of women. After a second flight, Ride served on the panels investigating the Challenger explosion and the Columbia disintegration that killed all aboard. In both instances she faulted NASA’s rush to meet mission deadlines and its organizational failures. She cofounded a company promoting science and education for children, especially girls. Sherr also writes about Ride’s scrupulously guarded personal life—she kept her sexual orientation private—with exclusive access to Ride’s partner, her former husband, her family, and countless friends and colleagues. Sherr draws from Ride’s diaries, files, and letters. This is a rich biography of a fascinating woman whose life intersected with revolutionary social and scientific changes in America. Sherr’s revealing portrait is warm and admiring but unsparing. It makes this extraordinarily talented and bold woman, an inspiration to millions, come alive.




The Space Race


Book Description

From the author of 'The Seven Wonders of the Industrial World' comes the shocking but true story behind the space race -- and the ruthless, brilliant scientists who fuelled it.




New Moon Rising


Book Description

This book looks at the inside deliberations that led to President George W Bush's space exploration initiative. The author team has been granted unprecedented access to senior policy makers as the plan was assembled during 2003 and 2004. Sietzen and Cowing will give exclusive details on the meetings between President George Bush, Vice President Richard Cheney, and senior members of the White House staff as the planning process began. In addition Sietzen and Cowing will examine how policy was translated from paper into hardware designs including the first outline of the plan's new space vehicle and how the inspiration behind the architecture once used in the Apollo program was summoned back to guide 21st century space planners. Sietzen and Cowing will describe how the Columbia accident and the political outcry for a new central goal for the US space program gave rise to what would become the most far reaching change in US space policy in a generation. Readers will have the most comprehensive look available on what this new space vision will do for human exploration of the Solar System -- and how nearly everything NASA does will change as a result. New Moon Rising: The Making of America's Space Vision and the Remaking of NASA, by Frank Sietzen, Jr. and Keith L. Cowing, to be published July 2004. The team broke the story on the space plan in the pages of the Washington Times and in the United Press International wire service. Portions of the book were serialised in the Times in a multi-part background article called "Why Some Said the Moon: The Exclusive Inside Story of the Bush Space Vision" published in January 2004.




America's Secret Eyes in Space


Book Description




America's Space Sentinels


Book Description

During much of the Cold War, America's first line of defense was in outer space: a network of secret satellites that could provide instant warning of an enemy missile launch. The presence of these infrared sensors orbiting 22,000 miles above the earth discouraged a Soviet first strike and stabilized international relations between the superpowers, and they now play a crucial role in monitoring the missile programs of China, India, and other emerging nuclear powers. Jeffrey Richelson has written the first comprehensive history of this vital program, tracing its evolution from the late 1950s to the present. He puts Defense Support Program operations in the context of world events - from Russian missile programs to the Gulf War - and explains how DSP's infrared sensors are used to detect meteorites, monitor forest fires, and even gather industrial intelligence by "seeing" the lights of steel mills.