LICEUL TEORETIC "OVIDIUS" CONSTANA

JOHN. F KENNEDY AND

SPACE EXPLORATION IN
THE AMERICAN
CULTURE

Prof. coordonator: Crciun Rodica

Elev: Biceanu Mihai clasa a XII-a D

20 mai 2015
Constana

First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal,
before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him
safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more
impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of
space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Y
INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................3
CHAPTER I................................................................................................5
HISTORICAL CONTEXT: THE SPACE RACE....................................................5
UNDER
A

THE

EISENHOWER ADMINISTRATION...............................................................................

CHANGE OF VIEW. JOHN

F. KENNEDYS

CONTRIBUTION..............................................................

CHAPTER II............................................................................................. 14
A CULTURAL APPROACH..........................................................................14
PUBLIC

PERCEPTION OF SCIENCE AND SPACE............................................................................

THE NASA

BRAND.............................................................................................................

CHAPTER III............................................................................................ 18
ECONOMICAL IMPACT OF SPACE EXPLORATION.........................................18
THE SPACE INFRASTRUCTURE...............................................................................................
SPACE TECHNOLOGIES TRANSFORMING DAILY LIFE....................................................................
FINAL REMARKS.....................................................................................21
BIBLIOGRAPHY.......................................................................................22

INTRODUCTION
I personally consider space exploration to be one of the most noble,
uplifting and audacious endeavors that we as humans have ever
commited to. The exploration of outer space satisfies needs that are
deeply embedded in ourselves. Questions like Where do we come
from?, What is our place in the Universe?, Are we alone in the
Universe? are most likely to be answered by exploring. We have been
exploring our surroundings since the earliest days of human existence,
by crossing dangerous rivers, moving across continents, travelling
across the coldest forest, plunging in the deepest oceans and climbing
the tallest mountains on the face of Earth.
However, we always looked up. We gazed in wonder, mesmerized by
the orbs that are roaming the sky, passing through our view at regular
intervals, governing the changes of nature and weather cycles. For
centuries we have associated celestial bodies with godly figures, but
modern science gives us more information abou the Universe than our
ancestors had. We know that the Sun is a star not different from the
other billions of stars that we see in the sky, the Moon is nothing but a
chunk of rock orbiting our planet. But the desire to explore still exists
at our core.
Space exploration in its true sense only beginned in the mid-twetieth
century, no more than six decades ago. It took brave astronauts like
Yuri Gagarin, Neil Armstong or Buzz Aldrin, brilliant scientists and
engineers like Keith Glennan, James Webb or Wernher von Braun and
visionary politicians like Dwight Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy.
Although the philosophical level of space exploration is important, the
economical and cultural marks that great space journeys left in the
history of manking are just as important.It is these levels that I will
mostly address in my paper. I will be referring to the way space
4

exploration operates in the American culture, the economical impact of

great space-related discoveries. I will focus on the Race Space, as it
is the most fruitful period of innovation in space exploration and I will
also give information about the Cold War and John F. Kennedys
contribution, which I consider to be crucial.

CHAPTER I
HISTORICAL CONTEXT: THE SPACE RACE
Under the Eisenhower Administration

The Space Race was a 20th-century (19551972) competition between

two Cold War rivals, the Soviet Union (USSR) and the United States
(US), for supremacy in spaceflight capability. It had its origins in the
missile-based nuclear arms race between the two nations that occurred
following World War II, enabled by captured German rocket technology
and

personnel.

The

technological

superiority

required

for

such

supremacy was seen as necessary for national security, and symbolic

of ideological superiority. The Space Race spawned pioneering efforts
to launch artificial satellites, unmanned space probes of the Moon,
Venus, and Mars, and human spaceflight in low Earth orbit and to the
Moon. The competition

began

1955, when the Soviet

Union responded to the

US announcement four

days earlier of intent to

launch

satellites

artificial

International
declaring

they

on

Geophysical
would

August

for
Year,

2,

the
by

also launch a satellite "in

the near future".

At the time, John F. Kennedy was serving as a United States senator

from Massachusetts, and the events that were about to unfold would
require the thinking and leadership of the nations president, Dwight D.
Eisenhower. Yet the effects of those events would eventually come to
bear on the presidency of John Kennedy. It started with the launching of
Sputnik I, a small aluminum ball that weighed just 184 pounds.
Equipped with a technically simple radio transmitter broadcasting
meaningless electronic "beeps" to anyone listening with a radio
receiver, it was the first artificial satellite, and it belonged, not to the
United States, but the Soviets. That was October 4, 1957. Two weeks
later the Soviet Union launched Sputnik II with a dog named Laika on
board. That was impressive enough, but furthermore, the rocket had
remained attached to the satellite. It meant that the Soviets had put a
six-ton weight into earths orbit. The implications seemed ominous for
the United States. Four months later, the Department of the Navy tried
to launch a "puny grapefruit-sized competitor." The Vanguard rocket
used to get it off the launch pad rose about four feet in the air before it
crumpled

and

exploded

in

ball

of

fire.

The

message

was

unmistakable: for the first time the Soviets had shown technological
superiority, and it wasnt in something mundane but rather an exotic,
exciting quest for space. Americans were humiliated and blamed their
sense of inferiority on almost everythingthe military, the educational
system, even the countrys desire for luxury and "good times." The
Dallas News conjectured that perhaps the country needed some of the
"advantages of tight, totalitarian control. In reaction, by October 1958,
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration had been approved
by

Congress

on

the

recommendation

of

President

Dwight

D.

Eisenhower.
Though Eisenhower wasnt enthusiastic about a space program, he
knew that in light of Soviet accomplishments, the United States would
have to have one. The Soviets were developing a manned space flight,
and America would follow suit. The first NASA administrator, Keith
6

Glennan, announced the plan. By November 1958 he had organized a

small Space Task Group, an impressive assembly of engineers headed
by Robert Gilruth, who may have wondered if it was a great career
move. So far, Congress and the president had authorized the Mercury
Project, but its scope wasnt too promising. The plan was that a man
riding in a capsule atop of a Redstone rocket would be lobbed into the
atmosphere. On a later mission, he would be launched into orbit on the
Air Forces Atlas. It was true that by April 1959 the Task Force had hired
seven Mercury astronauts who would be a part of these missions, but
no one knew what would happen after that. Could people function in
space? Unknown. What purpose would they serve? Unknown. What
price tag? Incredibly expensive.

Keith Glennan thought beyond these problems. He had been giving

some serious thought to what seemed at the time a preposterous idea.
He wanted to plan a program for a manned space flight to land on the
moon. To support it, he called on the brilliant spacecraft designer for
the Space Task Group, Max Faget. He asked Faget to address an
informal seminar meeting at NASA headquarters on Washingtons
Lafayette Square, near the White House. Fagets task was to tell the
assembled members, including the brilliant rocket scientist, Wernher
von Braun, how a lunar landing mission might be accomplished. He laid
out a preliminary and tentative plan: on the first trip an astronaut
would just loop around the moon to get a good look at it.

Yet the idea of a moon landing could not have seemed more remote.
That past September, the Space Task Group was scheduled to launch
Big Joe, an Atlas missile carrying the first Mercury capsule. The writers
of Apollo: Race to the Moon related that the capsule had literally being
altered with a tool purchased from Sears in Orlando. Though aspects
of the flight were very encouraging, it failed to meet the goals of the
7

mission, and the press reported it as a "bust." Up until this point,

President Eisenhower had conceived of the space program as a
scientific research mission run by civilians. After Big Joe, he revised his
thinking, signing an executive order moving Wernher von Braun and his
rocket engineers from their work on military ballistic missiles to the
NASA program.

A change of view. John F. Kennedys contribution

That fall John F. Kennedy was elected president of the United States.
During his campaign, the young senator had talked a good bit about
Americas "space gap" but offered nothing specific about what his
space program might be. NASA officials were disappointed; after all,
Kennedys youth and spirit seemed a perfect fit for the daring, futureoriented feel of the space program. But Kennedy wasnt convinced that
manned space flight should be a part of his New Frontier programs. At
the time he seemed more of the opinion that rockets were a waste of
money, and space navigation even worse. Kennedy had barely been
elected when, on November 21, 1960, NASA was ready to launch an
unmanned Mercury capsule on a Redstone booster. It was called M.R.1, and was supposed to be the predecessor to a manned flight. Almost
every leader of the space program was at Cape Canaveral to watch.
The count went to T minus zero with no problem; at launch there was a
great billow of smoke and fire from the base of the rocket. But when
the smoke cleared there sat the rocket, its Mercury capsule still seated
in it. Bizarrely, the main capsule drag chute deployed, and its long
folds billowed in the morning breeze. The crowds cleared, but the
launch team considered the possibility that the rocket would blow sky
high. All through the night, they crept out by twos to check it. Finally,
after twenty-four hours on the pad, someone went out and disarmed
the pyrotechnics on the capsule. At NASA headquarters everyone had

the same question: What would the newly elected president think of
this?

Had NASA leaders known what Kennedy was considering, they wouldnt
have liked it. For one, Kennedy suggested dissolving the National
Aeronautics Space Council, which was the liaison between NASA and
the White House. Eisenhower had sat as its chairman; Kennedy wasnt
interested. Only at the insistence of Vice President Elect Lyndon
Johnson was the council saved. Johnson agreed to be the chair. Since
his days as Senate leader, Johnson had supported the space program,
telling a Democratic Caucus session as early as 1958, "Control of space
is control of the world." Kennedy wasnt as enthusiastic, and neither
was the man he appointed to head his Committee on Space, a
Massachusetts

Institute

of

Technology

professor

named

Jerome

Weisner. The committee was very much against the idea of a manned
space flight. In the Weisner Report, which he presented to Kennedy, he
said that the only satisfactory parts of the U.S. space program were the
scientific, unmanned space probes. According to Weisner, manned
space flight was much too risky, and its only real benefit was
promoting public relations. Furthermore, he said, instruments could do
a better job than man in space, and they "didnt talk back." In any
case, as soon as the Weisner Report was released, Kennedy announced
that Weisner would be his special assistant for science and technology.
Though morale at NASA sunk lower and lower, the Space Task Force
continued with its plan to go to the moon. By now, President Kennedy
had appointed James E. Webb as the chief administrator of NASA. By
March 1961 Webb had been filled in on the Manned Lunar Landing
Program, and the Space Task Force team had briefed him in a lengthy
strategy session. He took its wish list to the president, requesting
appropriations for several items. Though Kennedy approved the
resumption of the second stage Saturn project, funds for the detailed
design of the Apollo spacecraft were put indefinitely on hold.
9

Undaunted, the Apollo Liaison Group held a planned three-day meeting

starting Monday, April 10, 1961. Group members had no way of
knowing that their optimistic attitudes were warranted, because "all of
the equations were about to change."

That same Monday, UPI began to move a story about a persistent

rumor that the Soviets were about to send a man into space and
recover him. By Tuesday evening, the Central Intelligence Agency was
reporting that it would be that night. When Moscow residents woke up
on Wednesday, April 12, 1961, they first heard the patriotic Soviet
anthem, "How Spacious is My Country", then the amazing news: "The
worlds first spaceship, Vostok, with a man on board, has been
launched in the Soviet Union on a round-the-world orbit." The
cosmonaut on board was Yuri Gagarin. Soviet schoolchildren and
factory workers were given the day off to celebrate the triumph. It was
1:35 a.m. when Kennedys space advisor, Jerome Weisner, got the word
that the military had tracked a large rocket from the Soviet Union and
that it was in orbit. The White House wouldnt react until the Soviets
made the announcement. Radio Moscow told the world about Gagarins
mission at 2:00 a.m., Washington time. After 108 hours of flight, 89 of
which were actually in orbit, the cosmonaut descended from his
altitude of 188 miles and was immediately a major propaganda asset.
A Moscow Square was named for him, he was given a twenty-one gun
salute standing at Lenins tomb; the Soviet premier, Nikita Khrushchev
compared him to Columbus. Soviets listened as Russian radio
broadcast a conversation between the premier and Gagarin. The
cosmonaut made what later seemed to many Americans some rather
improbable revelations: "While in outer space I was thinking about our
party and our homeland," he had said. Whether he actually said those
words didnt matter; what seemed clear was that the Soviet space
program was linked to the patriotic love of country. Where did that
leave the United States?
10

Americans wanted to know the answer. One astronaut had already told
a reporter, "We could have done it a month ago if someone at the top
had just decided to push it." At a presidential press conference the
afternoon

of

Gagarins

flight,

reporter

commented

that

Congressman had told him recently that he was tired of seeing the
United States second in the space field. The reporter wanted to know
when the United States would catch up. Kennedy seemed beleaguered
as he said, "However tired anybody may be, and no one is more tired
than I am, it is a fact that it is going to take some time. . . .We are, I
hope, going to go in other areas where we can be first, and which will
bring perhaps more long-range benefits to mankind." The answer
seemed flat and defensive. Columnist Hugh Sidey wrote that this
"hardly seemed in the spirit of the New Frontier."
Only a few weeks later, on May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard sat in the
capsule of Freedom 7 on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral awaiting
the countdown. Forty-five million Americans leaned forward to peer
intently at the television image of the Redstone rocket on the pad,
ready to go. The countdown began, and soon viewers heard Shepards
crisp voice. "Roger. Liftoff and the clock has started." The tall, slender
rocket slowly climbed into the sky. Americans threw their arms in the
air, and yelled, "Go! Go! Go!".

On turnpikes and freeways people

pulled over to listen to the news on their radios. In Indianapolis, a

judge declared a recess so everyone in the courtroom could watch the
coverage on a television. Shepards ride was a near textbook mission.
It didnt match Gagarins ride in length or complexity, but Americans
didnt care. Kennedy watched and cheered with all other Americans.
The roar of approval for the astronaut was not lost on him; he
understood perfectlythe nation was euphoric!
On the day after Shepards flight, President Kennedy was entertaining
Tunisias president Habib Bourguiba at a state dinner. Weisner, the
presidents space advisor, was having a discussion with the foreign
dignitary, and Kennedy joined in. He said to Bourguiba: "You know,
11

were having a terrible argument in the White House about whether we

should put a man on the moon." Then he added, "Jerry [Weisner] here,
is against it. If I told you youd get an extra billion dollars a year in
foreign aid if I didnt do it, what would be your advice?" Finally,
Bourguiba said, "I wish I could tell you to put it in foreign aid, but I
cannot." No matter whom the president talked to he got the same
answer: The United States did not have the option of withdrawing from
the space race.
On May 21, 1961, President John F. Kennedy took up the political and
patriotic banner of the space race, and, at last, embraced it. Standing
before Congress to deliver a special message on "urgent national
needs," he asked for an additional $7 billion to $9 billion over the next
five years for the space program. He did not justify the needed
expenditure on the basis of science and exploration, but placed the
program clearly in the camp of competing ideologies:
If we are to win the battle that is now going on around the world
between freedom and tyranny, the dramatic achievements in space
which occurred in recent weeks should have made clear to us all, as
did the Sputnik in 1957, the impact of this adventure on the minds of
men everywhere, who are attempting to make a determination from
which road they should take.
Then, he took the "next step," the one his space advisors had told him
was so important:
First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to
achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a
man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No
single space project in this period will be more impressive
to

mankind,

or

more

important

for

the

long-range

exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or

expensive to accomplish.

12

With Kennedys full support, NASA was able to accomplish its goals
with dizzying speed. In June and July, right after the speech, detailed
specifications for spacecraft hardware were completed. By August, the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Instrumentation Lab had a
contract for an Apollo guidance system. In September, NASA selected
Michoud, Louisiana as a production facility for Saturn rockets. In
November, the Saturn C-1 was launched, and on and on it went. As one
Task Force engineer noted, "I could hardly believe we could move so
fast. In those days, you could do things with a half-page memo."

The dramatic NASA event that would raise the passions of the public
even more was taking place at Cape Canaveral. It was John Glenn in
Friendship 7 this time, Tuesday, February 20, 1962. Again, the world
exulted as Glenn cried, "Capsule is turning around. Oh, the view is
tremendous. . . . Cape is go, and I am go!" President Kennedy was
there to greet him upon his return. "This is a new ocean," he said, "and
I believe America must sail upon it." Time, covering the event,
commented: "In terms of national prestige, Glenns flight put the U.S.
back in the space race with a vengeance, and gave the U.S. and the
entire free world a huge and badly needed boost."
That the space race was about the United States and the "free world"
could not have been more apparent than in Kennedys remarks at Rice
University in September 1962:
The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it
or not. And it is one of the great adventures of all time, and
no nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can
expect to stay behind in this space race. We mean to lead it,
for the eyes of the world now look into space, to the moon
and to the planets beyond, and we have vowed that we shall
not see it governed by a hostile flag of conquest, but by a
banner of freedom and peace.
13

President John F. Kennedys leadership in "sending a man to the moon

and returning him safely to the earth" is undeniable. Once he gave his
leadership and support, the slow, lumbering movement of Americas
space program gained remarkable momentum. But like a doubter who
is finally converted, once he overcame his reluctance, he put the full
force of his persuasive gifts behind it. On the day before he was
assassinated in Dallas, President Kennedy spoke at the dedication of
the Aerospace Medical Health Center at Brooks Air Force Base in Texas.
The president used a story by the Irish writer, Frank OConnor. Kennedy
had read that when OConnor was young, he and his boyhood friends
would trudge across the country until they came to a seemingly
insurmountable wall. Fearing they would not have the courage to go
over the wall without some extra motivation, they would toss their
caps over, and then, as OConnor had said, they had no choice but to
follow. Speaking as much for himself as for the country, he said, "This
nation has tossed its cap across the wall of space and we have no
choice but to follow it.

14

15

CHAPTER II
A CULTURAL APPROACH

Public perception of science and space

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Americas desired
future visions reflected the context in which society found itself, the
Industrial Age. Cities were the hubs of industry and popular magazines
of the period published illustrations of the towering metropolis of the
future, humming with machinery,fantastic transportation systems, and
allthe wealth and leisure time the new labor-saving creations could
provide. The vision of the City of the Future was a cultural constant
from the late 1800s through the illuminated, mechanized model of the
future city that was a popular attraction of the 1939 New York Worlds
Fair. Walt Disneys original 1966 plan for EPCOT Experimental Prototype
Community of Tomorrow) was a living city rather than a theme park.
While it seems a far cry from the City of the Future to the exploration of
space, the elements that turned popular imagination into an actionable
vision are identical. Science and space fiction in its modern form was
contemporaneous with the rise of the vision of the City of the Future.
From the works of Jules Verne at the turn of the century through the
pulp fiction of the 1920s and 30s, science fiction popularized visions of
space travel. Unlike the City of the Future, however, such stories were
perceived as works of popular imagination, not visions to be acted on.
World War II was the outside driving force that pushed rapid advances
in aviation to the point where the vision could transform into reality.
Suddenly flight went from something pilots did to something people on
the ground, the airline industrys millions of potential passengers,
could see themselves doing. Due to advances in mass media,
particularly television, the cultural shift from imagination to vision to
16

action for space exploration happened even more rapidly, within a

decade rather than a half-century. To make it happen, the elements of
all previous successful visions had to be in place:

compatible and

supportive cultural beliefs popularizers in the form of experts who

could explain or demonstrate the immediate reality of the vision
appropriate media outlets to publicize the vision an outside driving
event making the choice of the vision an immediate priority.
Among a cast of hundreds, three of the most prominent popularizers
were space science author Willy Ley, former German rocket engineer
Werner von Braun, and entertainment giant Walt Disney.

Ley, Von

Braun, and their science colleagues were acknowledged experts who

reached a mass audience through biweekly popular magazines, an
important source of public information of the era. These included a
lavishly illustrated eight-part series on the possibilities of space travel
in Colliers Magazine, which sold 3.1 million issues in 1953. With the
pass-along rate of magazines at the time, it can be estimated that the
authors views reached into virtually every household in America.
Disney was an accomplished visual storyteller who followed up the
Colliers article by producing three Tomorrowland segments, Man in
Space, Man and the Moon, and Mars and Beyond, on his popular
Disneyland TV program. With a mix of animation, models, and von
Braun as co-host, Disney beamed his vision of space travel directly into
millions of American living rooms.
In 1955 Disney followed up with the opening of a three-dimensional
Tomorrowland in his Disneyland theme park where visitors could
actually walk though Monsantos House of the Future, drive miniature
cars on the freeways of tomorrow, and, as the ultimate thrill, fly a
simulated Mission to the Moon. The centerpiece of the arena was a
gleaming passenger moonliner rocket ship painted in the red-andwhite livery of the very real Trans World Airlines. The conjunction of
these and many other scientific authorities, popular storytellers, and
corporate sponsors rapidly made the vision of space travel a genuine
17

possibility in the minds of the general public. By the mid 1950s, most
Americans reported that they believed a manned trip to the moon was
possible. However, they also cautioned that they did not think the
government should spend millions of dollars to do it. It took a driving
event to turn popular vision into public policy. On the 4th of October,
1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the worlds first man-made
satellite. While the US had its own satellite program in the works, the
Soviet achievement put the US on the defensive, militarily and
politically. Cold War fears ran high; the very thought of the Soviet
Union

gaining

the

space

high

ground

forced

the

Eisenhower

administration to reorder its priorities. Even with this new sense of

urgency, three months after the Kennedy administration inauguration,
no one from the White House had called NASA to be briefed. Then the
Soviets put a man in space. President Kennedy, no mean popularizer
himself, quickly approved a crash program to leapfrog ahead of the
Soviets to put a man on the moon before the end of this decade. For
the American public, in fear of living under a Red Moon, money was
no longer an object.

The NASA brand

The NASA brand worldwide is manned space exploration and
discovery. This is also the Brand for Americans but it is assumed that
missions should be led by Americans in primarily American spacecraft.
Americans, unlike the rest of the client confidential The Center for
Cultural Studies & Analysis 21 world, are almost totally ignorant of
Soviet achievements in space, with the sole exception of the early days
of Soviet and American competition. We dont have strong issues with
international cooperation. But Americans are always expected to
assume the lead in any sort of international venture, whether business,
sports, war, or space exploration. Within the overarching brand are
subsets that support the brand but taken alone, are not sufficiently
18

compelling to promote action. Americans view explorers as interesting

and often exciting, but not compelling, unless there is some clear utility
to their discoveries. Most Americans profess admiration for explorers,
but cannot name more than three. On the other hand, Americans
respect achievement and competition in areas where success can be
clearly measured, which is why most teens, who are actively seeking
role models to emulate, can name far more pop stars, entertainers,
and athletes than astronauts. Without a compelling human perspective
and vision to give meaning to their actions, even with a clear mission
of measurable results, astronauts can be considered the most wasted
asset in NASAs inventory. Similarly, robotic exploration is interesting to
Americans only so long as it is viewed as an adjunct, not a substitute
for human exploration. There is little interest in robotic exploration per
se unless as a precursor of manned exploration and exploitation of
robotic discoveries. The allure of NASAs brand is strongest in the first
age stage of the Baby Boom generation, and then fluctuates from
generation to generation depending on the value sets that have
priority in their age groups. Pre-teens, for instance, are searching for
role models and a moral cause, while Baby Boomers are moving into a
period in their lives when the search for meaning becomes paramount.
NASAs brand encompasses both these and other age-stage priorities
searching for values comprised in the NASA brand. As another item on
the plus side, the Baby Boom is our largest age segment and currently
dominates (as it has for decades now) the social and political agenda
of the U.S.

19

CHAPTER III
ECONOMICAL IMPACT OF SPACE EXPLORATION
20

The Space Infrastructure

The global space economy is built on a space infrastructure consisting

of manufacturers, service providers, and technologists in industry and
government who deploy and operate launch vehicles, satellites, and
space platforms such as the International Space Station. The cost of
this space infrastructure is borne by commercial firms that sell satellite
services; governments in many countries that use satellites to provide
long-distance telephone, television, and Internet to their citizens; and
the national space agencies (mainly those of the United States, Europe,
Russia, Ukraine, China, Japan, and a few others). The cost of space
infrastructure launchers, in-space systems and supporting ground
operations,

human

activity

in

space,

and

the

knowledge

and

technology base that supports the infrastructure is about $60 billion

each year. That includes every cent of NASAs budget, the budgets of
all other international space agencies, the cost of military space
activities, and nearly $13 billion of commercial expenditure on
manufacturing and deploying commercial satellites and launchers.
This

investment

extraordinarily

enables

rich

legacy

not
of

only

space

science,

exploration,

inspiration,

and

with

its

human

achievement, but also economic activity many times larger. Our

spending on space delivers vast and growing improvements in quality
of life, safety, security, health, and education in the United States and
around the world.

Goods and services relying on space infrastructure generate hundreds

of billions of dollars in direct revenue, and in doing so enable important
industries that are much larger. In fact, a defining feature of many
space-related goods and services is that their cost is tiny compared to
the convenience, efficiency, information, and other benefits they yield.

21

For example, most people would list direct-to-home television and

satellite radio as spacerelated industries, and indeed, these services
generate more than $50 billion in revenue each year, and provide
access to television and radio to many new subscribers. Much more
sweeping, however, is the use of space by broadcast and cable
television. Broadcast and cable television providers rely on satellites to
distribute nearly all content to cable head ends and broadcast affiliates
and to transmit new feeds from location to studio.
Satellites also enable truly global Internet service. Satellites are not the
primary mode of Internet communications, but they extend Internet
content and access in ways that current terrestrial networks simply
cannot accommodate. Satellites provide intercontinental capacity to
augment fiber optic cable networks that underserve certain pathways,
such as those between South America and Asia, or along many parts of
the African coastline. Satellite connections have also allowed many
Internet users to receive broadband service without waiting the years
that it is taking in some areas to build high-speed landline connections.
Long-distance

telephone

service

via

satellite

was

the

earliest

widespread space application and delivered instant telephone access

between United States and many other countries. Today, nearly all
long-distance calls leaving the United States travel on fiber optic
cables, but many nations that are not connected to cable networks due
to expense or geography still depend on satellites.
Leasing satellite capacity for television, telephone, and Internet
backbone around the world generates about $10 billion each year
directly to satellite owners and operators. However, the true economic
power of these applications of satellites is in the worldwide access to
communication

services,

education,

news,

information,

and

entertainment provided to billions of people. In fact, they exemplify

what is perhaps the most powerful statement to be made about space
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exploration and the global economy that the concept of a global

economy

is

difficult

to

imagine

in

the

absence

of

global

communications, and global communications exist because of space

capabilities.
Satellite

navigation

is

another

excellent

example

of

the

disproportionate benefits delivered by space goods and services. This

global industry exists solely due to a service provided free to the world
by the United States through the Global Positioning System (GPS)
constellation of satellites. GPS satellite signals allow users on land, on
the sea, and in the air with inexpensive GPS devices to determine their
position and, aided by computer maps (most of which were developed
in part using other satellite capabilities such as remote sensing), plot a
course to their destination. GPS navigation has been so successful and
valuable that that the European Space Agency is investing billions of
dollars to develop its own GPS satellite constellation, Gallileo. GPS
signals also provide precision timing for financial and cell phone
networks.

Space Technologies Transforming Daily Life

Perhaps even more valuable than the goods and services that use
space infrastructure are those that use technologies developed as part
of space exploration. The impacts of these technologies are so
ubiquitous that it is difficult to imagine life without them.
Just a few award-winning examples are illustrated here. However, even
a complete list of specific spinoffs would understate the impact of work
conducted by NASA and the companies, universities, and laboratories it
has funded. Space exploration technology has had a profound impact
on the full range of industries that define modern life, including
computing, telecommunications, medicine, aviation, and many others.

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Television and telephone signals are compressed so massive amounts

of information can be carried using limited bandwidth and small
devices, drawing on decades of research on wireless communications
in space. Surgeons and doctors rely on imaging technologies such as
magnetic

resonance

imaging;

precision

miniaturized

surgical

instruments, laser devices, and advanced materials that have their

origins with astronauts and space hardware. Flight simulation systems,
advanced avionics, automated instrumentation, and other features of
commercial airliners derive from NASA aeronautics and aerospace
research.

FINAL REMARKS
We can conclude by acknowledging the Space Race to be the most
fruitful period of scientific and technological advancements, driven not
only by the deep need to explore, but also by practical reasons. The
pursuing of conquering new territories of space resulted in important
technologies being developed, which have transformed our daily lives.
I consider the Moonlanding to be one of the most important events in
the history of mankind, not only because it is a symbol of the
philosophical desires of men, but also because it left deep marks in the
American and global culture and economy.

Such a great ideal wouldnt have been possible without the intelligence
and innovative spirit of scientist and engineers, the courage of the
astronauts and the visionary spirit and management skills of politicians
like John F. Kennedy.

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The Moonlanding paved the way for further scientific missions in space.
Our rockets, probes and rovers ventured into the most distant corners
of the solar system, revealing more and more information abou the erly
stages of the solar system and even the formation of Earth. Such is the
need for exploring that nowadays colonization of Mars seems closer
snd closer to being reality. Hundreds of people have already
volunteered to take part in this one-way journey.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
Ayres, Alex, editor. The Wit and Wisdom of John F. Kennedy. New York: The
Meridian Group of Penguin Books, 1996
Murray, Charles and Catherine Bly Cox. Apollo: The Race to the Moon. New
York: Simon and Schuster, 1989
Duncan, Dayton and Ken Burns. Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of
Discovery, An Illustrated History. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997
Schefter, James L. The Race: The Uncensored Story of How America Beat
Russia to the Moon. New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1999

ONLINE RESOURCES

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race

http://er.jsc.nasa.gov/seh/ricetalk.htm

http://www.space.com/11772-president-kennedy-historic-speech-

moon-space.html
http://zidbits.com/2010/11/top-ten-nasa-spinoffs/
https://spinoff.nasa.gov/shuttle.htm
http://www.whitehousehistory.org/whha_classroom/classroom_9-12-visionarykennedy.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_landing
http://www.nasa.gov/content/former-astronauts-recall-historic-first-moonlanding

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