Abstract
AbstractDrawing from recent theoretical insights on the circulation of knowledge, this article, grounded in real-world examples, illustrates the importance of ‘the site’ as an analytical heuristic for revealing processes, movements and connections illegible within either nation-centred histories or comparative national studies. By investigating place instead of project, the study reframes the birth of modern rocket developments in both China and India as fundamentally intertwined within common global networks of science. I investigate four seemingly disconnected sites in the US, India, China and Ukraine, each separated by politics but connected and embedded in conduits that enabled the flow of expertise during (and in some cases despite) the Cold War. By doing so, it is possible to reconstruct an exemplar of a kind of global history of science, some of which takes place in China, some in India, and some elsewhere, but all of it connected. There are no discrete beginnings or endings here, merely points of intervention to take stock of processes in action. Each site produces objects and knowledge that contribute to our understanding of the other sites, furthering the overall narrative on Chinese and Indian efforts to formalize a ‘national’ space programme. The focus on these four sites reveals a global network of science in motion, linked by the common goals of building powerful rockets to explore space.
Highlights
In revisiting the Cold War origins of China and India’s efforts to create the infrastructure to launch missiles and satellites into space, we find twin projects, driven and defined by domestic aspirations that were couched in the analogous language of science and modernization
By looking at four seemingly disconnected sites, each separated by politics but connected and embedded in conduits that enabled the flow of expertise during the Cold War, but with a shared common goal – departure from the Earth – it is possible to reconstruct an exemplar of a kind of global history of science, some of which takes place in China, some in India, and some elsewhere, but all of it connected
It moves across different locations, often taking its actors with it, often picking up new ones. It disrupts the idealized chronology we expect of the production of knowledge. It highlights the ‘embeddedness’ of actors and sites in a global network, and it eschews the framework of the ‘national programme’ in favour of actions that cross boundaries that were defined by geography, claimed by national imperative, and regulated by international relations
Summary
In revisiting the Cold War origins of China and India’s efforts to create the infrastructure to launch missiles and satellites into space, we find twin projects, driven and defined by domestic aspirations that were couched in the analogous language of science and modernization.
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