Life in Space: NASA Life Sciences Research during the Late Twentieth Century by Maura Phillips Mackowski

Abstract

Reviewed by: Life in Space: NASA Life Sciences Research during the Late Twentieth Century by Maura Phillips Mackowski Alwin J. Cubasch (bio) Life in Space: NASA Life Sciences Research during the Late Twentieth Century By Maura Phillips Mackowski. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2022. Pp. 392. Several recent publications have shown an interest in the science and technology that is necessary to live in space. Early astronaut training has become a focus of historical research, as well as the conflicting roles of astronauts as both scientific field workers and test subjects in space (Hersch, "Spacework"; Bimm and Kilian, "The Well-Tempered Astronaut"; Fendley, "First Contact"). Other publications have delved into the history of closed-loop ecologies for long-term space flight (Höhler, Spaceship Earth in the Environmental Age; Munns and Nickelsen, Far Beyond the Moon) and the psychology of living in space (Karafantis, "Sealab II and Skylab"; Grevsmühl, "Laboratory Metaphors in Antarctic History"). Questions of scientific cooperation across the Iron Curtain during the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project have also received scholarly attention (A. Jenks, Collaboration in Space and the Search for Peace on Earth). Against this backdrop, Maura Phillips Mackowski's second book on the history of NASA's life science research is a welcome addition that addresses the life science funding "bubble" (p. 6) at NASA from 1980 to 2004. Mackowski employs a wide definition of what counts as life science, allowing her to cover a broad range of NASA's endeavors from research on lab animals and artificial gravity centrifuges to crew safety systems and escape vehicles. This wide range illustrates NASA's own indecisiveness on what topics should be covered by its life science research programs. It also supports Mackowski's main argument that even in the heyday of life science during the space shuttle and early International Space Station era (p. 74), outside scientists were reluctant to engage with NASA, an agency they considered an unreliable source of funding because of its ever-shifting agenda. Drawing from a wide range of sources and interviews, Mackowski's study especially shines when it locates NASA's life sciences in broader societal and [End Page 627] political trends, from the early enthusiasm of the space shuttle era to the end and aftermath of the Cold War, which restricted funding levels and forced NASA into sometimes uneasy international cooperations. She convincingly shows how cultural influences, political currents, and actors like animal welfare organizations shaped the possibilities the life science community had to conduct research in space. Looking the other direction, the book also discusses NASA's efforts to persuade outside actors and agencies to cooperate on life science projects like radiation research. Her book gives valuable insights into questions of collaboration and competition in late twentieth-century institutionalized science, especially when it deals with NASA's strategies for and difficulties in distributing its main resources to scientists, namely funding and space flight opportunities, fairly between its own centers and extramural researchers. Equally important, the book touches on questions of participation in research settings on Earth and in space and discusses the dynamics of long-distance teamwork between astronauts and scientists. But most of all this is a book about how (not) to manage research in large techno-scientific organizations. Mackowski argues that NASA's constantly shifting priorities discouraged researchers who spent years developing research proposals that underwent peer review and long ground preparation only to be denied flight because of altered mission schedules, new research priorities, or funding cuts. NASA's life science programs often were the first items that fell victim to the reallocation of resources and reorganizations after congressional hearings or the new space policies of incoming presidents. Unfortunately, the actual developments and achievements of NASA's life science sometimes take a backseat in Mackowski's study. While NASA's indecisiveness is mirrored in the interwoven threads of the book, its thematic organization makes following the narrative difficult, as actors and key decisions seem to vanish at points only to reappear a few subchapters later. The book's reliance on NASA's acronyms sometimes conveys the feeling that readers must be intimately familiar with organigrams of NASA headquarters and NASA centers to grasp every detail. Mackowski...