Paradigm lost

Abstract

This viewpoint argues that the US space programme remains predicated on the visionary paradigm first articulated by Wernher won Braun in the 1950s. While von Braun's proposals for an integrated human space exploration program would indeed facilitate such a project, political realities and the quite different visions of Presidents Eisenhower (space as a means to national security) and Kennedy (space as an arena of Cold War competition) prevented their realization. Nevertheless NASA continued to implement elements of von Braun's integrated plan — the shuttle, a space station (maybe) — without acknowledging that, on their own, they lead nowhere. Indeed, the view consistently taken in the numerous reports on the USA's future in space produced after Apollo confirm the pervasive influence of von Braun's thinking. It is only by abandoning this that the US space program will be able to move forward.