Space Station: Campaigning for a Permanent Human Presence in Space

Abstract

Chapter 5, “Space Station: Campaigning for a Permanent Human Presence in Space,” transitions from the space shuttle as the focus of U.S. human spaceflight to NASA’s push for a permanent space station from the 1980s into the new century. The space station became the new icon for justifying humans living and working off the planet. The focus here is the constant effort to shape and reshape both the rationale for the station and its actual configuration in the face of mounting opposition. Two phrases served to reshape the meaning of spaceflight once a space station claimed the agenda: “the next logical step” and “a permanent presence in space.”