Underlying assumptions of human spaceflight in the United States

Abstract

Throughout the 50 years of the space age, a basic assumption has reigned that human exploration represented the epitome of the endeavor. Both the United States and the Soviet Union founded their efforts on that belief and remain to the date dominant forces in the human exploration and development of space. But why did the two superpowers locked in the cold war struggle pursue human spaceflight? The answer usually given involves the quest for pride and prestige in the cold war rivalry as each sought to best the other in a complex and expensive game of “one-upmanship.” Without denying the significance of the cold war in prying open the treasury of the United States for human spaceflight, the endeavor seems to have been attractive in the first place because of several underlying assumptions that are deeply seated in the American values. This essay suggests that Americans embraced human space exploration because of its potential for extending human dominion into space and for the promise of colonization and expansion, although that has usually been at best a subtext for the effort. When thinking about these human activities over the long term, moreover, it raises important and difficult questions about the evolution and survival of the species.