Spaceflight in the shuttle era and beyond
Subtitle: redefining humanity's purpose in space
By: Valerie Neal
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 270
ISBN-13: 9780300206517
Subjects: Space shuttles; Space flights
Description: An exploration of the changing conceptions of the iconic Space Shuttle and a call for a new vision of spaceflight The thirty years of Space Shuttle flights saw contrary changes in American visions of space. Valerie Neal, who has spent much of her career examining the Space Shuttle program, uses this iconic vehicle to question over four decades' worth of thinking about, and struggling with, the meaning of human spaceflight. She examines the ideas, images, and icons that emerged as NASA, Congress, journalists, and others sought to communicate rationales for, or critiques of, the Space Shuttle missions. At times concurrently, the Space Shuttle was billed as delivery truck and orbiting science lab, near-Earth station and space explorer, costly disaster and pinnacle of engineering success. The book's multidisciplinary approach reveals these competing depictions to examine the meaning of the spaceflight enterprise. Given the end of the Space Shuttle flights in 2011, Neal makes an appeal to reframe spaceflight once again to propel humanity forward.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Spaceflight : discerning its meaning; title: Space shuttle : going to work in space; title: Astronauts : reinventing the right stuff; title: Science : doing research in space; title: Space station : campaigning for a permanent human presence in space; title: Plans : envisioning the future in space; title: Memory : preserving meaning.