Sunday, March 13, 2016

Star Wars: Space Militarization

While many Americans gazed in amazement as Yuri Gagarin's Vostok spacecraft, visible from Earth, completed a successful orbit in space, the scientific success introduced the Cold War into the new frontier of space. Naturally, since missile technology was heavily invested in so that each side could keep up with the other, new rocket designs were always appearing that brought mankind closer and closer with space.

The Soviet Union was the first of the rivals to successfully place an artificial satellite, Sputnik, in space, and Gagarin was the first human to orbit the Earth as well. The potential threat of the domination of space could come in the form of missiles in space that could strike and fall without warning. As a result, space became, like Cuba, yet another battleground for the Soviets and the Americans.

In May 1961, the same year that Gagarin and US astronaut Alan Shepherd successfully went into space, President Kennedy launched an unprecedented promise by telling the world that America would place a man on the moon by the end of the decade. Funding to space programs quintupled, but there were still notable setbacks, like Project Vanguard, the US's first rocket that exploded on launch, and the deaths of 3 astronauts during Apollo 1 due to an electrical fire during testing. Kennedy's ultimate aim, however, can be constructed to be an increase in US influence internationally through a demonstration of US technological superiority. Even after Kennedy's assassination, manned space travel remained an important part of US government doctrine in order to boost the morale of Americans.

Kennedy's vision was realized when Apollo 11, carrying 3 astronauts, successfully landed on the moon, effectively winning the space race. However, the Cold War still continued in space in varying ways. On one hand, cooperative Soviet-American flights were proposed. Even today, NASA and Roscosmos, the Russian space program, cooperate in sending astronauts and cosmonauts to the ISS, the international space station. Yet, even up until the Reagan presidency, the rivalry in space could still be seen with the Strategic Defense Initiative, aptly named Star Wars, that aimed to put an anti-ballistic system in space. Such imaginative programs failed in part because of the SALT talks and the limitations placed on ABMs there.

Although the Cold War era and the exciting leap to space are behind us, space remains an important area of international law. The US has Cold War era anti-satellite weapons currently in space, while China infamously demonstrated its own capability for destroying satellites by blowing up an old satellite with a missile in 2007, and the US followed in 2008. Although multiple treaties, including the UN's 2006 Space Preservation Treaty, have been generally accepted, they have not prevented such demonstrations. Similar actions as a part of war could disable GPS or communication systems if they were ever used.

"The Space Race," HISTORY, http://www.history.com/topics/space-race
3-1-2006, "The Cold War and the early space race, an article from History in Focus," History in Focus, http://www.history.ac.uk/ihr/Focus/cold/articles/godwin.html
 3-5-2009, "The Space Race and the Cold War," Science and Its Times, http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/uhic/ReferenceDetailsPage/DocumentToolsPortletWindow?displayGroupName=Reference&u=s0351&u=s0351&jsid=1f3b2282b1e355000b5c9b6f11c25fe0&p=UHIC%3AWHIC&action=2&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CCV2643450871&zid=d76b6ef1282af17e6e7a964d0f40bdc9
Koman, Rita G.. “Man on the Moon: The U.S. Space Program as a Cold War Maneuver”. OAH Magazine of History 8.2 (1994): 42–50. Web...
http://www.coldwar.org/articles/80s/SDI-StarWars.asp

4 comments:

  1. While it is true that there was a prevalent "space race" to the moon, we cannot state that America solely won the space race. We were not the first to launch an actual craft into space, this prize given to the Soviets with Sputnik. As such, while we were gifted with the opportunity to land the first man on the moon, we were not the first to actually make steps in space. This can show the delicate balance between Soviet and American relations, as well as the fight for dominance and the fight to be the first to do anything from "colored television" to mass building of ABM's.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Despite the disputes over space between nations that you've mentioned in your article, it is important to recognize how far we have come in terms of international relations since the end of the Cold War. Take the International Space Station, for example. The ISS is made up of modules built in Russia, the United States, Japan, and Europe. The logistics and money that went into the building of the ISS were stupendous, but there is no greater example of what could be achieved through international cooperation.

    Sources:
    http://www.spaceanswers.com/space-exploration/15-years-of-the-iss-the-past-present-and-future-of-the-space-station/
    http://science.jrank.org/pages/3641/International-Space-Station-History-structure.html

    ReplyDelete
  3. Despite the disputes over space between nations that you've mentioned in your article, it is important to recognize how far we have come in terms of international relations since the end of the Cold War. Take the International Space Station, for example. The ISS is made up of modules built in Russia, the United States, Japan, and Europe. The logistics and money that went into the building of the ISS were stupendous, but there is no greater example of what could be achieved through international cooperation.

    Sources:
    http://www.spaceanswers.com/space-exploration/15-years-of-the-iss-the-past-present-and-future-of-the-space-station/
    http://science.jrank.org/pages/3641/International-Space-Station-History-structure.html

    ReplyDelete
  4. Although the United States "won" the Space Race by being the first to get a man on the moon, were we really the "winners" of the Space Race? Yes, we were the first to get a man on the moon but we were not the first send a satellite into space nor the first ones to orbit the earth. What are your personal thoughts on this "victory"?

    ReplyDelete