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Reaching for the High Frontier: The American Pro-Space Movement, 1972-84 |  | Author: Michael A. G. Michaud
Publisher: Praeger Publishers
Category: Book
List Price: $119.95
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Seller: betterworldbooks_
Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 3025817
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 462
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9.8 x 6.3 x 1.3
ISBN: 0275921514
Dewey Decimal Number: 629.40973
EAN: 9780275921514
ASIN: 0275921514
Publication Date: December 3, 1986
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Reaching for the High Frontier tells the story of the pro-space movement from the end of the moon landing program to the beginning of the space station program. It describes the origins, constituencies, and goals of the various groups in the movement, and reviews their tactics, successes, and the opportunities they may have missed.
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| Customer Reviews:
Historical analysis with current implications October 9, 2007
James A. Vedda (Alexandria, VA USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The decline of U.S. civil space spending after Apollo sparked a movement by citizen advocates to reinvigorate the exploration and development of space. The remarkable thing was that most of the people involved had no direct professional or economic stake in the outcome (although interest groups representing scientists, engineers, and aerospace companies became more active at this time as well). Michaud tells the story of this movement from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s.
The book came out in 1986 and was largely written prior to the Challenger accident, which occurred in January of that year. That event is only mentioned in the Forward by former astronaut Joe Allen and in three paragraphs in the Epilogue. For those who didn't live through this era, it's noteworthy that the time from the initiation of the space station program in January 1984 until the Challenger accident two years later was arguably the most hopeful period in U.S. civil space history. The shuttle was flying regularly, the space station program had begun, the Voyager probes had recently visited Jupiter and Saturn, many more ambitious science missions (including the Hubble Space Telescope) were on the immediate horizon - a very exciting and promising time for space enthusiasts.
Michaud chronicles the emerging grassroots organizations, the conflicting goals (e.g., manned vs. unmanned missions, militarization vs. arms control), the struggles to establish credibility, the personalities (some visionary, some eccentric), and the focusing events (e.g., the first space shuttle launch, the decision to build the space station, the Senate debate over ratification of the Moon Treaty). He recognizes that the advocacy groups never developed the large memberships, financial resources, or political clout necessary to drive decision-making in U.S. space policy circles. In the early 1980s, they were mostly riding the wave of developments, and sometimes claiming credit when things went their way.
There are two things that make this a thought-provoking read for followers of U.S. civil space activities more than 20 years later. First, many of the people in this story are still around, making their mark in today's space community. Second, Michaud and many of the people he interviewed had visions of what would come to pass in the following two decades or so, almost all of which failed to occur. Readers will come to their own conclusions about why the past two decades have been so lacking in progress, but certainly one of the reasons is that the citizen advocacy groups never did develop the resources or the unified message needed to make an impact on space policy at the national level.
This book appeals to a limited, mostly U.S. audience, but it is well written and thoroughly researched so it will not disappoint those in its target audience.
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