• DOI:10.1111/j.1467-954X.2009.01821.x
• Corpus ID: 142643666

The Archaeology of Space Exploration

@article{Gorman2009TheAO,
  title={The Archaeology of Space Exploration},
  author={Alice Claire Gorman},
  journal={The Sociological Review},
  year={2009},
  volume={57},
  pages={132 - 145}
}

• A. Gorman
• Published 1 May 2009
• History
• The Sociological Review

Since the Second World War, the exploration and commercial development of space have created an increasingly complex material record of places and objects. In 1947, four rocket ranges were established in Algeria, Australia, the USSR and the USA, the first generation of Cold War facilities where the production of missiles also created the capability of penetrating outer space. In 1957, the launch of Sputnik 1 heralded the beginning of the orbital age. In 1969, humans first set foot on the surface of another celestial body when the Apollo 11 mission landed on the Moon, leaving behind a flag, bootprints, and a myriad of other material remains. After 50 years of rocket launches, there are now more than 10,000 pieces of human-manufactured material in Earth orbit alone. These places and objects have been extensively documented and are represented in space museums across the world; but until recently they have not been considered as an archaeological record. To do so raises a number of questions: what can the artefacts of the space age tell us that the documentary record cannot? How has space exploration altered or created landscapes on Earth and in space? How do people interact with the artefacts and landscapes of space exploration? And, perhaps most importantly, what are the heritage values of this archaeological record? For many, the history of space exploration is also that of the ‘Space Race’: a narrative that emphasizes the adversarial relationship of the Cold War superpowers and downplays international collaboration and the contributions of ‘Third’ and ‘Fourth’ world people. In this chapter I propose to sidestep the ‘Space Race’ approach and examine the archaeological record of space exploration with particular reference to launch facilities in Australia and Algeria, and early amateur satellites such as Australis Oscar V.