Limiting Outer Space: Astroculture After Apollo [Hardcover]

Limiting Outer Space propels the historicization of outer space by focusing on the Post-Apollo period. After the moon landings, disillusionment set in. Outer space, no longer considered the inevitable destination of human expansion, lost much of its popular appeal, cultural significance and political urgency. With the rapid waning of the worldwide Apollo frenzy, the optimism of the Space Age gave way to an era of space fatigue and planetized limits. Bringing together the history of European astroculture and American-Soviet spaceflight with scholarship on the 1970s, this cutting-edge volume examines the reconfiguration of space imaginaries from a multiplicity of disciplinary perspectives. Rather than invoking oft-repeated narratives of Cold War rivalry and an escalating Space Race, Limiting Outer Space breaks new ground by exploring a hitherto underrated and understudied decade, the Post-Apollo period.

Introduction.- 1 Alexander C.T. Geppert; The Post-Apollo Paradox: Envisioning Limits During the Planetized 1970s.- Part I: Navigating the 1970s.- 2           Martin Collins; The 1970s: Spaceflight and Historically Interpreting the In-between Decade.- 3         Roger D. Launius; Responding to Apollo: Americas Divergent Reactions to the Moon Landings.- 4    Doug Millard; A Grounding in Space: Were the 1970s a Period of Transition in Britains Exploration of Outer Space?.- Part II: Reconfiguring Outer Space.- 5 Robert Poole; The Myth of Progress: 2001: A Space Odyssey.- 6         Florian Kl?ger; The Earthward Gaze and Self-reflexivity in AlĂ2