Space propaganda is a form of propaganda relating to achievements in space exploration and space science. It is used primarily to further a nation's perceived technological superiority, through the operation of a state-funded space agency. Space propaganda was first emergent during the Space Race of the mid-20th-century, an indirect extension of the Cold War.
Although primarily associated with nationalistic pursuits, space propaganda has also been used to promote international organizations and collaborative space efforts.Zhou, Q. (2022, June 15). A Shared Frontier? Collaboration and competition in the space domain. Harvard International Review.Roberts, D. (1988). [Space and International Relations]. Duke University Press.
Space race
During the Cold War, both the United States and the Soviet Union engaged in extensive political warfare in an attempt to promote contrasting political ideologies. This manifested in demonstrations of technological superiority, complementary with exceptionalist Cold War ideology.Wells, N. (2014). American Exceptionalism Throughout United States History. Baylor University.Sturdevant, R. W. (2019). [Reaching for the Moon: A Short History of the Space Race]. Air Power History.
Space propaganda during the Space Race also appealed to a sense of strategic and military advantage. Due to the large amount of potential military applications to innovations in space science, such as rocket technology and the development of ballistic missiles in the wake of the nuclear arms race, fearmongering is common in space propaganda of this period.(1959, July 7.) IMPACT OF US AND SOVIET SPACE PROGRAMS ON WORLD OPINION. USIA Office of Research Analysis.Reuter, C. (2000). The V2 and the German, Russian and American Rocket Program. German Canadian Museum of Applied History.
Examples Many forms of space propaganda have been used by public and government officials to influence space policy. Because that very few people have been to space, propaganda often relied on artistic depictions and imagery to convey its messages.
Sputnik Crisis
The successful launch of Sputnik in 1957 undermined the belief of American technological superiority. This event showed that the Soviets were ahead of the Americans. This Soviet achievement put pressure on U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower and was looked on by many as his greatest failure. According to McDougall, "The concomitant arrival of Sputnik and the Third World generalized the problem of the American image. The Soviet challenge and European colonial heritage made it vital for the United States to present and image of progressive anticolonialism."
Yuri Gagarin Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space. This was a monumental event not only in Soviet history but also world history. His achievements made him a celebrity and he was perceived as an international hero. He had a common background, his wife recalling a story about a time he was thrown out of a house and had to live in a dugout of a garden for three years during the German occupation of the Soviet Union. As his popularity soared, it also became threatening. President Kennedy did not let Yuri Gagarin tour the United States. Yuri Gagarin's story was told to millions of people throughout the world. Books, magazines, TV shows, movies have been made to honor this man. Posters and stamps were issued with Yuri's face on it. April 12 is known as the Day of Space in Russia to commemorate Yuri Gagarin's flight.
In the Soviet Union, being the first to reach space was seen as a great victory. Yuri Gagarin's 1961 flight into space was seen by many as another Sputnik moment. Khrushchev stated that Gagarin's flight was the "...greatest triumph of the immortal Lenin's ideas." Egypt's President Nasser stated the "gigantic scientific capabilities of the Soviet people and had no doubt that the launching of man into space will turn upside down not only many scientific views, but also many political and military trends". American newspapers characterized Soviet advancement as: "a psychological victory of the first magnitude"; "new evidence of Soviet superiority"; "cost the nation heavily in prestige"; "marred the political and psychological image of the country abroad"; "Neutral nations may come to believe the wave of the future is Russian."
Gherman Titov Gherman Titov's flight into space, being the second human to orbit Earth, was seen as a major accomplishment not only for the Soviet Union as a whole but the Premier himself and was boasted about in Pravda which stated that the Premier, "directs the development of the major technical projects in the country, and determines the basic directions of planned growth in cosmic science and technology. In his able proposals there is evidence again and again of his great conviction in the triumph of Soviet rocket technology." Khrushchev felt pressure to put money into missiles and space technology but diverted much of it towards self-serving political objectives.
Valentina Tereshkova
The USSR launched the first woman (also the first civilian), Valentina Tereshkova, into space on Vostok 6; this was a propaganda stunt rather than a good faith step for women's equality, and possibly a medical experiment. Prior to flying on Vostok 6, Tereshkova worked in a textile factory and was an amateur parachutist. After Gagarin's flight, Nikolai Kamanin, director of cosmonaut training, read in American media about the "Mercury 13", female pilots trying to become astronauts. Although this article noted that the women passed the same medical qualification tests as the male candidates, it must not have mentioned that they were not accepted or trained as astronauts by NASA, and thus had absolutely no chance of being accepted into the all-male test pilot-astronaut community. In his diary, Kamanin wrote, "We cannot allow that the first woman in space will be American. This would be an insult to the patriotic feelings of Soviet women." He got permission to choose a small corps of female cosmonauts; Tereshkova was the only one of five women amateur parachutists to fly.
Although she had to join the Soviet Air Forces to become a cosmonaut, Soviet male test pilots of the 1960s were no more accepting of women in their ranks than their American counterparts, though the Soviet Air Force had three segregated all-women combat air regiments in World War II. On November 3, 1963, Tereshkova married Vostok 3 cosmonaut Andriyan Nikolayev, and they had a daughter, Elena Andrianovna Nikolaeva-Tereshkova, the first person with both a mother and father who had traveled into space.
Kamanin wanted to fly more women on the last two Voskhod flights, but the cancellation of these flights in 1965 put an end to this. The USSR didn't again open its cosmonaut corps to women until 1980, two years after the United States opened its astronaut corps to women.
Voshkod 1 When the Soviet Union launched Voskhod 1, the first spacecraft to carry 3 people, Pravda's headline read, "Sorry Apollo!". The article continued by saying, "...the so-called system of free enterprise is turning out to be powerless in competition with socialism such a complex and modern area as space research."
"If the newspapers printed a despach that the Soviet Union planned sending the first man to Hell, our federal agencies would appear the next day, crying, "We can't let them beat us to it!" --- Hyman Rickover, 1959
John Glenn
In the United States, John Glenn is held in high honors. Being the first American to orbit the Earth was seen as a great American accomplishment. It was an important step to catching up with the Soviet Union during the Space Race. Glenn, in addition to becoming a successful astronaut, also became a successful politician. He successfully ran for the United States Senate. Later on, NASA honored his flight into space with a website that takes the viewer through John Glenn's Mission of Freedom 7. The United States Post Office issued a commemorative stamp. There are also schools named after John Glenn.
John F. Kennedy's election When John F. Kennedy became President of the United States there was a question about how to catch up with the Soviet Union. Kennedy did not want to "... place safety about the desire to gain some additional prestige". However, there pressure was there from Congress when Overton Brooks, who was the Chairman of the House Space Committee said, "any step-up in the space program must be designed to accelerate a civilian program of peaceful space exploration and use....This very important from the standpoint of international relations." James E. Webb had a meeting with President Kennedy to help convince him the need to spend resources in the area of space. In this meeting he stated, "...it will be possible through new technology to bring about a whole new areas of international cooperation in meteorology and communications...The extent to which we are leaders in space science and technology will in large measure determine the extent to which we, as a nation, pioneering on a new frontier, will be in a position to develop the emerging world forces and make it the basis for new concepts and application in education, communications, and transportation, looking towards more viable political, social, and economic systems for nations willing to work with us in the years ahead." President Kennedy saw the benefits of the space program as both domestic and international. Kennedy had had a string a failures from Laos to the Congo, the Bay of Pigs Invasion and Gagarin. Vice President Lyndon Johnson was put in charge of America's objectives in space. In a report to President Kennedy he stated, "The Soviets led the United States in prestige; the United States had failed to marshal its superior technological resources; the United States should recognize that countries tend to line up with the country they believe to be the leader; if the United States did not act, the Soviet "margin of control" would get beyond our ability to catch up; even in areas where the Soviets led, the United States had to make aggressive efforts; manned exploration of the Moon was a great propaganda value but was essential whether or not the United States was first." Further on in the meeting Johnson stated, "One can predict with confidence that failure to master space means being second best in the crucial arena of our Cold War world. In the eyes of the world, first in space means first period; second in space is second in everything."
Moon landing On July 20, 1969 the United States landed on the Moon. This was seen as an American victory in space. The plaque that was left on the base of the lander states that "We came in peace for all mankind".
The term "space race" in contemporary use Politicians and journalists will use the phrase space race to stimulate controversy, interest, or competition. The term was used during the Cold War to describe the competition between the US and the USSR. Today the phrase is used by journalists frequently to draw attention to competing countries developing technology and access to space. As Time Magazine states, “Space exploration is a powerful rallying point for national pride… The contest may not be accompanied by the blaring cold-war overtones of the last great space race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. China's space program is conducted largely in secret, and Japan's modest achievements don't make headlines. But plenty is at stake. Over the past few years, a centuries-old rivalry between China and Japan has flared anew. While the two countries are increasingly interdependent economically, relations remain uncomfortably strained as fast-growing China begins to challenge Japan as the preeminent East Asian power. This spring, for example, anti-Japan riots erupted in a number of Chinese cities, and diplomatic disputes over natural-gas-field rights in the East China Sea continue to rage.