431 



Technocracy and Statecraft in the Space Age 1013 



Raumschiffahrt or Frederikh Tsander's G.I.R.D. in the Soviet Union. The roots of 

 the Space Age are really lodged, therefore, in the late 1930s when a peripatetic 

 collaboration between the rocketeers and national military establishments was 

 inaugurated.'* 



Sociologist William Sims Bainbridge sought to unravel the relative roles of 

 individuals and organizations in the origins of spaceflight, a development he has 

 seen as scarcely inevitable, and even accidental.^ He has interpreted rocketry as 

 residing outside "normal science" in the Kuhnian sense, and thus explicable only 

 in terms of "social processes that operate outside the conventional market 

 mechanisms" — that is, a "social movement."* Conventional wisdom held that the 

 amateur rocketeers of the 1920s found their work taken up by military 

 authorities, especially in Nazi Germany, who pushed it forward for political 

 ends. In fact, Bainbridge argues, "the Spaceflight Movement caused the German 

 military to be taken up by the rocket" — the governments of Germany, and later the 

 United States and Soviet Union, were exploited by the space enthusiasts for their 

 own purposes. This provocative thesis emphasizes not only the technical 

 virtuosity but also the manipulative skills of men like Wernher von Braun and 

 Walter Dornberger, whT) were able to sell the keepers of the public purse on 

 projects like the V-2 and giant Saturn rockets that really invoked a misallocation 

 of government investment.^ Hence, rockets appeared in a "technologically 

 revolutionary situation, defined as the presence of a rich and incompetent 

 patron beset with problems that might be solved through technological innova- 

 tion. In such a situation some developments may prosper unnaturally."** 



There are other conditions besides zealous promotion and foolhardy patron- 

 age that make for technological advances. The prototype b.illistic missile, the 

 V-2, was also the product of the military and economic restrictions on Germany in 



■* The collection of articles in Terhtwlogy and Culture. 4 (196,3). republished and cdiicd by Eugene Emme as 

 The History of Rocket Technolo^ (Detroit. 1964), established rockelrv as an important field in the history of 

 technology. Also sec R. Cargill Hall, ed., E\say<, on the Hutor^i of Rocketry anA Astronautics, 2 vols. (Washington. 

 1977); W'lllv Ley, Rockets. Missiles, and Space Travel (New York. 1957; 3d rev. edn., 1961); and Wernher von 

 Braun and Frederick I. Ordway III, History if Rocketry arui Space Travel (>iew York, 1'166). On the Soviet roots, 

 see Nikolai D. Anoschenko, ed.A History oj \mation and Cosmonautus , 5 vols. (Washington, 1977); and Anatoli 

 Blagonravov, Soviet Rocketry: Some Contributions to Its History (.Springfield, Va., 1966), .ind USSR Achiei'ements m 

 Space Research (Washington. 1969). The N.\SA Historical Publications series is the iK-st source for program 

 hisiories; see, for example. Constance M. Green and Milton Lomask, Vanguard: A Hi-lory (Washington, 1970); 

 Lovd S. Svvienson, Jr., et ai. This New Ocean: A History of Project Mercury (Washington, 1966); Barton C. Hacker 

 and James M. Grimwood, On the Shoulders of Titans: A History of Project Gemini (Washington, 1977); R. Cargill 

 Hall, Lunar Impact: A History of Project Ranger (Washington, 1977); and Homer Newell, Beyond the Atmosphere: 

 Early Years of Space Science (Washington. 1980). 



^ Bainbridge, The Spaceflight Revolution: A Sociological Study (New York. 1976). 



' The origins of Sputnik illustrate the "chicken and egg" debate on the connection of inventions and 

 environment described by Roger Burlingame in his "Technology: Neglected Clue to Historical Change" and by 

 Lewis Mumford in his "History: Neglected C;lue to lechnological Change," Technology and Culture, 2 

 (1961): 219-39. 



'Bainbridge, The Spaceflight Revolution. 4-11. On the cost-effectiveness of the V-2, see ibid.. 92-107. 

 Bainbridge relied heavily on biographical dau about the leaders of the "spaceHight movement." Recent works 

 include P. T. Astashenkov, Academician S P Korolev: A Biography (Washington, 1973); 1. K. Golovanov, Sergei 

 Koroleir Apprenticeship of a Space Pioneer, trans. M. M. Samokhvalov and H. C. Creightoii ( Moscow, 1 97.=i); Milton 

 Lehman, This High Man— The Life of Robert H. Coddard (New York, 1963); Esther C: Goddard and G. Edward 

 Pendrav. eds., Tlie Papers of Robert H. Coddard, 3 vols. (New York, 1970); and Erik Beigaust, Wernher von Braun 

 (Washington, 1976). 



' Bainbridge, The Spaceflight Revolution, 107. 



