BUT WHAT IS THE TRUE RATIONALE FOR HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT

Human interest in spaceflight is ancient. It is therefore ironic that, at a time when humans finally have the capability to travel in space, the notion that we should do so is being questioned. The author analy ses the reasons for this - the historical/political and technological contingency of the Space Age and the sudden falling away of the condit ions which drove space activity - and in the process provides a critiq ue of the forgoing article and the tendency to search for utilitarian justifications of human spaceflight. He argues rather that space progr ammes will thrive only when driven by non-material cultural and politi cal forces. US-Russian cooperation, which has principally been underta ken for geopolitical reasons is a model for the future.