2023 Sammler K. & Lynch C. Spaceport America: Contested Offworld Access and the Everyman Astronaut. Spaceports: Places, Promises, Politics. University of York. York, UK, 2 Nov.
ABSTRACT: Spaceport America is a spectacle in the desert, conveying hope for the ‘everyman astronaut.’ As the “world’s first purpose-built commercial spaceport” it enacts particular relationships among state/military, corporate, and civil society actors in relation to space travel. We consider it as a ‘space of anticipation,’ where specific visions of the future are rendered present through built infrastructures. While many ventures push outer space to become another site of capital accumulation, there are also social movements envisioning near earth orbit and offplanet spaces as collective and emancipatory, imagining horizontal social relations in a vertical environment. This paper traces contested notions of offworld access manifesting via cultural imaginaries and technosocial assemblages.
OUTPUT: 2021 Sammler & Lynch. Spaceport America: Contested offworld access and the everyman astronaut. Geopolitics, 26(3):704–728. In special issue: Human rights & critical geopolitics of outer space. https://doi.org/10.1080/14650045.2019.1569631.
saltygeographies 