ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 broadens the scale of analysis to consider the interactions between geopolitics and space exploration in Britain from the 1950s to the 1970s. This was a time, at the dawn of the Space Age, in which countries around the world were aligning themselves to join the ‘space race’ between the USA and USSR, including France, Italy, Canada and the UK. The theme of internationalism is returned to here, considering the ways in which the contradictions between nationalism and internationalism were played out with respect to plans for space exploration. The activities of the British Interplanetary Society are examined in this respect, considering the ways in which its members lobbied for a national space programme while taking stock of the UK's shift in geopolitical status from Empire to Commonwealth. A connection to the brief but compelling cultural movement of New Elizabethanism is identified, incorporating the monarchy, aero-mobility and other exciting new technologies of twentieth-century modernity. Ultimately, though, this chapter argues that the UK's material involvement in outer space at this time necessitated a careful calibration between American and European spheres of influence. This negotiation is examined through the case of Ariel 1 – Britain's first satellite – and the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO), including the imaginative and material enrolment of the Woomera rocket range in South Australia. In examining multiple modes of representation, including photographic montages depicting international co-operation in space, one of Arthur C Clarke's first novels and media reports of Britain's early involvement in the exploration of space and the upper atmosphere, the geopolitical aspects of outer space in the UK are examined.
