From Open Skies to Orbits of Collaboration

• In Event: Left Perspectives on State Socialism II: The USSR and the Creation of Cold War International Spaces

Abstract

The humanity’s advance into the outer space occurred at a time when the world was divided by a war that has been labelled “cold” but that always carried the risk of escalating into a hot, devastating war of unprecedented dimensions. The destructive potential resulted not least from the development of the very technologies that enabled space exploration, and the possibility to reach the outer space fueled fears of its misuse. But despite the military implications of space and the context of the Cold War, already the first space exploration activities were conducted according to the principle of freedom of space leading to its establishment in practice and later formalization in the Outer Space Treaty in 1967. Among the global public, broad consensus emerged on outer space as a space of internationalism, cooperation, and peaceful exploration for the benefit of all mankind.
The paper examines on the one hand the Soviet Union’s role in shaping the global norms that have guided space endeavors from the very beginnings, and on the other hand, it looks at the changes brought about by the globally accepted norms of space exploration to the Soviet space program. These norms fostered internationalization of Soviet space efforts, under favorable political conditions such as détente put forth the superpowers’ collaboration, and continued to affect the Soviet space program also in the 1980s and 1990s. However, the current development of Russia’s space policy shows that the perseverance of these norms is not a given.

Author

• Darina Volf, Ludwig-Maximilians-U Munich (Germany)