23
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. Spagnulo, The Geopolitics of Space Exploration, Springer Praxis Books,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69125-7_3
3
Rocket Science: Globalization and Missiles
“Rocket science is tough, and rockets have a way of failing”.
Sally Ride, first US female astronaut
In ancient times, the Pillars of Hercules at the Strait of Gibraltar stood as the fearsome barrier separating Mediterranean populations from the unknown world.
Once a handful of brave men had crossed this physical and psychological frontier,
thousands followed, sailing across the dangerous seas in search of new lands.
In the twentieth century, humankind has sailed ever farther, managing to overcome even the Earth’s atmosphere. The historian Yuval Harari writes:
Science and technology have provided more efficient methods to exploit
existing resources and to produce new forms of energy and materials. Over
the last 300 years, humankind has built wagons, wheelbarrows, carriages,
trains, cars, supersonic airplanes and even space shuttles. In the eighteenth
century the carriages moving people and goods were built by men’s bare
hands, while today the workers at Boeing or Toyota factories are basically
robotic machineries powered by combustion engines or by nuclear power
plants. A similar revolution has crossed almost all sectors. We call it the
Industrial Revolution.
1
In a few decades, the sky has become a place teeming with life, where millions
of people travel onboard flying steel-made machines, called aircrafts. The
International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimated that in 2017, about 4
1
Harari, Yuval Noah. 2014. Sapiens and Homo Deus. New York: Harper.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. Spagnulo, The Geopolitics of Space Exploration, Springer Praxis Books,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69125-7_3
3
Rocket Science: Globalization and Missiles
“Rocket science is tough, and rockets have a way of failing”.
Sally Ride, first US female astronaut
In ancient times, the Pillars of Hercules at the Strait of Gibraltar stood as the fearsome barrier separating Mediterranean populations from the unknown world.
Once a handful of brave men had crossed this physical and psychological frontier,
thousands followed, sailing across the dangerous seas in search of new lands.
In the twentieth century, humankind has sailed ever farther, managing to overcome even the Earth’s atmosphere. The historian Yuval Harari writes:
Science and technology have provided more efficient methods to exploit
existing resources and to produce new forms of energy and materials. Over
the last 300 years, humankind has built wagons, wheelbarrows, carriages,
trains, cars, supersonic airplanes and even space shuttles. In the eighteenth
century the carriages moving people and goods were built by men’s bare
hands, while today the workers at Boeing or Toyota factories are basically
robotic machineries powered by combustion engines or by nuclear power
plants. A similar revolution has crossed almost all sectors. We call it the
Industrial Revolution.
1
In a few decades, the sky has become a place teeming with life, where millions
of people travel onboard flying steel-made machines, called aircrafts. The
International Air Transport Association (IATA) estimated that in 2017, about 4
1
Harari, Yuval Noah. 2014. Sapiens and Homo Deus. New York: Harper.