33
© 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_4
4
Beyond the Movies: The Real War for Space
We Never Saw on Screen
“The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the
Force”.
Darth Wader in Star Wars, 1977
Wednesday, May 25, 1977, the movie Star Wars premiered on the big screen. At
the time, no one would have bet a dime that this movie would come to represent
not only a historic moment in Hollywood, but also the imagination of younger
generations worldwide. When it was first released in Manhattan, Star Wars could
only be seen in two theatres. Tickets were sold for only $4, and there were no
queues at the box office. But a few days later, thanks to the incredible powers of
word of mouth, the audiences suddenly increased. The newspapers followed with
enthusiastic reviews, and in a short time all theatres were brimming, to the point
that the movie made it to the cover of Time Magazine as the best film of the year.
That was only the beginning of a worldwide success that continue to the present.
Star Wars turned out to be a Hollywood blockbuster, full of immersive and
breath-taking fights. Director George Lucas explained that he took inspiration
from WWII airplane duels, and that he wanted to make a science fiction movie for
the widest possible. Many of the film’s viewers ended up associating what they
saw on the screen with the reality of future spaceflights. The sizzling spaceships
and firing lasers were of course cinematic fiction, but no one could have imagined
that in space at the time, the reality was not so different.
In July 1998, the British Interplanetary Society published an article
1
in the magazine Spaceflight, where it was revealed that in the same year Star Wars premiered
1
Milkus, Aleksandr. 1998. Secret: Almaz – The Murderer Looked into the Statue of Liberty’s
Eyes Three Times. Moscow Komsomolskaya Pravda, November 21, 3.
© 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_4
4
Beyond the Movies: The Real War for Space
We Never Saw on Screen
“The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the
Force”.
Darth Wader in Star Wars, 1977
Wednesday, May 25, 1977, the movie Star Wars premiered on the big screen. At
the time, no one would have bet a dime that this movie would come to represent
not only a historic moment in Hollywood, but also the imagination of younger
generations worldwide. When it was first released in Manhattan, Star Wars could
only be seen in two theatres. Tickets were sold for only $4, and there were no
queues at the box office. But a few days later, thanks to the incredible powers of
word of mouth, the audiences suddenly increased. The newspapers followed with
enthusiastic reviews, and in a short time all theatres were brimming, to the point
that the movie made it to the cover of Time Magazine as the best film of the year.
That was only the beginning of a worldwide success that continue to the present.
Star Wars turned out to be a Hollywood blockbuster, full of immersive and
breath-taking fights. Director George Lucas explained that he took inspiration
from WWII airplane duels, and that he wanted to make a science fiction movie for
the widest possible. Many of the film’s viewers ended up associating what they
saw on the screen with the reality of future spaceflights. The sizzling spaceships
and firing lasers were of course cinematic fiction, but no one could have imagined
that in space at the time, the reality was not so different.
In July 1998, the British Interplanetary Society published an article
1
in the magazine Spaceflight, where it was revealed that in the same year Star Wars premiered
1
Milkus, Aleksandr. 1998. Secret: Almaz – The Murderer Looked into the Statue of Liberty’s
Eyes Three Times. Moscow Komsomolskaya Pravda, November 21, 3.