The Space Telescope: A Study of Nasa, Science, Technology, and Politics: A Study in Science, Technology and Politics Book

The Space Telescope, launched into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle late in 1989, promised to be the most powerful optical telescope ever built, yielding new insights into the past, present, and future of the universe. The authors trace the Telescope's history and detail the astonishingly complex interactions that took place between the scientific community, government, and private industry in the course of its development. The Telescope is thus much more than a new astronomical instrument but instead must be seen as the product of a great range of forces: scientific, technical, political, social, institutional, and economic. The history of the Space Telescope is set in the context of post-World War II science and 'Big Science' - large scale scientific projects that require massive federal funding and are as much political and managerial efforts as they are scientific and technical ones. The Space Telescope is an example of a Big Science program of the very largest kind, and the book thus reveals the many complex factors and new institutions and strategies that are involved in funding and carrying out large scale scientific projects in the late twentieth century.