The space age began fifty years ago with the launch of Sputnik,
the first artificial satellite, on October 4, 1957. It was a
great technical and political triumph for the Soviet Union. In
the United States, the immediate reaction was a swift and harsh
self-assessment marked by very public fretting about a
“technology gap.” But a dozen years later, at the climax of the
space race, the first men on the Moon were Americans. In the
decades since, the civilian space program has largely receded
from public attention—even as space has become indispensable to
the military and the high-tech industry, and as a promising new
private space sector is just taking shape. To mark the Sputnik
anniversary—and with it, the beginning of the space age—we have
reprinted Hannah Arendt’s classic 1963 essay about modern
science and the human meaning of our celestial aspirations, and
invited five commentators to respond to her argument and to
discuss its relevance today: Patrick J. Deneen, Rita Koganzon
(below), Charles T. Rubin, Step