Space Hubris: Neoliberal Statecraft and the Making of American Commercial Space Policy, 1978-1992

Why did commercial outer space markets stagnate in the 1980s, despite early industry promise and a commensurately supportive Reagan Administration? This thesis finds that, paradoxically, an important factor was the Administration’s very ideological enthusiasm towards the private sector. I centrally argue that the Administration’s presupposed faith in private markets obfuscated pragmatic assessments of industry inability to succeed in space, which resulted in insufficiently supportive policy that impeded both the state’s commercialization agenda and its broader hegemonic aims. In doing so, this thesis colors historiographical accounts of stunted private space development in the 1980s by arguing that ideological overextension over federal policy inflected mounting industry headwinds from fiscal conservatism, the Challenger incident, and ascendant international competition. Drawing on Reagan White House, Cabinet, NASA, and Congressional documents, and supplemented by contemporaneous industry, academic and journalistic commentary, I narrate the history of 1980s space commerce by triangulating the tension between Administration intentions, actual policy, and industry realities. The history unfolds across three vectors of federal policy. First, on the subject of space launch systems, the Administration’s pursuit of the Space Shuttle program precluded its goal of supporting a private launch industry, which contributed to the mid-decade halting of American launch capabilities. Second, the federal haste to privatize federal remote sensing technology precipitated a public crisis in continued service amidst the commercial operator’s technical and financial unpreparedness. Finally, at the apex of mid-decade disarray in space commerce, the Administration shifted its policy focus towards an untenable proposal for a private space facility. Across these discrete sections of federal policy emerges a coherent ideological pattern: the Administration’s intransigent, sanguine faith in private sector success obscured a pragmatic approach to guiding markets, resulting in statecraft too limited to nurture an embryonic industry. Consequently, a decade of lag ensued – both for American industry and for American primacy in space.