Beautiful Earth, Violent Earth: Environmental Subject-making in Space Tourism

Keywords: outer space, space tourism, environmental violence, violence, space, tourism
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

Commercial space tourism has proliferated in the first two decades of this millennium. Private firms such as SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic -- as well as downstream suppliers like Orbite and Rocket Lab -- are developing a tourism ecosystem that generates novel products, including sub-orbital flight, stratospheric balloon cruises, and point-to-point trips to the International Space Station. Price tags for different space tourism experiences range from USD $125,000 to $20 million per ticket; as technology improves and space tourism grows to scale, the revenues from ticket sales are expected to stimulate the growth of firms' non-touristic agendas and industries in space. At the same time, the sector's growth coincides with a "megatrend" of environmentalism and global climate anxiety. As space tourism becomes more accessible and acceptable, inevitable controversy has erupted over the sector’s projected environmental footprint. I find that space tourism firms strategically engage with narratives of climate change, climate grief, and planetary collapse as they seek to produce a new type of consumer and environmental subject. The space traveler is climate-aware, preoccupied with sustainability, and pursues personal and societal transformation as they consume a new commodity: a rarefied, emotionally affective view of Earth from above. In commodifying the view of Earth and highlighting the potential environmental benefits of space travel, firms hide the environmental violence that is generated in the Earthly locations of their operations, including waste generation, atmospheric pollution, and land dispossession.