<img alt=“ralphabernathy.jpg” src=“https://blogs.nature.com/news/blog/ralphabernathy.jpg” width=“130” height=“200” border=0 align=right hspace=10/>

Newsweek ran a special on 6 July 1969, asking prominent figures to weigh in on space exploration. The opinions were not all positive.

Southern Christian Leadership Conference President and civil rights activist the Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy said:

“A society that can resolve to conquer space; to put man in a place where in ages past it was considered only God could reach; to appropriate vast billions; to systematically set about to discover the necessary scientific knowledge; that society deserves both acclaim and our contempt . . . acclaim for achievement and contempt for bizarre social values. For though it has the capacity to meet extraordinary challenges, it has failed to use its ability to rid itself of the scourges of racism, poverty and war, all of which were brutally scarring the nation even as it mobilized for the assault on the solar system.”

Philosopher Lewis Mumford said: “Space exploration . . . is strictly a military by-product; and without pressure from the Pentagon and the Kremlin it would never have found a place in any national budget.” On the bright side, he thought “that this colossal perversion of energy, thought and other precious human resources may awaken a spontaneous collective reaction sufficient to bring us down to earth again. Any square mile of inhabited earth has more significance for man’s future than all the planets in our solar system.”

NASA hosts a collection of space-age magazine covers here.

Photo: Ralph Abernathy at National Press Club luncheon. Photograph by Warren K. Leffler, 1968 June 14. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, U.S. News and World Report Collection: LC-U9-19265

<img alt=“ralphabernathy.jpg” src=“https://blogs.nature.com/news/blog/ralphabernathy.jpg” width=“130” height=“200” border=0 align=right hspace=10/>

Newsweek ran a special on 6 July 1969, asking prominent figures to weigh in on space exploration. The opinions were not all positive.

Southern Christian Leadership Conference President and civil rights activist the Rev. Ralph D. Abernathy said:

“A society that can resolve to conquer space; to put man in a place where in ages past it was considered only God could reach; to appropriate vast billions; to systematically set about to discover the necessary scientific knowledge; that society deserves both acclaim and our contempt . . . acclaim for achievement and contempt for bizarre social values. For though it has the capacity to meet extraordinary challenges, it has failed to use its ability to rid itself of the scourges of racism, poverty and war, all of which were brutally scarring the nation even as it mobilized for the assault on the solar system.”

Philosopher Lewis Mumford said: “Space exploration . . . is strictly a military by-product; and without pressure from the Pentagon and the Kremlin it would never have found a place in any national budget.” On the bright side, he thought “that this colossal perversion of energy, thought and other precious human resources may awaken a spontaneous collective reaction sufficient to bring us down to earth again. Any square mile of inhabited earth has more significance for man’s future than all the planets in our solar system.”

NASA hosts a collection of space-age magazine covers here.

Photo: Ralph Abernathy at National Press Club luncheon. Photograph by Warren K. Leffler, 1968 June 14. Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, U.S. News and World Report Collection: LC-U9-19265