| Publication |
2011.
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| Summary/Abstract |
This article surveys a series of folk beliefs of currency at the time of the Apollo missions, that link space exploration with disastrous events occurring at the same time. Floods, droughts, earthquakes and conjunctivitis-all were blamed, by people pertaining to very different cultures, on the actions of reckless astronauts who irked the Divinity or disturbed the celestial mechanics. As will become evident, these folk beliefs fit an existing pattern explainable in the context of "cultural lag" and "future shock." These social phenomena are common to sociology, and when referring to the context of outer space, fall under the purview of astrosociology.
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