As it has accrued meaning over time, outer space has become as much a social construct as a physical reality. Because space is a product of the imagination, its contours are not stable and are subject to needs and desires that shift and evolve according to social, political, and economic priorities. This article examines differing relationships to space that shed light on the social and political dynamics that defined their historical moments—in particular the different iterations of the democratic impulse that these relationships express. This article compares the emergence of the dualistic and nation-based discourse of the late 1950s and 1960s Cold War era out of the first satellite and rocket launches to present-day ‘NewSpace,’ which is characterized by free enterprise and the logic of commodification. In the process, it touches on the 1986 by the Challenger mission and the emblematic figure of school teacher Christa McAuliffe; however, attention is paid primarily to how she represented a transitional moment between the global, nation-building priorities of the Cold War and the contemporary profit-driven individualism of NewSpace. The article concentrates on Cold War spaceflight and contemporary space tourism because they offer in the most vivid way a glimpse into how society's own projections have populated the universe.

随着时间的流逝，它的含义逐渐累积，外层空间已成为与物理现实一样的社会建构。由于空间是想象力的产物，因此其轮廓不稳定，并且受制于根据社会，政治和经济优先事项而变化和发展的需求和欲望。本文研究了与空间的不同关系，这些关系揭示了界定其历史时刻的社会和政治动态，尤其是这些关系所表达的民主冲动的不同迭代。本文比较了1950年代末和1960年代冷战时期从第一次卫星和火箭发射到今天的“ NewSpace”（以自由企业和商品化逻辑为特征）的二元论和基于国家的论述的出现。正在进行中，它触及了1986年的挑战者任务和学校老师克里斯塔·麦考利夫（Christa McAuliffe）的象征人物；然而，主要关注的是她如何代表冷战的全球建设性优先事项与当代以利润为导向的个人主义新空间之间的过渡时刻。这篇文章集中于冷战航天和当代太空旅游，因为它们以最生动的方式让人们瞥见了社会自身的预测是如何构成宇宙的。