The Case Against Space

A speculative reconstruction of the first and only “strike” in space. In 1973, a crew of three astronauts set off for the US space station Skylab for 84 days, at that point the longest astronauts had ever spent away from Earth. Their days were filled with an endless stream of monotonous tasks, and they were expected to collect data constantly. After all, on such a hugely expensive space mission, not a second could be wasted. Even a trip to the toilet was seen as a useful research opportunity.

We know that the astronauts complained to “Houston” about their workload. We also know that at one point communication was temporarily lost. The Case Against Space takes these intriguing facts and runs with them: what if, as was widely reported in the media at the time, the astronauts really did go on strike? In staged video logs based on actual transcripts, the astronauts tell their side of the story. The conventional narrative of the astronaut as hero is here deconstructed and recast as a critical reflection on capitalism and surveillance culture.