Space development without a dream

Abstract

This dissertation examines the policy system for space development in South Korea by analyzing the players and processes in planning and implementing the space activities of the nation. With the analysis of major space groups (Satellite Technology Research Center and Korea Aerospace Research Institute), a series of national space development plans, and highly publicized space events and public perceptions thereof, this study tracks how key rationales for space development were embedded in the design and operation of the major space organizations and their activities as well as how the government effort to increase public interest in national space activities in fact led to both scrutiny and criticism of the major space programs by the general public. In particular, based upon the Multiple Streams Framework that has been used to identify major actors and sort out policy processes, the study analyzes the establishment and evolution of two major space programs - the Korean Astronaut Program and the KSLV-I Program - and explores further public opinion on them using a big data tool. One of the central findings of this dissertation is that top-down government controlled national space development in South Korea during the past two decades focused on economic values such as the promotion of aerospace industries has constrained national space development to remain in the rather narrow-range activities, thus contributing to an increasing discrepancy between the public understanding and expectations of the nation’s space activities and the goals and plans of the government for national space development.