Description
Contrary to popular imagination, the activity of space surveillance (SS) was a noisy, smelly, and, at times, dangerous endeavour. This paper examines emerging research that employs oral history to explore experiences of retired space track engineers from RAF Fylingdales.
This research is rooted in the sensorial turn within social science and the humanities (St Pierre 2018). It sets out to elicit lived and sensory accounts that navigate the aural and olfactory worlds generated by historic space surveillance activities at RAF Fylingdales. These include shifting pitches in the roar of turbines in RAF Fylingdales power station, as radars demanded differing levels energy for tracking tasks. Or the acrid smells of mineral oil that enveloped the radars' power amplifiers.
By capturing the nuanced sensory and social practices of space surveillance, this research moves beyond the textual and visual approaches that enclose space surveillance activities into black boxes (Squires and Jackman 2023, Ortega 2022). I argue this produces richer accounts of space histories that engage public participation and animate broader policy debates at regional, national and international levels.
