9/11 From Space: Militarized Nationalism's "Isolated and Unique View"

As the ten-year anniversary of September 11 approaches, visual culture is deployed for militarized nationalist agendas. In particular, the linking of aerial views to discourses of the "never before seen," and "unique" promise new perspectives on iconic images that we have seen repeatedly over the span of a decade, recuperating cosmopolitan fantasies of a world united in its endorsement of US supremacy.

For example, today The Huffington Post reports that NASA has released footage from the International Space Station (ISS) of Manhattan on September 11 ten years ago as the World Trade Towers burned and collapsed. In an embedded short video, the narrator states that only three men had an "isolated and unique view" on that infamous day; the Commander of the ISS, American astronaut Frank Culbertson, and two Russian cosmonauts. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/08/september-11-attack-nasa-astronaut-frank-culbertson_n_953615.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000003

In the web post that includes the short video clip (from "Buzz:60") as well as a longer 12 minute composite of interviews, video broadcasts, and image data, The Huffington Post mostly quotes the ISS Expedition 3 commander, Culbertson, who describes his thoughts at the time and afterwards (the cosmonauts are not mentioned again). The post also cites a NASA press release, "NASA Remembers September 11," which covers a wider set of issues than the newly released footage from the ISS. http://www.nasa.gov/topics/nasalife/features/sept11.html

But the images from space do important work in the nationalist project of commemoration. Referring to Culbertson as "the only American off the planet," the NASA site explains: "Expedition 3 Commander Frank Culbertson was aboard the International Space Station at the time of the attacks, and the only American on the crew. As soon as he learned of the attacks, he began documenting the event in photographs because the station was flying over the New York City area. He captured incredible images in the minutes and hours following the event. From his unique vantage point in space, he recorded his thoughts of the world changing beneath him."

In a radio broadcast from space soon after the attacks, Culbertson tells listeners that New York city "still looks very beautiful from space..." and "the country still looks good." New Yorkers are told that "your city still looks great from up here." Culbertson goes on to say that seeing the smoke plume from the wreckage of the towers "was like seeing a wound in the side of your country." These views from 200 miles above the island of Manhattan were "a privilege," according to Culbertson, " a fantastic vantage point" and a "viewpoint that I will always be blessed with..." 

The views themselves, as is almost always the case, do not show us anything particularly new. NASA has released still images from space of the sites of the attacks long before this.

What is arguably new is the raw moving image data spliced onto documentary style "talking head" interviews with Commander Culbertson and a somewhat strange ending clip from a recent ISS crew describing about the "Flags for Heroes and Families" program, which brought 6,000 small US flags into space and then distributed them in commemorative packets to relatives of those who died in the attacks. The two US astronauts flank their mostly silent Russian commander, while stating that "from space we have a unique view of our planet." "We see a world with no borders." The international space station exemplifies, they claim, how "people of different nations can come together in space."

These statement follow their description of the special symbolic meaning of the American flag, a sentiment echoed by then-NASA Administrator Dan Goldin who is quoted as saying, "The American flags are a patriotic symbol of our strength and solidarity, and our Nation's resolve to prevail."

Reflecting on the "unique" view from above that he witnessed on September 11, 2001, Commander Culberston states: "We don't see any boundaries out here in space." "Followed by "America is the greatest country in the world." And then, taking out a trumpet that he had taken on board the ISS, the commander takes a deep breath and plays 'Taps." 

[I have written a longer piece on 9/11 visual culture--"'A Rare and Chilling View': Aerial Photography as Biopower in the Visual Culture of '9/11'" in Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture 11:2 (2011). Launched June 30, 2011 at http://reconstruction.eserver.org/112/Kaplan_Caren.shtml]