Lessons from the Lebanese Space Program – Kasurian

Summary

At the height of the Cold War, only a handful of nations possessed the capacity to launch rockets into space. Among them were the world's foremost superpowers of the time: the United States of America (USA), and Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). Then there was Lebanon, a newly formed Mediterranean nation barely larger than the state of Delaware.Between 1960 and 1967, the almost forgotten Lebanese Rocket Society, led by its founder Manoug Manougian, competed with the great powers of the Cold War to create a space program in Lebanon. Founded as a student association within the Haigazian College in Beirut in November 1960, the Rocket Society operated without any official funding from the state or the university. Relying on the dedication of a few professors, seven students, and a modest donation from the Lebanese entrepreneur and Parliamentarian Emile Bustani, what the burgeoning Society lacked in resources, it made up for in ingenuity, drive, and vision.Aiming to elevate Lebanon and the Arab world to the level of the era’s great powers, then locked in a fierce space race, the Rocket Society was an ambitious scientific endeavour. The Rocket Society emerged amid a complex backdrop: Lebanon’s nascent state-building effort, the ebb and flow of Nasserite-coloured Pan-Arabism, ongoing hostilities with Israel, the intensifying Cold War between the USA and USSR, and the yet-unrestricted optimism in technology and its capacity to transform society for the better. This was the now forgotten post-imperial, post-war world of possibility in which the Rocket Society found itself.Within a few years of its founding, the Rocket Society successfully launched rockets beyond Earth’s atmosphere into space and became a source of national pride for Lebanon. Yet by 1967, it had all but been abandoned by Manougian and much of his team. Escalating geopolitical tensions, diplomatic pressure, war, and Manougian’s fear of the militarisation of his technology would end Lebanon’s brief bu...