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Short abstract:

This paper sets a temporal rather than spatial agenda for animal (im)mobilities studies. Attempts to manage life in outer space necessitated its mobilization at very different temporal scales. NASA embryology helped foster a shift from technocentric to hybrid management ideals at the institution.

Long abstract:

Where most animal (im)mobilities studies focus on spatial dimensions (e.g. animal relocations, re-introductions, and migrations) this paper emphasises animals' temporal mobilization. Considering the multiple temporalities through which animal and human lives are sustained, I examine a set of frog-based experiments conducted at NASA between the 1970s and 1992. These were designed to evaluate the relative plausibility of different future visions for humanity: specifically, the idea that earth-based life would soon expand into outer space.

Design decisions for future space stations, I show, came to depend on specific ideas about the nature of early embryological development, and especially the extent to which zygotic life could be altered by gravitational forces. At NASA, spacecraft design strategies thus came to be influenced by scientists' abilities to conduct embryological experiments in zero gravity conditions. These experiments, I show, entailed management of amphibian life at differing temporal scales: short-term cellular regeneration, medium-term corporeal development, and the long-term population reproduction. Bringing together sperm, eggs, frogs and humans in outer space required the accommodation of messy, unpredictable and unruly bodies within what had hitherto been highly technocentric and technocratic approaches to the management of living beings. At NASA, the turn to space biology helped foster a shift in management style, from cybernetic prediction to event-responsive flexibility.