The Prophet Business: Arthur C. Clarke, Sri Lanka, and the Making of a Global Space Persona

David Skogerboe; David Baneke

doi:10.1017/S0007087425000299

The Prophet Business: Arthur C. Clarke, Sri Lanka, and the Making of a Global Space Persona

David Skogerboe^*, David Baneke

^*Corresponding author for this work

Sub History and Philosophy of Science

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

This article analyses the development of Arthur C. Clarke’s (1918-2008) persona as the ‘prophet of the Space Age’, focusing on its relation with his adopted homeland, Sri Lanka. Unlike many space personas, Clarke was not an astronaut or a political leader, but a writer and advocate for space technology who developed a global reputation as an authority on the future. In 1956, Clarke relocated from his native England to the former British colony of Sri Lanka (then Ceylon). This article examines how both Clarke himself and a wide range of organizations, nations and individuals, including many from Sri Lanka, contributed to the creation of a global ‘prophet’ persona. This includes Clarke’s public life in Sri Lanka, which came to embody the earthbound, satellite-focused space future he promoted. This persona was in turn used to project commercial and moral justifications for space technologies, especially through Western lenses and for Western audiences, but in numerous ways gave Sri Lanka an active role in the global Space Age.

Original language	English
Number of pages	22
Journal	British Journal for the History of Science
Early online date	25 Apr 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007087425000299
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 25 Apr 2025

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), 2025.

Funding

We would like to thank our fellow Rocket Stars collaborators Alexander C.T. Geppert, Haitian Ma, Maritza Gomez Revuelta, Lu Liu, Asif Siddiqi and Tilmann Siebeneichner for their enduring support and productive feedback. Appreciation is also due for the anonymous reviewers who invested time and energy to strengthen our article, Amanda Rees for guiding us along the process, and the support offered by the archivists at the NASA History Office and the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. We also must extend special thanks to Nalaka Gunawardene, whose writings provided us with a number of invaluable images and insights into Clarke's life and legacy in Sri Lanka. This research was supported in part thanks to funding from the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR 17103258).

Funders	Funder number
Luxembourg National Research Fund	FNR 17103258

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10.1017/S0007087425000299Licence: CC BY

Cite this

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The Prophet Business: Arthur C. Clarke, Sri Lanka, and the Making of a Global Space Persona

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

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