John Fitzgerald Kennedy, in his famous speech to the US Congress in 1961, launched the challenge for space supremacy with these words: "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard...". Thirty years later, Elon Musk addresses his followers with these words: "If we want to colonise other worlds, the first step is to build a city of the future. Where? On Mars. And with all the characteristics of a modern smart city: 'light, self-sufficient and low cost'". In human affairs, the politics of language build the future first and foremost through narration.
The content of the book investigates the political narratives behind space conquests. From the strictly technical-scientific language that characterised the propaganda communication of the two superpowers involved in the challenge for the conquest of space in the 1960s, to the current mass media language of private tycoons who accompany their billion-dollar investments and the technological gems created by their space companies with statements and tweets that are increasingly similar to the content of a science fiction novel.