Pour ou Contre la conquête de l'espace

Published by Berger-Levrault in 1967, this back-to-back volume brings together two opposing essays in the "Pour ou Contre" (For or Against) collection. Poet and prize-winner Danielle Hemmert champions space exploration from a philosophical and spiritual standpoint inspired by Teilhard de Chardin, viewing it as the natural continuation of human evolution, from sea to land, from earth toward the galaxies. Conversely, Alex Roudène (pen name of André Leroux) argues that this curiosity is gratuitous, dangerous (militarization, enormous costs, the Apollo 1 deaths), premature, and ultimately useless given immediate human needs.