51 pages • 1 hour read
Samantha HarveyOrbital
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Physical Context: The International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is a low-orbit space station that began its assembly in 1998 and has continued to add new modules as recently as 2021. The station is a collaborative project by the space agencies of five geopolitical entities: the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan, and Canada. The main purpose of the station is to conduct experiments on conditions relating to long-term space travel and habitation, such as microgravity. The collaboration between the five agencies also fosters diplomatic relations between their contractors.
The ISS was initially conceived as a joint mission by the United States and Russia in 1993. Following the end of the Cold War and economic difficulties in both countries, the two nations began to explore opportunities for their respective space agencies, NASA and Roscosmos, to achieve mutual goals for space exploration. Although the foundational modules for the station were launched at the end of 1998, it wasn’t until 2000 that Russia launched the modules that would enable sustained life support for human crews. This paved the way for the arrival of the first long-term human presence on the station, Expedition 1, comprised of one American astronaut, William Shepherd, and two Russian cosmonauts, Yuri Gidzenko and Sergei Krikalev. The crew remained onboard the station for four and a half months. Over the next 10 years, the ISS would integrate modules from pre-existing mission agreements with other space agencies.
Although the ISS represents the longest continuous mission in space, spanning nearly 25 years, the station was originally intended to operate for only 15 years. Its postponed decommissioning has led to a number of repairs and the installation of new modules. At the time that Orbital was published, its current end date was scheduled for 2031.
The impending end of the ISS is crucial in informing the personal conflicts that define Orbital. Given that the logical next step in space exploration is interplanetary travel and colonization, the novel frames the sustained efforts of the ISS missions as transitional enterprises, meant to usher in the greater achievements of later missions. The political history of the ISS also underpins the tensions that backdrop the lives of the six station crew members in the novel. Twenty years after the optimistic collaboration that led to the creation of the ISS, the present-day geopolitical tensions between the United States and Russia color in the interpersonal relationships that exist between the novel’s four astronauts and two cosmonauts.
Authorial Context: Samantha Harvey
Orbital is the fifth novel by British author Samantha Harvey, whose work is characterized by her focus on interiority, contemporary applications of classical philosophy, and interpersonal relations. Harvey completed a degree in philosophy after studying at the University of Sheffield and the University of York. In the 2000s, she moved to Bath in Somerset, England, where she worked at the Herschel Museum of Astronomy and finished the graduate creative writing program of Bath Spa University.
Harvey’s novels often eschew plot, relying instead on discussions of interior life to create an immersive character experience. Her 2009 debut novel, The Wilderness, explores the life of a man who has Alzheimer’s disease. The novel, which was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize, demonstrated Harvey’s lyrical approach to individual experience. Harvey’s second novel, All Is Song (2012), reinterprets the life of ancient Greek philosopher Socrates by transplanting the event of his death into modern-day London. The novel continues Harvey’s meditations on interiority by juxtaposing Socratic thought against the frenzy of modern materialist life.
Harvey’s second novel also considers the importance of interpersonal relations, a theme that recurs in her next work, Dear Thief. This 2014 novel is framed as a letter by an unnamed narrator trying to recall an old lover from a romantic triangle. Harvey’s fourth novel, The Western Wind (2018), breaks the pattern of her work by tracing a murder mystery set in the late 15th century. However, the mystery also reveals the inner lives and interpersonal relations between the people of the town in which the novel is set.
Orbital draws from Harvey’s expertise in astronomy and philosophy, blending the two subjects in a way that fits into her fascinations with interior life and interpersonal relations. Key to the novel are the private thoughts and feelings of the six crew members on the International Space Station, who look past their political allegiances to combat the crushing loneliness of life in space. Harvey also uses the future of space travel to inform the crew members’ feelings of insignificance and the reassurance they find from their constant view of Earth.
