People have always wondered if there was life beyond Earth. Technology caught up with their curiosity in 1957 with the Soviet Union's launch of the space satellite Sputnik 1. Then in 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched its first satellite Explorer 1. During the 1960s, unpiloted space craft photographed and surveyed the Moon.
Does "there was life" mean the past or a subjunctive usage?
It seems to me that the sentence just has a mistake.
I think the auther tried to adjust tenses.
You can say:
People wondered if there was life beyond Earth.(past + past)
This means that people had a question "Is there any life beyond Earth?" in the past.
You can also say:
People have wondered if there is life beyond Earth.(present past + present)
This means that people have had a question "Is there any life beyond Earth?" from the past until now.
If you write "People have wonderd if there was life beyond Earth," that would mean this:
People have had a questiion "Was there any life beyond Earth?"
Please tell me if I am not correct. I am not a native speaker. I will delete my answer then.
