NASA in the World: Fifty Years of International Collaboration in Space

摘要

Congress embedded international collaboration in NASA's founding legislation, but as this book reveals, carrying out that objective is far from a simple task. The Space Act of 1958 sets as the agency's other goal the preeminence of the United States in aerospace science and technology, leaving it the challenge of reconciling the two objectives. Working with, and often building up, foreign space programs, while supporting U.S. foreign policy and preventing unwanted technology transfer that could threaten American national security or corporate competitiveness enmeshes NASA in a complex web of relations with the State, Defense and/or Commerce Departments, even as it engages in often complicated negotiations with national partners or international organizations like the European Space Agency (ESA).