Space exploration on the scale envisioned in the president's plan is by necessity a cooperative international venture. Neither the president's plan nor the prevailing thrust of existing U.S. space policies encourages the type of international partnerships that are needed. Indeed there is much about U.S. space policy and plans�particularly those pertaining to the possible deployment of weapons in space�that even our closest allies find objectionable.

To examine U.S. space policy in greater detail, the Academy called upon George Abbey and Neal Lane (both of Rice University). The authors bring both experience and insight to their subject. Abbey served from 1995�2001 as director of the Johnson Space Center in Houston, where he led the United States' efforts in human space exploration. Lane, a physicist, served as presidential science advisor from 1998�2001. Their perspectives on the issues that confront the United States space program are exceptionally well informed.

The authors were initially asked to consider the effects of U.S. export regulations on the country's commercial space industry. Abbey and Lane recognized that national security controls on U.S. exports were constricting not only the commercial space industry but also potentially the workforce on which it depended.

The national security regulations were symptomatic of an even more serious deterioration in international cooperation in space, caused in part by U.S. military space plans. The president's plan for NASA, announced as they began their work, did not begin to address these concerns. Indeed, it presented, as they write, "a paradoxical picture of high ambition and diminishing commitment."

The paper identifies challenges and opportunities for the United States space program, paying particular attention to unintended consequences of current policies.

• Four barriers to U.S. progress in space science and exploration are identified:
• the strict regulation of satellite exports as munitions under the State Department rules,
• a projected shortfall in the science and engineering workforce,
• unrealistic plans for NASA's future space missions that neglect the important role of
• science, and faltering international cooperation on existing and planned space missions.

These barriers, according to Abbey and Lane, will have to be overcome if the United States space program is to succeed. They urge the United States to strive for a "balanced program of commerce, science, exploration, national security, and shared international partnerships."

This paper is part of the American Academy's "Reconsidering the Rules of Space" project. The project examines the implications of U.S. policy in space from a variety of perspectives, and considers the international rules and principles needed for protecting a long-term balance of commercial, military, and scientific activities in space.

The project is producing a series of papers, intended to inform public discussion of legitimate uses of space, and induce a further examination of U.S. official plans and policies in space. Other papers consider the physical laws governing the pursuit of security in space (published spring 2005), Chinese and Russian perspectives on U.S. space plans, and the possible elements of a more comprehensive space security system (forthcoming).

The American Academy and the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University convened a series of workshops and seminars to support the authors' work on this paper. Participants in these meetings included representatives from U.S., Canadian, European, and Russian aerospace and satellite firms (manufacturers, launchers, operators, and insurers), as well as industry analysts, scientists, legal scholars, and arms control experts. We join the authors in thanking the participants in these workshops for their participation and insights.

We also thank four anonymous reviewers and Nancy Gallagher for comments on the paper. We acknowledge the excellent work of Helen Curry, Phyllis Bendell, and Anne Read in producing this report. We are, most of all, grateful to the authors for agreeing to apply their knowledge and experience to the broad range of important issues they address.

The Rules of Space project is supported by a generous grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. We thank the Carnegie Corporation for its support and Patricia Nicholas for her assistance.

This is the preface to the full report: United States Space Policy: Challenges and Opportunities. PDF file.

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