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Beyond the Atmosphere:
Early Years of Space Science
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- CHAPTER 18
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- NASA INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM
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- [305] That was how
most of NASA's international program developed. As has been seen,
NASA quickly became involved with the United Nations and the
Committee on Space Research. But those served more as a backdrop
than as the arena for NASA's international activities. By far the
most frequent arrangement was a bilateral one between NASA and a
counterpart agency in another country, sometimes with a covering
government-to-government agreement. The State Department provided
guidance and a considerable amount of assistance and in the
dealings with the United Nations took the lead. But except for
U.N. matters, NASA, while keeping contact with the State
Department, was pretty much on its own.
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- The variety of the program was remarkable.
By 1962, 55 nations plus the European Preparatory Commission for
Space Research were engaged with NASA in various space
activities.18 Twenty-four were helping with operational support
to NASA missions through the Minitrack, Mercury, [306] and Deep
Space tracking networks; the optical tracking network inherited
from the International Geophysical Year; the volunteer program of
satellite observations called Moonwatch; and data acquisition.
Assistance varied all the way from simply providing the real
estate on which to erect and operate ground stations, to assuming
a substantial responsibility for their staffing and
operation.
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- Thirty-four nations were working with NASA
in cooperative projects using satellites, sounding rockets, and
ground-based work in meteorology and communications. As in the
United Nations space committee, many nations expressed a great
need for scientific and technical training related to space. By
1962 13 foreign Resident Research Associates were at NASA centers,
5 foreign students were being trained in American universities
under NASA sponsorship, and 13 engineers or technicians were
training at NASA centers or ground stations. Visitors from 42
countries plus the European Preparatory Commission had come to
explore their interests in the space program. By the 1970s 94
countries or international organizations were cooperating in some
form with NASA.19
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- By the time Deputy Administrator Hugh
Dryden, Arnold Frutkin (who had become head of NASA's Office of
International Programs), and the author journeyed to Aachen in
September 1959 to attend meetings of the NATO Advisory Group for
Advanced Research and Development, the guidelines for NASA's
international activities were pretty much in mind. They were
referred to time and again in discussions with dozens of
scientists from the different countries who sought out the NASA
people to explore ways of participating in the space program. In
any cooperative project that might develop, the guidelines called
for:
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- Designation by each participating
government of a central agency for the negotiation and supervision
of joint activities;
- Agreement on specific projects rather than
generalized programs;
- Acceptance of financial responsibility by
each participating country for its own contributions to joint
projects;
- Projects of mutual scientific
interest;
- General publication of scientific
results.
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- A decade later virtually the same
guidelines were still in force.20
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- Generally the guidelines were readily
accepted. Only the third, calling for no exchange of funds,
occasioned some expressions of dismay. Accustomed to being funded
by the U.S. for a variety of things, some had hoped that they
might be supported in space research by American dollars. But
Dryden and Frutkin pointed out that a project in which a country
was willing to invest some of its own money was more likely to be
of genuine interest and value than one that was undertaken simply
because someone [307] else was willing to pay for it. In time the
policy came to be accepted as natural and proper, and in fact one
could sense-possibly because one wished to-a greater feeling of
satisfaction and pride on the part of those who were paying their
own way.
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- There was a decided difference between the
East and the West in space cooperation. By far the greater part of
NASA's international program was between NASA and Western
countries. While some cooperative projects were agreed upon
between Blagonravov and Dryden, which were confirmed by the two
governments, these were of very limited scope. Moreover, in
Soviet-American cooperation during the 1960s it proved generally
impossible to achieve the kind of openness and freedom necessary
for more than arm's length relations.
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