U.S . - EUROPEAN COLLABORATION IN SPACE SCIENCE

Photograph* of Faith from space show no political boundaries, reminding us that national distinctions arc man made. But the agencies responsible for those pictures, other missions to Earth orbit, and probes to deep space are inevitably national or multinational. Each has its own set of constituencies, procedures, capabilities, and limitations. There are great benefits from finding ways those entities and their respective research and industrial communities can act cooperatively, as has been amply demonstrated by many successful examples of international cooperation in the space sciences. Beyond the cultural enrichment that comes when people of different nations work together for a common goal, those benefits include the potentially...