U.S.-European Collaboration in Space Science reviews the past 30 years of space-based research across the Atlantic. The book, which was prepared jointly with the European Space Science Committee (under the aegis of the European Science Foundation) begins with a broad survey of the historical and political context of U.S.-European cooperation and collaboration in space. The focus of the book is a set of 13 U.S.-European missions in astrophysics, space physics, planetary sciences, earth sciences, and life and microgravity research that illustrate "lessons learned" on the evolution of the cooperation, mission planning and scheduling, international agreements, cost-sharing, management, and scientific output. These lessons form the basis of the joint committee's findings and recommendations, which serve to improve the future conduct and enhance the scientific output of U.S.-European cooperation and collaboration in space science.

Since its inception, NASA has participated in over 4,000 international projects, yet historians have almost entirely neglected this remarkable aspect of the agency's work. This groundbreaking work is the first to trace NASA's history in a truly international context, drawing on unprecedented access to agency archives and personnel.

Focusing on European collaboration outside of the European Union (EU), this volume deepens the analysis of the current status of space policy in Europe, looking at the roles and functions of the institutions of European space collaboration, and what influences the interests and strategies of experts and policy-makers. Providing a new conceptual framework, the book also develops an innovative perspective for understanding the interactions between international and domestic policy-making, as well as a comprehensive analysis of how European states collaborate in a security-sensitive area such as space. This invaluable work is suitable for courses on and specialists in European studies, international relations and international political economy.

With the end of the Cold War, the main question regarding the space race is whether it will become a co-operative venture. This text describing the the European Space Agency shows how such a co-operative enterprise has worked over the past 30 years and how

In this first ethnographic study of the European Space Agency, Stacia Zabusky explores the complex processes involved in cooperation on space science missions in the contemporary context of European integration. Zabusky argues that the practice of cooperation does not depend on a homogenizing of interests in a bland unity. Instead, it consists of ongoing negotiation of and conflict over often irreconcilable differences. In this case, those differences are put into play by both technical and political divisions of labor (in particular, those of big science and of European integration). Zabusky shows how participants on space science missions make use of these differences, particularly those manifest in identities of work and of nationality, as they struggle together not only to produce space satellites but also to create European integration. She argues that the dialectical processes of production include and depend on conflict and contradiction to maintain energy and excitement and thus to be successful. Participants in these processes are not, however, working only to produce tangible success. In her epilogue, Zabusky argues that European space science missions can be interpreted as sacred journeys undertaken collectively, and that these journeys are part of a fundamental cultural project of modernity: the legitimation of and aspiration for purity. She suggests, finally, that this project characterizes not only the institution of technoscience but those of bureaucracy and nationalism as well.