There is enclosed a staff study responsive to your request of February
21, 1969 that I review the January recommendations of your Task Force on
Space as referred to in the report of Arthur
Burns’ group. In preparing the staff study we have had
discussions with Dr. DuBridge.
We have examined the report of the Task Force and agree with its
conclusions and recommendations concerning international cooperation in
space matters.
Because of the inherent global character of most space activities and
their international involvement and efforts, there is a close
relationship between our space program and our foreign policy
objectives. From the viewpoint of those objectives there is a clear need
for an ongoing and successful American space program — one designed to
afford opportunities for expanded international cooperation in space
matters. We are interested in space cooperation, not only for its
intrinsic scientific merits, but also to further specific foreign policy
objectives. Thus in the case of the USSR our objectives are an improvement in the political
climate and new contacts with an influential segment of Soviet society.
In Western Europe we seek to further intra-European multilateral
cooperation in this field. In, the developing countries, we view the use
of space technology as an aid in development.
Our interests in international cooperation in this field will be served
best, within a balanced space program which would meet other U.S.
national objectives as well, by (1) projects which afford maximum
opportunities for direct foreign participation and (2) projects which
yield economic and social benefits
[Page 2]
for other countries as well as ourselves. The
U.S. has by now developed capabilities which would permit a major
commitment to projects in which we dedicate our skills to explore
further the earth and its resources, to improve communications, and to
enable better understanding and use of our atmospheric and marine
environment. The successful completion or our—initial manned landing on
the moon (hopefully this summer) will afford a special opportunity for
you to make a major public statement on the international values of our
ongoing space program. We are examining the possibility of a statement
along these lines at that time.
A basis for future projects of this sort lies in existing cooperative
arrangements such as those for space research, and the uses of
satellites for meteorology and communications. We expect major new
opportunities for international cooperation over the next few years to
derive from: (1) expanding arrangements to use meteorological data; (2)
new arrangements for other environmental studies and for earth resource
surveying, including new international institutional arrangements; (3)
direct broadcast via satellite of TV instructional and educational
programs, particularly in developing countries; (4) experimental
development of air-traffic-control/navigation satellites; (5)
collaboration in lunar and planetary exploration, and (6) foreign
participation in the U.S. manned flight program, including foreign
scientist-astronauts as well as foreign experiments.
Our ability to take new initiatives will depend, not only on the extent
to which the future U.S. space program is designed and funded to provide
such opportunities, but principally on the development of foreign
interests and capabilities in this field. In view of the level of
capabilities and resources abroad in space activities, the cooperation
developed thus far in this field has been quite remarkable both as to
its depth and variety. Nonetheless, the cooperation we have sought has
been beyond that which the countries have been prepared to take up.
Most of the other advanced countries are now in considerable disarray as
to the scope and organization of their future space programs. We cannot
expect them to respond to major new U.S. initiatives until they have
themselves reached decisions on these matters. New initiatives with the
developing countries will depend largely on the extent to which we are
prepared to provide satellite services related to their economic and
social needs and on their interest in participating in international
institutional arrangements for the ‘use of space technology to meet
these needs.
The enclosed staff study contains suggestions as to areas of activity for
new initiatives and conditions under which such initiatives might be
taken. These conditions are not static, either in terms of the
international situation or the development of space capabilities. We
will, therefore, continue within the Department and the Government to
study urgently further possibilities for specific cooperative
proposals.
Enclosure
March 10,
1969
NEW INITIATIVES IN SPACE COOPERATION*
[Page 5]
General Observations
The report from the Arthur
Burns’ group (item XVIII-7) refers to the
recommendations of the President’s Task Force on Space under the
chairmanship of Dr. Charles H. Townes. We have examined the report
of the Task Force submitted on January 8 and agree with its
conclusions and recommendations concerning international cooperation
in space matters, e.g.:
- 1.
- That “many aspects of space work stimulate and offer new
opportunities to promote world unity and cooperation” (Preamble, page 2).
- 2.
- That “space operations put in a new light many
international questions and also lead naturally toward some
areas of international cooperation”; that they offer
opportunities for initiatives; and that we should “exploit
these opportunities with both care and vigor” (Summary of Issues and Conclusions,
page 6).
- 3.
- That with respect to the USSR we should remain in a competitive position
on the basis of plans which reflect concurrent Soviet
activity, but that our own space goals should reflect U.S.
program needs rather than being a mirror of Soviet space
goals. That we should seek cooperation, but without becoming
dependent upon the Soviets for major areas of important
scientific information (Competition with
the USSR, pages
8-9).
- 4.
- That broader space cooperation with selected nations or
groups of nations would be valuable, including the creation
of international laboratories to analyze and interpret data
of earth applications satellites and collaboration with the
USSR in unmanned
planetary exploration (International
Cooperation, pages 22-24).
[Page 6]
Because of the inherent global character of most space activities and
in view of their international involvement and effects, there is a
close relationship between our space program and our foreign policy
objectives — in the conviction abroad that we have the capability to
assure our security and will not be taken by surprise in space
technology; in the world-wide application of economic and social
benefits from space technology; in opportunities for international
cooperation, including cooperation between ourselves and the
Soviets; in unique possibilities for eventual arms verification and
arms control; and in the effect of our space activities on the
impression abroad of American leadership in science and technology.
Thus, from the viewpoint of foreign policy objectives there is a
clear need for an on-going and successful American. space program.
The accomplishments of the past decade have produced capabilities
and opportunities which should lead to broader and more intensive
cooperation over the next decade. We should taken full advantage of
these opportunities.
Our interests in international cooperation will be served best by (1)
projects which afford maximum opportunities for direct foreign
participation and (2) projects which yield economic and social
benefits for other countries as well as ourselves. In this respect,
manned flight will probably be less relevant than unmanned
flight.
It appears that the major new opportunities
for international cooperation over the next few years will derive
primarily from:
- 1.
- Expanding arrangements to use meteorological data;
- 2.
- New arrangements for other environmental studies and for
years resource surveying, including new institutional
arrangements through the U.N., its specialized agencies and
regional organizations. These arrangements could include (a)
internationally planned use of satellites in connection with
programs such as the Global Atmospheric Research Program and
the International Decade of
[Page 7]
Ocean Exploration and (b)
international centers or laboratories for the interpretation
of satellite data and study of its application;
- 3.
- Direct broadcast via satellite of TV instructional and
educational programs, particularly in developing
countries.
- 4.
- Experimental development of air-traffic control/navigation
satellites;
- 5.
- Collaboration in lunar and planetary exploration;
- 6.
- Limited foreign participation in the U.S. manned-flight
program (both foreign scientist-astronauts and foreign
experiments).
Opportunities for fruitful new initiatives over the next few years
will depend primarily on:
- 1.
- The measure of foreign interest and capabilities. Thus
far, our proposals for cooperation have exceeded the
willingness and ability of other countries to
respond.
- 2.
- The extent to which the U.S. effort is designed and funded
to provide such opportunities. Several of the most
attractive opportunities for future cooperation will depend
on basic decisions, yet to be made, as to the scope and
direction of our own space program over the next decade. For
example, whether it will be possible after the Apollo
program has been completed to devote a larger percentage of
NASA’s effort and
budget to research and applications tasks in which other
countries can participate or which will yield direct
economic and social benefit.
- 3.
- The willingness of the U.S. to share technology,
particularly in sensitive areas such as launch vehicles
(because of their relation to strategic weapons delivery
systems) and communication via satellite (because of its
possible use to compete with the INTELSAT global
communications satellite system). Our present policies in
these respects have been a deterrent to some useful
cooperation with advanced countries.
[Page 9]
Cooperation with the USSR
The world of space activity is essentially bipolar (U.S. and USSR). No other countries,
individually or in combination, will approach the level of U.S. and
Soviet leadership in these activities for some years to come. Thus,
from the viewpoint of our foreign policy as well as our space
program objectives, the Soviets are the main chance.
Our efforts thus far to bring the Soviets to significant working
cooperation in space activities have not been successful. Agreements
were reached in 1962 and 1965 for limited cooperation through
exchange of information and coordinated experimental research in
communications satellites, meteorological satellites, measurement of
the earth’s magnetic field and in space bio-medicine. None of these
projects has been fully implemented because of Soviet inability or
unwillingness to do so. Since 1965 the Soviets have not been
responsive to many overtures for discussion of a broader range of
cooperation. The Soviet space program remains wrapped in secrecy and
directed toward essentially national purposes. There is no
significant international cooperation in Soviet space activities,
even with the communist countries.
We will continue to be in a competitive position vis-a-vis the Soviets while, at the same time, seeking
cooperative arrangements. We cannot expect early access to Soviet
space technology or launch sites or other space facilities which
they consider sensitive from the viewpoint of their own national
security. Yet, a prerequisite to useful cooperation will be more
detailed knowledge about their program than they have been willing
to make available thus far.
We doubt that the Soviets will readily undertake substantial programs
of space cooperation with us in the near future. They appear to
attach great importance to the propaganda value of their unilateral
space exploits, continue to shy away from visible examples of
cooperation with the U.S., and worry about giving away secrets.
Nevertheless, we feel that we should continue to try, at a high
level, to interest the Soviets in space cooperation. Such
cooperation would be beneficial from a scientific standpoint and
could
[Page 10]
be a useful way
of improving the political climate. It also would enable a more
accurate evaluation of their space program.
At the outset efforts to this end should be made in confidence and
without publicity. Our proposals should not include activities
which, from the Soviet point of view, impinge upon their national
security. Nor should they be such as to affect the Soviet
competitive position adversely or make one party dependent on the
other in activities of particular importance to national objectives.
We should continue to emphasize collaboration through coordination
of separate efforts rather than through corporate efforts, i.e.:
joint planning and sharing of results; not joint efforts. Hopefully
this would lead eventually to some division of labor and saving of
expenditures. However, we should avoid the impression that the
super-powers are dividing space between them without sufficient
regard for the interests of other advanced countries, particularly
those allied with the U.S.
The following possibilities for further cooperation should meet these
criteria and merit further serious consideration:
- 1.
- In space research—earth orbital investigation of
atmospheric dynamics and earth’s magnetic field;
astronomical observations from earth satellites or lunar
stations; satellite observation of solar phenomena,
including maintenance of a continuing solar patrol for
warning of major solar disturbances; and lunar and planetary
exploration.
- 2.
- In practical applications—coordination of a continuing
network of satellites to provide data for world-wide weather
prediction and early warning of natural disasters; the
development of capabilities for earth resource surveying via
satellites.
- 3.
- In manned flight—bio-medical research, space rescue,
coordination of experiments and flight parameters for earth
orbiting space stations, lunar exploration, and exchange of
astronauts.
- 4.
- In tracking—to supplement each others net-works.
Although the most dramatic among these possibilities would be an
exchange of astronauts and a joint capability for space rescue, the
most useful and intriguing would seem to be collaboration in
practical applications and in unmanned lunar and planetary
exploration. In view of the heavy commitment of the Soviets to
planetary exploration and the difficulties which they have
encountered in this program, this latter area appears to offer
unusual opportunities to complement each other’s capabilities (e.g.:
in experiments, tracking and communications) and to share expenses
as well as results.
It should be noted that several of these possibilities lend
themselves to multilateral, as well as bilateral, cooperation. In
the face of general Soviet objectives and problems it may be that we
can engender earlier Soviet cooperation in space programs within the
context of broad international participation than through bilateral
collaboration.
[Page 12]
Cooperation with Other Advanced
Countries
In Western Europe it has been our policy, with
respect to space activities, to encourage broadly based multilateral
programs. We believe that such programs will provide an alternative
to proliferation of strictly national launch vehicle capabilities
and will contribute toward European cohesion. Clearly they should be
the most effective by virtue of scale and competence, and would
offer the best possibilities for useful U.S.-European cooperation.
However, we have not excluded bilateral cooperation which benefits
U.S. interests and space activities. It would not be to our
advantage in the long run to make European efforts in this field
dependent upon the U.S.
The European program is as yet not clearly defined, because the
Europeans have not reached agreement as to the scope and
organization of their future space activities. Until they do, we
cannot expect them to respond to major new initiatives for
cooperation. We should, nonetheless, make new opportunities for
cooperation clear to them, and work with them in their forward
planning to the extent that they seek our advice.
- 1.
- Each of the countries except Portugal conducts national space
activities. These vary from the French program, which has
launched French satellites using their own launch vehicles, to
programs in Scandinavia and the Low Countries which have been
limited to sounding rocket experiments and ground-based
scientific research. These programs have not represented a heavy
investment—a total of some $300 million annually.
- 2.
- In addition the Europeans have developed two intergovernmental
regional bodies—the European Space Research Organization (ESRO) and the European Launcher
Development Organization (ELDO)—which are as yet beset with severe internal
divisions as to
[Page 13]
purpose, structure, funding and contract-sharing. The Europeans
have recently agreed to attempt to formulate a plan which would
place all of their multilateral space activities, including
ESRO and ELDO, in a single organization,
and are making a serious effort to solve their management-and
funding problems.
NASA has already developed
significant cooperative arrangements with all of the European
national programs as well as ESRO,
involving extensive joint satellite projects, sounding rocket
projects, research experiments, space tracking, formal joint
graduate and postdoctoral training, and highly sophisticated
information exchange arrangements. NASA has already launched twelve foreign satellites and
has agreements in being for half a dozen more; others are under
consideration. For instance, NASA
and the Federal Republic of Germany are in the final stages of
defining an agreement on the largest bilateral cooperative project
thus far undertaken—a solar probe which will involve the expenditure
of approximately $60 million by Germany for two satellites and $20
million by NASA for the supply of
two launches. This project was initially proposed to the Europeans
several years ago as a multilateral undertaking, but did not attract
participation by other countries or by ESRO.
In addition we have made clear our willingness to cooperate further:
(1) by continuing to make launch vehicles or launch services
available for European satellite projects; (2) by continued support
for the ESRO space research program
through launch assistance—three ESRO satellites have already been launched by NASA—cooperative projects and
technical advice; (3) through technical assistance for the ELDO launch vehicle program; and (4)
by examining jointly the possibility for further cooperation in
research and development on future projects.
The spectrum of possible areas for new cooperative initiatives with
Europe include all the possibilities suggested above for cooperation
with the USSR, except bio-medical
space research and space
[Page 14]
rescue. In addition, it may be possible to work with the
Europeans in experimental satellite technology for
navigation/air-traffic-control, in the development of a
geostationary meteorological satellite to serve European regional
needs, and in the development of a more advanced European launch
vehicle capability. In TV communication via satellites and possibly
in other telecommunications requirements the Europeans will surely
wish to meet their regional needs by themselves, save for the
possibility of American launch services and the acquisition of some
advanced American technology.
With Japan we are now negotiating an agreement
providing for cooperation by facilitating the flow of commercial
technology relevant to their space program as they have projected it
through the mid-1970s—a program which includes development of a
Japanese launch vehicle capability and of satellites for space
research and practical applications in meteorology and
communications. Like the Europeans, the Japanese have until recently
been quite uncertain as to the organization and scope of their space
program. The program which they have now defined will take up their
efforts in this field for several years. However, in the long run
the opportunities for cooperation with Japan should be similar to
those with Western Europe.
[Page 15]
Cooperation with Developing
Countries
The possibilities for major new cooperative initiatives with the
developing countries lie primarily in (1) our willingness to provide
satellite services relevant to their economic and social needs and
(2) their willingness to participate in international institutional
arrangements to meet these needs—in the use of space technology for
environmental study and prediction, for surveying earth resources
and, possibly, for the use of television via satellite for
instructional and educational purposes. Adequate institutional
arrangements for, these purposes have yet to be established. They
will require the active support of advanced countries. The
developing countries cannot be expected to participate extensively
in space flight programs per se. They can,
however, become involved actively and usefully in developing
terrestrial facilities (e.g.: community television receivers), in
the analysis, interpretation and use of data derived from
satellites, and in the international planning involved in using
satellites in world-wide or regional atmospheric and marine
programs.
NASA has already developed pilot
cooperative projects with Brazil and Mexico in the aircraft phase of
earth resources survey experimentation designed to prepare them for
future involvement and utilization of data derived from earth
resources satellites. Experiments in the use of meteorological data
derived from satellites is now widespread as a result of NASA’s development of the inexpensive
APT system for direct receipt locally of cloud cover pictures taken
by U.S. weather satellites passing overhead.
In the area of satellite telecommunications, NASA and Indian space officials are currently
considering an experimental program to explore possibilities for
major advances in educational and social development through
instructional television. Using the capabilities of one of NASA’s Advanced Technology Satellites
to broadcast to small village receivers in several thousand rural
communities, India hopes to demonstrate the feasibility of reaching
broad areas of its population will instructional material directed
to such crucial and fundamental problems as population control and
ways to increase agricultural production.
[Page 16]
In addition it should be possible and reasonable to expand the
cooperation already underway with several developing countries in
sounding rocket programs and in the design of foreign experiments to
be flown in U.S. satellites, both unmanned and manned. Opportunities
for scientist-astronauts from these countries to participate in
manned flights would seem marginal.
A Proposal
The accomplishments of the past decade have produced capabilities in
space science and technology which would enable the U.S. to make a
major commitment to projects which serve directly the economic and
social needs of all countries. Such a commitment need not, and
should not, be the single or overriding objective of our ongoing
space program. In view of its international values it should,
however, be a major objective. When the Apollo program has been
completed it should be possible to undertake such a commitment
within a balanced ongoing space program which would meet other U.S.
national objectives as well.
In commenting upon the imminent achievement of our goal to land men
on the moon and to explore it, Dr. Walter O. Roberts, President of
the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, has put it as
follows:
“When this moment of success comes, our nation will have an
unparalleled opportunity to take a bold step in another
direction in space. Richard M.
Nixon can place his stamp of identity on an
equally inspiring objective. He can call upon our nation and
the world to exploit man’s presence in space and his
new-found
[Page 17]
skills in space for the benefit of earth and its peoples. He
can call for commitment of the principal thrust of our
future space efforts to research and engineering programs
designed to explore the earth; to improve the communications
links among continents; to study the earth’s resources of
oil, minerals, forest, and water; to plot the changing,
global patterns of the oceans and the air, so that we may
better understand, predict, and conserve our atmospheric and
oceanic environment.
“In making such a commitment, President Nixon will have still
another challenging opportunity. By aiming the skills of
space toward earth-oriented and peaceful uses, not only can
be serve the tangible interests of people in every corner of
the globe but he can call for the attainment of this goal
through a world-cooperative research and engineering effort
in which nations in many stages of development can
participate. By this step he will greatly advance
international understanding. Everyone will benefit if the
Soviets, Americans, and others conduct peaceful space
research in concert, with joint planning and joint
execution. It is a rare chance for initiative.”4
We are examining the possibility of a Presidential statement along
these lines, possibly upon the successful completion of our first
manned lunar landing. That event will afford a special opportunity
for a major public statement on the international values of our
ongoing space program.
