NASA and the loss of space policy leadership

Abstract

Since the days of Apollo, NASA's space program ambitions have consistently exceeded the willingness of the political consensus to provide adequate funding. As a result of the failure of US leadership, including NASA, to fully comprehend the political dimensions of the space program, the US space program has drifted and the US has lost its once commanding leadership role. In this paper, a new analytical framework is applied to NASA's development and management of the US space program. Dominance of bureaucratic goals over program goals is identified as a key factor. The paper proposes scenarios under which the US can either regain a position of world leadership in space exploration, or cede leadership by default to the European and/or Soviet space programs.