Structuring Future International Cooperation: Learning from the ISS

Abstract

As the largest, most complex international scientific and technological cooperation ever undertaken, the Space Station program offers numerous valuable lessons that can be applied in structuring future large-scale international cooperative space endeavors. This paper analyzes the functioning of the cooperation and the lessons learned, both as regards the way the program has been structured and the way in which it has operated to date. Based on practical experience the authors, all of whom have been professionally involved in the development and implementation of the Space Station Freedom (SSF) and International Space Station (ISS) programs, have attempted to determine what elements of the cooperation merit replication and what elements could be improved. The analysis includes such topics as management, operations, cost sharing and partnership expansion.