U.S. Space Policy during the Nixon and Ford Administrations: Competition and Cooperation through Project Apollo and ASTP
- Paper number
IAC-08.E4.1.3
- Author
Prof. Hirotaka Watanabe, Osaka University, Japan
- Year
2008
- Abstract
In July 1975, six years after the first lunar landing of Apollo 11, the U.S. Apollo spacecraft succeeded in docking first with the Soviet Soyuz spacecraft in Earth orbit. In the docked spacecraft, U.S. astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts shook hands and conducted joint experiments, which were broadcasted on television. On Earth, U.S. President Ford and Soviet General Secretary Brezhnev exchanged messages of friendship and congratulations. The Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, ASTP, was seen as a symbol of the U.S.-Soviet détente of the 1970s. It is true that the process by which Project Apollo was completed and ASTP was selected and executed seemed to overlap the evolution of U.S. détente diplomacy during the Nixon and Ford administrations, but the process of terminating Project Apollo and implementing ASTP was not so simple. The reduction of Project Apollo had already begun during the Johnson administration. The Kennedy administration began to seek U.S.-Soviet space cooperation and the Johnson administration continued it. These persistent efforts produced fruit in the Nixon and Ford administrations. U.S.-Soviet space cooperation in the area of science was also continued even after détente diplomacy began to decline. In addition to advancing space cooperation with the Soviet Union, the Nixon and Ford administrations also adopted and developed a new space transportation system, the “Space Shuttle,” to maintain the initiative in space during the post-Apollo period. Therefore, it could be said that U.S. space policy during this period played a unique role by balancing competition and cooperation with the Soviet Union, although it was linked with U.S. diplomatic policy. From the perspective of the relationship between space and diplomatic policies, those of the Eisenhower administration, which were influenced by the Sputnik Shock, and those of the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, which advanced Project Apollo, have been relatively well examined. On the other hand, those of the Nixon and Ford administrations have not sufficiently been examined because the related diplomatic documents from those periods were classified. Some of these documents have been declassified recently, however, and others are now under declassification review. This paper will examine the policy decisions of the Nixon and Ford administrations that led to the cancellation of Project Apollo and the adoption and implementation of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, ASTP, from the perspective of U.S. détente diplomacy of those periods. It will make the most of newly declassified documents and build on earlier studies. Finally, by clarifying how the balance of U.S. space policy changed between competition and cooperation with the Soviet Union, this paper will reexamine the purpose and meaning of Project Apollo and ASTP as U.S. space policy during the Cold War of the 1970s.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
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