AIA | Space Exploration & The National Interest

	Intro
	Truth in Space Budgeting
	The Real Connection
	Space and National Security
	Building International Alliances
	The Global Space Race
	The Mysteries of the Ecosystem
	About AIA
	Photo Credits

Building International Alliances in Space

NASA's international partnerships contribute to the nation's world leadership in space exploration.

The United States made scientific history in 1998 by deploying two modules to anchor the world's first research laboratory on orbit, the International Space Station (ISS). Since that time, 15 international partners — Canada, Japan, the 11-nation European Space Agency, Russia, and Brazil — have contributed maintenance, observation, and transportation assets to the ISS, ensuring that the enterprise can complete its twin missions of planetary navigation and testing new life support systems for humans to work in the outer galaxy.

From the very beginning, Congress realized that NASA could emerge as a dynamic instrument of global cooperation, and the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 instructed the agency to enlist foreign participation in peaceful space endeavors. NASA has now concluded a total of 4,000 international agreements on a vast complement of exploration technologies, including, yet going beyond, the ISS.

International partners contribute to the maintenance of NASA's 65 space science satellites as well as the Hubble Space Telescope. They assist in operating our network of Earth science satellites dedicated to land and climate monitoring. And they have jointly developed a variety of propulsion systems with NASA and industry to power our expendable launch vehicles.

History has rendered a clear verdict: international programs have allowed the United States to realize unprecedented achievements in exploring the solar system through access to the world's most sophisticated imaging and transportation technologies.