636 



The non-militarj^ part of the U.S. space program is operated on 

 a virtually open basis with "international exchange of personnel, visits,, 

 combined experiments, shared tracking, and many other joint activi- 

 ties." By contrast, the Soviet Union's combined military-civilian pro- 

 gram has lacked any convenient way of arranging for international 

 cooperation. 



It has been only in the last year [1966] that it has held a meeting of bloc 

 countries to consider joint scientific experiments, and has negotiated with 

 France a plan to put up a payload in about 1972. Most earlier Soviet coopera- 

 tion consisted of a one-way flow of optical tracking reports from many bloc 

 and associated countries to Moscow in support of Soviet studies/" 



Nevertheless, the inherently international nature of space activities 

 offers encouragement for the evolution of cooperative programs ; in- 

 formal understandings and the exploitation of practical applications 

 seem to be on the increase, and may pave the way for more forma] 

 arrangements. For example : 



... In scientific circles, the Russians have appeared at meetings in the 

 "vVest including the United States, and have permitted Americans to go to 

 meetings in Russia at which technical papers have been given on each side. 

 Through GOSPAR (the Committee on Space Research of the International Coun- 

 cil of Scientific Unions) both countries and others have met to exchange flight 

 data on a routine basis. On the political level, both have also filed flight data 

 at the United Nations, and it was through the U.N. that the recent space treaty 

 was negotiated. . . . Agreements have been negotiated which call for an ex- 

 change of space-gathered weather data, with data passed over the so-called 

 "cold line" between Moscow and Suitland, Md. This same agreement has 

 called for exchange of geo-magnetic data, and also the joint preparation of a 

 book on space medicine. . . . 



About the only other international activity of the Russians has been their 

 exchange of television between Moscow and Paris. They have suggested to the 

 Japanese they may also wish to exchange programs. For a long time they 

 opposed the international consortium plan for communications satellites as un^- 

 necessarily dominated by the United States." 



From time to time, both the United States and the Soviet Union have 

 made overtures toward cooperation in their space programs. The 

 USSR delegate Kuznetsov to the U.N. General Assembly announced,, 

 October 6, 1959, that his country would propose : 



The calling of an international conference of scientists under U.N. auspices^ 

 on the question of exchange of experience in the study of outer space." " 



The most positive suggestion, however, was that offered by Presi- 

 dent Kennedy in September, 1963. This was an evident move to main- 

 tain the momentum toward detente that had begun with his speech 

 at The American University, June 10, and seemed likely to be fur- 

 thered by anticipated favorable Senate action on the Test Ban 

 Treaty.*^ Accordingly, on September 20, 1963, the President went be- 

 fore the United Nations General Assembly to propose a global pro- 

 gram in space, rather than a competition between the two leading 

 contenders : 



Why . . . should man's first flight to the moon be a matter of national com- 

 petition? Why should the United States and the Soviet Union, in preparing for 

 such expeditions, become involved in immense duplications of research, con- 

 struction, and expenditure? Surely we should explore whether the scientists and 



« Ibid., page 82. 

 " Idem. 



*" Eugene B. Skolnikoff. "Science, Technology, and American Foreign Policy." (Cam.. 

 bridge, The M.I.T. Press, 1967), pages 29-30. 



*8 Senate approval of the Treaty came on Sept. 24. 



