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HOLD FOR RELEASE UNTIL 

 PRESENTED BY WITNESS 



June 19, 1985 



Statement of 



Kenneth S. Pedersen 



Director 



International Affairs Division 



NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION 



before the 



Task Force on Science Policy 



Committee on Science and Technology 



House of Representatives 



Mr. Chairman and Distinguished Members of the 

 Subcommittee : 



I am pleased to be here today to testify on international 

 cooperation in science and on the prospects for 

 international cooperation on the Space Station. 



As you know, international cooperation has been a key 

 aspect of NASA's programs since the inception of the 

 agency, particularly in the field of space science. 

 NASA's cooperative programs have been very successful 

 over the years, so that today we find that virtually 

 every major project in NASA has some form of inter- 

 national involvement. This involvement ranges from major 

 hardware contributions to ground-based studies and data 

 analysis. Since you are mainly interested in "big 

 science," I would like to briefly touch on a few of our 

 major current missions. Next year, three major cooper- 

 ative projects will each reach a key milestone. I am 

 referring to the launches of Ulysses, Galileo and the 

 Hubble Space Telescope. With their launches, the joint 

 development with our European partners will end, but the 

 scientific operations will just be beginning. We are 

 looking forward to continued international callaboration 

 on this next important phase of these programs. As we 

 look ahead, nearly every major proposed new initiative in 

 the area of space science has an international 

 component: Topex with the French, the International 

 Solar Terrestrial Physics program with Japan and the 

 European Space Agency, and the Comet Rendezvous Asteroid 

 Flyby Mission with Germany are examples that come to mind. 



I fully expect this trend to continue. As you know, NASA 

 believes there are many scientific, technical, financial 

 and political benefits resulting fron; slicSi (.reoperation. 

 That is why I would like now to turn to the review of 

 U.S. science policy that this Task Force is conducting. 



