时间： 2013年9月26日  星期四   14:30—15:30

 

地点： 新主楼B328

 

报告题目：The Evolution of U.S. Space Policy From John Kennedy to Barack Obama

 

报 告 人：John M. Logsdon

 

报告内容简介：

    Certainly the most important decision in the evolution of U.S. space policy was President John F. Kennedy’s 1961 choice to send Americans to the Moon. More than a half century later, Project Apollo remains the greatest achievement of the U.S. in space. Apollo was a unilateral program intended to demonstrate U.S. technological and management power to the world. But after landing the first astronauts on the Moon, President Richard Nixon in the 1969-1972 period decided not to continue a space program focused on human journeys beyond Earth orbit. Instead, in 1972 he approved development of the space shuttle, a very capable vehicle for operations in Earth orbit. He also changed U.S. policy to seek international partnerships in space; Europe and Canada made major contributions to the shuttle. President Ronald Reagan in 1984 approved development of a space station that would be dependent on the space shuttle for its assembly and operation. He too invited foreign participation, and Japan as well as Europe and Canada joined the program. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, President Bill Clinton invited Russia to join the station partnership. Between 1972 and 2011, developing and operation the shuttle/station combination in Earth orbit dominated U.S. space activity. But after the Columbia shuttle accident in 2003, President George W. Bush in 2004 decided to retire the shuttle after space station assembly was completed and to focus future U.S.  human spaceflight activities on returning to the Moon as a first step in deep space exploration. President Barack Obama in 2010 abandoned the return-to-the-Moon goal, but continued the focus on exploration beyond Earth orbit. Both Bush and Obama said they would seek international participation in space exploration, but took no concrete steps to seek such participation. This talk will review this history of space decisions and discuss the current state of U.S. policy with respect to human spaceflight.

 

报告人简介：

Dr. John M. Logsdon is Professor Emeritus of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs, where he was the founder and long-time director of GW’s Space Policy Institute. Author, among many articles, essays, and edited books, of the award-winning study John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon (2010), The Decision to Go to the Moon: Project Apollo and the National Interest (1970), and the main article on “space exploration” for the Encyclopedia Britannica, Logsdon is a sought-after commentator on space issues who has appeared on all major broadcast and cable networks in addition to the print media. In 2003 he was a member of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board, and formerly was a member of the NASA Advisory Council and its Exploration Committee. In 2008-2009 he held the Charles A. Lindbergh Chair in Aerospace History at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum.