The Role of Governments in AerospaceOf the principal government agencies involved in U.S. aerospace activities, NASA plans,
directs, and conducts nonmilitary research and
development in the design, construction, and navigation of aircraft and spacecraft. NASA also has a special relationship with the U. S. Department of Defense (DOD) in regard to space activities and aeronautical research that might apply to military aircraft. At its nine major installations, NASA engages in extensive research and development. Although production of NASA projects, such as the Space Shuttle, is accomplished by contractors across the country, management decisions are coordinated by NASA personnel at the lead center for each project.Very similar arrangements are made by the DOD and other government agencies. The DOD, in addition to the acquisition of missiles and military aircraft, also funds a number of research and development projects for communications and surveillance
satellites and for related technologies, including launch vehicles. The U. S. Department of Commerce operates weather and environmental satellites. The U. S. Department of Energy has been involved in nuclear-powered electric generators for NASA and DOD missions, as well as studies for solar-energy satellites. The U. S. Department of the Interior manages a variety of satellite data systems for resource management and cartography. The Federal Aviation Administration engages in extensive aeronautical research as well as monitoring the safety of the nation's airways. The International Civil Aviation Organization, operating under the authority of the United Nations, establishes worldwide guidelines for aircraft navigational and communications procedures and thus influences the development of certain types of equipment, such as new landing systemsÑbased either on microwave or Global Positioning System technologyÑthat may be installed at international airports in the latter 1990s.Partly in an effort to compete with the United States in aerospace, the British, French, and Italians in the 1970s established nationalized industries (British Aerospace Corp., Aerospatiale, Aeritalia), which have assumed a primary role in aerospace development. Western Europe has also developed consortia, the largest of which, the European Space Agency (ESA), built the three-stage Ariane launch vehicle. By agreement with NASA, ESA also produced the Spacelab, a laboratory module that was carried into orbit aboard the Space Shuttle on some flights prior to the Challenger disaster. Program changes following the disaster called for a cutback in many Spacelab flights that had been planned aboard the Shuttle during the 1990s. Great Britain, Germany, Spain, and Italy also united to form the European Fighter Aircraft program to develop a fighter plane.After NASA experienced ongoing troubles in designing and funding a cost-effective space station, the U.S. agency began plans for a different configuration that would rely extensively on operational experience and hardware from production bureaus of the Commonwealth of Independent States. The series of rendezvous, beginning in 1995, between U.S. Space Shuttles and the Russian space station Mir was part of an ongoing international space station effort.