Current and Emerging Space Powers

Catalog description

Space exploration and exploitation have become global activities. While the United States and the Soviet Union were battling for supremacy during the Cold War and striving for “firsts” in the Space Race, several nascent space powers were blossoming in the background. Not limited to the U.S. and USSR, the dream of spaceflight sprouted in lands as diverse as France, Germany, China, Japan, India, Israel and Brazil. The European Space Agency, the Chinese Space Program, the Japanese Space Program and the Indian Space Program have become space powerhouses. A study of these various programs is essential to gain a thorough understanding that space exploration is not only a global enterprise, but also an important concern for our own national security.