Soviet/Russian-American space cooperation

This dissertation seeks to answer two questions: (1) what are the necessary conditions for the emergence of meaningful space cooperation between Russia and the United States, and (2) might this cooperation continue developing on its own merit, contributing to the further rapprochement between the two countries, even if the conditions that originated the cooperation were to change?; The study examines the entire space era up to this point, 1957 to 1997, from the first satellite launch through the joint U.S.-Russian work on the ISS project. It focuses on the analysis of three distinct periods of possible and real cooperation between the United States and the Soviet Union/Russia. The first possibility for a limited Soviet-American cooperation in space emerged in the late 1950s, together with the space age, and continued until the mid-1960s. The major potential joint project of this period was a human expedition to the Moon. The global competition/confrontation between the two countries prevented actual cooperation. The second period was from the late 1960s until 1985 with consideration of experimental docking missions, including the docking of a reusable U.S. shuttle to a Soviet Salyut-type station. The global U.S.-Soviet competition still continued, but the confrontation was replaced by detente for a brief period of time lasting from the end of 1960s until mid-1970s. Detente gave the first example of U.S.-Soviet cooperation in space---the Apollo-Soyuz joint space flight (ASTP) which took place in 1975. However, the lack of interest of political leaderships in continuation of broad-scale cooperation between the two countries, and the end of detente, removed ASTP-like projects out of question at least until 1985. The third period started together with Mikhail Gorbachev's Perestroika in 1985 and continues until now. It involves almost a hundred of joint space projects both at the governmental and at the private sectors levels. The mainstream of the joint activities became U.S.-Russian work on the International Space Station (ISS). The interest of the Kremlin and White House in making space an "area of common interests" for the two countries, the interest of U.S. and Russian space communities in meaningful cooperation with each other, and the interdependence of the two countries within the ISS project, give hope that the U.S.-Russian cooperation will finally develop a long-term character.