The Future American, Soviet and European Space Programmes

Abstract

This paper gives a brief description of the long and very long term programmes of the world’s principal space agencies. Details of those agencies’ short and medium term programmes are available in the relevant documents and reviews. Our main concern here, however, is with the prospects for space exploration in the 21st century. The documents on which our study is based are listed in Table 1 and are all of American or European origin. We have no material concerning the Soviet programme. While it is true that the Russians are prepared to describe their short and medium term plans at bilateral and multilateral meetings, it is nevertheless difficult to obtain reliable information going beyond the immediate future. In attempting to form a long-term picture, we must each rely on our own analysis, using extrapolations and assumptions based on past, present and imminent Soviet projects.