The Benefits of Spaceflight and Space Exploration

The Benefits of Spaceflight and Space Exploration — page 5
Spaceflight fosters international cooperation among government agencies scientific bodies industries and organizations Some large-scale projects such as the Inter national Space Station ISS would not have been possible without collaboration Space exploration and research serves as an arena in which countries work together peacefully toward shared goals even when they may be at odds con cerning other issues The space race between the Soviet Union and the United States during the twentieth century contributed to many milestones in space exploration Today the United States and Russia cooperate on many missions especially those involving the ISS The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 established that nations cannot claim outer space as sovereign territory and forbade installing weapons in space Spaceflight isn’t a sure thing Successful missions will be countered by occasional failures and even tragedies But the unexpected setbacks will be matched by unexpected benefits As long as human beings set their eyes and ambi tions toward space the resulting discoveries and break throughs will make the effort worthwhile 6 the BenefIts of spaCeflIght and spaCe exploratIon