The Space Policy Institute offers graduate courses on U.S. space policy.

The basic course in the fall term, "International Affairs 246, "U.S. Space Policy", is an overview of U.S. space activities in their international context; the spring course, "International Affairs 248, "Issues in U.S. Space Policy", each year focuses on an in-depth examination of one or more current issues in space policy.

 

Other courses, offered under the general course number International Affairs 258, focus on topics such as space and national security and space law.

 

Many students pursue a Master of Arts degree in International Science and Technology Policy with a focus on space issues, under the auspices of GW's Elliott School of International Affairs; space policy also serves as a course and dissertation focus for several Ph.D. candidates in public policy, political science, and history.

 

Full-time study prepares students for exciting career opportunities in the space policy field. Part-time graduate study is also possible, and many of those who enroll in the Institute's courses already are working professionally in the space field. Their exposure to space policy issues provides a broader context for their current work as well as expands their future career choices.

Students affiliated with the Space Policy Institute have the continuing opportunity to participate in the myriad space policy-related activities which take place in Washington. Students have served as research assistants on Institute projects or as interns at The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and Office of Management and Budget, NASA's Offices of External Relations, Space Flight Operations Mission Directorate, Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, and Science Mission Directorate, the Washington Office of the German Space Agency DLR, the Science and Technology Policy Institute of the RAND Corporation, Futron, DFI International, Satellite Industry Association, and other space-oriented organizations in Washington.

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Recent Courses Offered by the Space Policy Institute

IAFF 246.10 - U.S. Space Policy

Dr. Scott Pace

This course is an examination of the origins, evolution, current status, and future prospects of U.S. space policies and programs. It will cover the civilian, military, and national security space programs of the U.S. government and the space activities of the U.S. private sector, and the interactions among these four sectors of U.S. space activity. This examination will be cast in the context of the space activities of other countries, and of international cooperation and competition in space. The goal of the course is to give the student an exposure to the policy debates and decisions that have shaped U.S. efforts in space to date, and to the policy issues that must be addressed in order to determine the future goals, content, pace, and organization of U.S. space activities, both public and private

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IAFF 248.10 - Issues in U.S. Space Policy: Tool and Scenarios

Dr. Scott Pace

This course will address international space policy issues facing the United States. Currently, U.S. space programs have a myriad of concerns with regard to dual-use technologies, including export controls, spectrum management, and licensing of commercial remote sensing systems. The class will place these issues in the larger context of technological advances and a changing international strategic environment. Strategic choices facing other nations in space activities, including continued dependence on U.S., European, and Russian space capabilities, developing indigenous space programs, and reliance on commercial space capabilities will also be examined.

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IAFF 290.12 - Challenges in International Space Cooperation

Simonetta Di Pippo, ESA Director of Human Spaceflight

The main objective of this course is to introduce the implementation of space missions and programmes from a management point of view, taking into account the technical, organisational and political aspects and allow students to enhance their competencies in the field of space project management in an international context. The ESA approach to space activities based on intra-European cooperation will be presented and discussed. During the course, students will be exposed to the various technical and managerial variables that impact project management of large-scale complex project, and the underlying methodologies that determine the success of a space mission. In addition, the course will describe the process of defining mission objectives and science objectives in particular for the ISS and exploration.

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IAFF 258.10 - Space and National Security

Dr. Peter Hays

As shown by military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kosovo, space capabilities have become increasingly important to the U.S. military in recent years. The many broad interrelationships between space and national security have also been under careful examination recently. The Space Commission Report, for example, found that because U.S. military and economic security has become so dependent on undefended space assets, the nation could face a "space Pearl Harbor." Others argue that the United States should act to establish space control, defined as U.S. ability to access and use space in its interests and to deny such access to U.S. adversaries. In addition, there is a growing debate over the wisdom and feasibility of stationing force application systems - "space weapons" - in orbit. This course will examine these and other issues associated with U.S. strategy, policy, and organization for the national security uses of space.

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IAFF 258.13 - The Politics of Earth and Space Science

Dr. Colleen Hartman

Since the era of Apollo, NASA has been searching for a unifying vision that would energize the public's thirst for knowledge about the cosmos. NASA's past visions for space and Earth science, as well as the Agency as a whole, have met with varied degrees of success. The prioritization of the space and Earth science program has been recently debated in the media, in the White House, and in educational institutions without a clear resolution. A new vision must balance and prioritize the Nation's efforts in areas that range from understanding Earth's global climate change to searching for life on extra-solar planets to cataloging Near Earth Objects to investigating the nature of 74% of all energy in the Universe, the elusive Dark Energy. Most importantly, a new vision must be accepted by a wide-range of stakeholders, starting with NASA and science community leaders but continuing through OMB, OSTP, the White House, and finally Congressional members and their key staff, before it can finally be enacted. This course will review the history of NASA visions with special emphasis on space and Earth science in order to determine the characteristics of a winning vision and an accompanying prioritization scheme. Exercises will be employed to give students practical knowledge to achieve the course's two major goals: firstly, for students to master a broad understanding of current space and Earth science policy issues and, secondly, for students to take away a tool kit of strategic approaches to successfully advocate their ideas and negotiate within the Federal bureaucracy.

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IAFF 258.12 - Space Law

Dr. Henry Hertzfeld

Space activities operate in an international and global environment. The foundations of international legal principles are found in five treaties developed within the framework of the United Nations. Many nations participating in space activities also have domestic laws that provide direction to government space programs as well as laws that regulate commercial and private space activities.

This course will review the underlying principles of international space law. The emphasis will be on issues that will be of particular concern in the future as the uses of space for exploration, commerce, and security increases. Such legal issues include:

- liability for accidents,
- property rights in space and on celestial bodies,
- the use of space for military and security purposes.

The course will also review and compare the national space laws of different countries with an emphasis on the laws and regulations of the United States including recent developments in commercial human spaceflight.

Looking to the future, there are numerous legal uncertainties in space law that overlap and are intertwined with international relations, international law, commercial law, and the relationship between governmental civilian and defense space activities. This course will provide an overview to theaw important, and as yet, unresolved legal issues that will confront the space community in the years ahead.

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IAFF 290 - How Policy Affects the Art of NASA Science Program Management

Dr. Colleen Hartman

During spacecraft development, the Program Manager is expected to navigate by adhering to new space policy, answering to agency managers, responding to Hill directives and continuing to enthrall the public with the possibilities of new science. Today's space missions are becoming larger and more complicated and now include ambitious missions such as the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Mars Science Laboratory. What tools do Program Managers use and how does space policy impact their flexibility? How can a Program Manager influence community expectations and external communications and how does this affect the success of space missions?

In this class, students will learn the basic steps of the programmatic process for the life cycle of a NASA mission, including formulation, approval, and implementation, as well as understanding how this process is tied to the Congressional budget process. We will explore the four key tools used in program and project management: cost, schedule, performance, and risk. What leadership skills are required for advocating programs, working across organizational boundaries, obtaining Congressional approval, and resolving conflict?

Case studies will be used to give students a working familiarity with the techniques of program and project management. Invited guest speakers include the NASA Acting Administrator Christopher Scolese and the 2006 Nobel Prize winner in physics and JWST Senior Project Scientist Dr. John Mather.

As future policy-makers and senior executives, students will leave this course with an understanding of the fundamentals of space science program management and the impact upon it of policy. Engineering experience is not a requirement for this course.

Background on the Professor: During a career of more than two and a half decades at NASA and NOAA, Dr. Hartman served as Program Manager for a host of missions, including the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE), Yohko, the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE), the X-ray Timing Explorer (XTE), the Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer (EUVE) and the test of Einstein's general relativity theory, the Gravity Probe-B mission.