Nasa and the Space Industry

Few federal agencies have more extensive ties to the private sector than NASA. NASA's relationships with its many aerospace industry suppliers of rocket engines, computers, electronics, gauges, valves, O-rings, and other materials have often been described as "partnerships." These have produced a few memorable catastrophes, but mostly technical achievements of the highest order. Until now, no one has written extensively about them.

In NASA and the Space Industry, Joan Lisa Bromberg explores how NASA's relationship with the private sector developed and how it works. She outlines the various kinds of expertise public and private sectors brought to the tasks NASA took on, describing how this division of labor changed over time. She explains why NASA sometimes encouraged and sometimes thwarted the privatization of space projects and describes the agency's role in the rise of such new space industries as launch vehicles and communications satellites.

About the author

Joan Lisa Bromberg is a visiting scholar in the History of Science, Medicine, and Technology Department at the Johns Hopkins University. She is the author of Fusion: Science, Politics, and the Invention of a New Energy Source and The Laser in America, 1950-1970.

Product details

• Authors: Joan Lisa Bromberg, Joan Lisa (Johns Hopkins University) Bromberg
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 19.01.2001
• EAN: 9780801865329
• ISBN: 978-0-8018-6532-9
• No. of pages: 264
• Series: New Series in NASA History (Pa; New Series in NASA History; New NASA History
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Natural sciences (general); Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Social sciences, law, business > Business > Individual industrial sectors, branches; SCIENCE / History, Astrophysics, TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / Aeronautics & Astronautics, SCIENCE / Physics / Astrophysics, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Industries / Transportation, History of Science, Transport industries, Space Science, Aerospace & aviation technology, SCIENCE / Space Science / General, Aerospace and aviation technology