American techno-political space cooperation: A model for explaining NASA's record of international agreements

NASA's international projects are steeped in more than engineering challenges; they are circumscribed by political questions and require a broader perspective in order to be successful. This project investigates NASA's thirty-seven year history of over 2000 instances of international cooperation with foreign states and entities. Using a combination of political science and engineering management theories, variations in cooperation levels are explained within a framework of five variables. Focusing on both macro-level changes and cluster-specific patterns of cooperation, findings include the first comprehensive measure of NASA's entire history of international cooperation, the importance of the aerospace technology life cycle, and the considerable evidence of U.S. foreign policy influence on regional international cooperation. The research suggests six relationships between engineering and political variables that govern NASA's international projects and informs both government and industry of critical strategic questions which must be answered when both formulating and managing international aerospace collaborations.