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In another economy move, the Nixon Administration is encouraging NASA to seek the cooperation of other nations in space. Shortly before he resigned, Paine toured Western Europe, Australia and Japan to enlist their support for the space shuttle as well as other projects. West Germany has already agreed to team up with the U.S. in sending two unmanned Helios satellites to within 28 million miles of the sun. But even such joint ventures have suffered from cutbacks. Last week the U.S. quietly announced a year's delay in implementing a much publicized agreement with India to let NASA satellites relay telecasts to remote Indian villages.
Much of the public indifference to space is, of course, attributable to the nature of the space race. Under pressure from Washington, NASA overemphasized the moon and overlooked its other opportunities. Now it is engaged in an overdue reassessment of its priorities. Last week more than 100 prominent space scientists, including Pickering and Planning Chief Wernher von Braun, met in Woods Hole, Mass.; a similar meeting was held at Wallops Island, Va., a few weeks ago. Out of these discussions may come the direction and dimensions of NASA's role on earth and in space in the closing years of the century.
But Debus, for one, wonders whether political leaders will really grasp the ultimate meaning of those goals. Like turn-of-the-century skeptics who dismissed the telephone and airplane as toys, critics of space travel cannot imagine its undreamed-of benefits. "Just in the act of getting there," says Debus, "we show our technical potential for overcoming problems by foreseeing them. Once we get there, established and at home, so to speak, we can go on to better the way of life on our own planet."