NASA and the Space Industry (New Series in NASA History) [Paperback]

Joan Lisa Bromberg (Author)

Book Description

Series: New Series in NASA History | Publication Date: October 20, 2000

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

As well as being an interesting read, NASA and the Space Industry demonstrates the effect that lack of clarity in space policy can have on the development of private sector space capability.

(Spaceflight )

A much-needed overview of a subject of great importance.

(Erik P. Rau Enterprise and Society )

An important study of a neglected aspect of NASA's history, that is, its relationship with the aerospace industry, which it helped bring into existence. Bromberg is particularly good in her nuanced discussions of how innovations and new ideas flowed back and forth from the agency to industry, and how the flow was influenced by large changes in the economy and polity.

(William H. Becker, George Washington University )

Review

"An important study of a neglected aspect of NASA's history, that is, its relationship with the aerospace industry, which it helped bring into existence. Bromberg is particularly good in her nuanced discussions of how innovations and new ideas flowed back and forth from the agency to industry, and how the flow was influenced by large changes in the economy and polity." -- William H. Becker, George Washington University

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press (October 20, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801865328
• ISBN-13: 978-0801865329
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #946,449 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent History from a Skillful Scholar, February 8, 2006

By 

Roger D. Launius "Historian" (Washington, D.C., United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: NASA and the Space Industry (New Series in NASA History) (Paperback)

From the early 1960s more than 90 percent of the NASA budget has gone to the private sector through contracts and grants. Throughout the history of the agency, therefore, some $300 billion has been dispensed through this process. Despite this no historian until the publication of this book has made a concerted effort to understand the complexity of these public/private relations. Joan Lisa Bromberg, a senior historian of science and technology, undertook this study as a NASA history project under the auspices of the Chief Historian when I served in that capacity during the latter 1990s. What resulted, I think most will agree, was an important study that significantly advances our understanding of this subject. It is a brief overview, to be sure, but as an introduction to the subject and a key to future inquiries it is most valuable.

Bromberg argues that historians interested in this subject have traditionally approached it from separate perspectives, that of either the history of technology or the history of business and economics. She seeks to bridge that gap, searching for the manner in which the public/private partnership contributed to innovation and technological virtuosity. She sees NASA as "a case study of the means by which a public agency has influenced the formation and sustenance of new industry" (p. 4). Taking a chronological approach, Bromberg systematically traces NASA's influence in developing the space industry through its use of contracts and other procurements. Far from comprehensive, Bromberg concentrates on the major spaceflight programs--especially the major human programs--to tease out major themes and offer suggestions for future historical exploration. For instance, some of the ideas she explores in relation to the human spaceflight programs might also be productively applied to the space sciences, Earth science, and aeronautics research programs of NASA. While Bromberg has provided a significant reconnaissance of NASA/industry relations it remains for other historians to explore individual case studies. I hope others will take up this task in the future.

I am delighted that this book is available; it originated as a contract history from NASA while I served as the agency's Chief Historian and while I am not unbiased in my perspective I think most will agree that this is a valuable starting point for unraveling the history of NASA/industry relations.