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15 October 2002
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http://www.space.com/news/wsc_summit_1015.html |
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HOUSTON -- A closed-door Space Policy Summit billed as a unique get-together for an international group of government and industry officials produced no striking conclusions and was hampered by the absence of several important space powers and institutions. Intended as a global gathering, the conference featured no Chinese delegates. Officials said the Chinese did not apply for their visas far enough ahead of time to be able to attend, organizers said. Several top European officials also did not attend, and there was no one from Brazil, for reasons that were unclear. In addition, what promised to be the summit's hottest topic -- the military uses of space -- was stricken from the agenda to await a better international climate for such a discussion. A new attempt to discuss the military aspects of space will probably be made next spring in Washington, the Summit's organizers said. "There was some difficulty in pulling all the right people together, and Sept. 11 obviously changed the dynamic," said Brian D. Dailey, vice president for Washington operations of Lockheed Martin Corp., a summit organizer. "We thought it was best to separate the military side from the other topics." The conference's organizers -- the Houston-based James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Lockheed Martin -- sought to place the best face possible on the summit in briefings here Oct. 14. "This was a unique event to permit people to speak freely and openly about issues," said Amb. Edward P. Djerejian, founding director of the Baker Institute. "We are trying to come together to produce a clear vision of space exploration. Many different views were expressed." Thirty-nine delegates from 16 nations attended the summit, held from Oct. 11-13. The United States, Europe, Japan and Canada were the most heavily represented. An issue that might have caused sparks to fly -- U.S. satellite-technology export regulations -- led to a vaguely worded summit declaration that nations should try to harmonize their export policies, acknowledging that: "Although export controls on space related technologies reflect legitimate national security and non-proliferation concerns, they limit international cooperation and inhibit growth of the commercial sector." The summit also concluded that the commercial space market is currently too small to support the number of hardware suppliers now trying to make a living in it. The Summit participants also stressed that a lack of access to space data continues to be a major problem for many countries and that the best approach is for countries to identify specific needs where industry and governments can help them obtain data products, particularly value added products that enhance raw data. Here are some related links:
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