Contested Ground: The Historical Debate Over NASA's Mission

This book manuscript studies in depth the development and maturation of the NASA mission from the inception of the organization until the present. This study is involved in a wide divergence of questions over roles and missions: the agency's R&D/operational activities, the decentralized/centralized approaches to management, the debate over methods of conducting business. A fundamental part of this work involves the analysis of not only how NASA has defined its role but how senior government leaders, the Congress, and society at large have viewed this matter. It is be especially useful in tracing the evolution of mission ideas in the space agency and, therefore, of great use to officials wrestling with this perennial issue.