ABSTRACT
The evolution of civil, commercial, or military space policy in the United States is a critical part of public policy. Visions of a spacefaring future in which humanity settles the solar system, mines asteroids, or deploys solar arrays to meet future power requirements captivate the imagination, but space policy has to meet practical requirements in the present at acceptable cost. Unfortunately, this seldom happens. Instead, the process of policymaking frequently interferes with rational outcomes. The purpose of this chapter is to examine those processes, and to discuss a defense policy process model useful in examining and explaining space and defense policy-making.
