Making National Space Policy

National Space Policies provide insights into U.S. thinking about the uses of space for security, exploration, and commercial purposes, as well as details about specific areas of emphasis. With the Obama Administration preparing its own space policy, these documents remain particularly relevant to those interested in past and future of U.S. space activities.

In the Marshall Institute’s Presidential Decisions book, we compiled all declassified space memos, directives, and policies prepared by the National Security Council from Eisenhower to the then-present. In the process, we successfully declassified additional materials. Our intent is two-fold – (1) to provide scholars and practitioners with a handy reference of these hard-to-find documents to assist them in reviewing the new space policy or providing input to it; and (2) to illustrate the areas of continuity and incongruity in space policy over time. It contains, as one reviewer put it, "in one convenient book, all of the most significant unclassified papers on US executive branch space policy."

These documents are presented in their original form to enable the reader to see precisely what remains redacted.  Each is presented as a pdf. 

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961)

John F. Kennedy (1961-1963)

Lyndon B. Johnson (1963-1969)

Richard M. Nixon (1969-1974)

Gerald R. Ford (1974-1977)

James E. Carter (1977-1981)

Ronald W. Reagan (1981-1989)

George H. W. Bush (1989-1993)

William J. Clinton (1993-2001)

George W. Bush (2001-2009)

Barack H. Obama (2009 - )