Since the launch of Sputnik in 1957, media attention has focused almost exclusively on spectacular space missions. However, space actors have also faced their fair share of setbacks: the Columbia tragedy, extravagant cost overruns and painful reductions in public support to space ventures.Over...

Robotic exploration of the planet Mars is the goal of two space missions launched in 2003. Their aim was to use robots and a host of instrumentation to take samples of soil and rock and to analyse them for evidence of life. The NASA project, which landed on Mars in January 2004, has put the two...

Am Beispiel des Bundesministeriums für Forschung und Technologie (BMFT) und seiner administrativen Vorläufer wird in dem Buch gezeigt, wie auf Bundesebene schrittweise politische Kompetenzen in der Forschungspolitik aufgebaut, die entsprechenden Organisations- und Entscheidungsstrukturen...