Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 98 Part 3.djvu/542

 98 STAT. 2914

PUBLIC LAW 98-562—OCT. 30, 1984

Public Law 98-562 98th Congress Joint Resolution Oct. 30, 1984 [S.J. Res. 236]

Relating to cooperative East-West ventures in space.

Whereas the United States and the Soviet Union could soon find themselves in an arms race in space, which is in the interest of no one; Whereas the prospect of an arms race in space between the United States and the Soviet Union has aroused worldwide concern expressed publicly by the governments of many countries; Whereas the 1972-1975 Apollo-Soyuz project involving the United States and the Soviet Union and culminating with a joint docking in space was successful, thus proving the practicability of a joint space effort; Whereas, shortly after the completion of the Apollo-Soyuz project, and intended as a followup to it, the United States and the Soviet Union signed an agreement to examine the feasibility of a Shuttle-Salyut program and an international space platform program, but that initiative was allowed to lapse; Whereas the United States signed a five-year space cooperation agreement with the Soviet Union in 1972, renewed it in 1977, then chose not to renew it in 1982; Whereas the United States recently proposed to the Soviet Union that the two Nations conduct a joint simulated space rescue mission; Whereas the Soviet Union has not yet responded to the substance of this proposal; and Whereas the opportunities offered by space for prodigious achievements in virtually every field of human endeavor, leading ultimately to the colonization of space in the cause of advancing human civilization, would probably be lost irretrievably were space to be made into yet another East-West battleground: Now, therefore, be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled. That the President should— (1) endeavor, at the earliest practicable date, to renew the 1972-1977 agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union on space cooperation for peaceful purposes; (2) continue energetically to gain Soviet agreement to the recent United States proposal for a joint simulated space rescue mission; and

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