In the mid-1980s, the timeframe that the Space Station Freedom Program was born, it was believed that a new dawn of international cooperative relationships for all future, large-scale manned space initiatives was also born. The Space Station Freedom would be the first such program that would characterize international partnerships where intricate and highly dependent relationships were the norm. Programs in the next decade and of the 21st century could be expected to be multi-year, multi-billion dollars and multi-national. The advantages of multiple nations cooperating toward a common goal are clear in terms of the economic realities of sharing in the high costs of research and technology programs, particularly the cost of manned space endeavors. The opportunity for nations to contribute in areas of their specific strengths would aid in pushing to the edge of technology. But there are some fundamental political and management challenges that programs such as the Space Station and future ones of this magnitude will face. Unless these challenges are understood and met head on, the success of them is uncertain
