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A.
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The
Government of the United States of America shall, consistent with
international agreements and arrangements, make the Space Shuttle available
for SL missions (experiments and applications) of the European Partners and
their nationals on either a cooperative or cost-reimbursable basis.
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B.
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In regard to
space missions of the European Partners, the Government of the United States
of America shall provide access for use of SLs developed under this
cooperative programme for experiments or applications proposed for
reimbursable flight by the European Partners, in preference to those of third
countries considering, in recognition of the participation of the European
Partners in this cooperative programme, that this will be equitable in the
event of payload limitation or scheduling conflicts. Experiments or
applications proposed for cooperative flight will be selected on the basis of
the merit of each proposal in accordance with continuing United States
policy; such proposals of the European Partners will be given preference over
the proposals of third countries provided their merit is at least equal to
the merit of the proposals of third countries. The European Partners will
have an opportunity to express their views with respect to the judgement of
merit regarding their cooperative proposals.
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C.
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The
commercial use of Space Shuttles and SLs will be on a non-discriminatory
basis.
The
establishment by the Government of the United States of America or by the
European Partners of standards and conditions for the commercial use of SL
units will be the subject of prior exchange of views on such standards and
conditions, looking toward the maximum practicable harmonisation of the
respective policies. In exceptional circumstances, should this prove
impossible, the exchange of views will take place at the first opportunity
thereafter.
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D.
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In order to
assure the integrity of operation and management by the Government of the
United States of America of the Space Shuttle system, this Government shall
have full control over the first SL unit, after its delivery to the
Government of the United States of America, including the right to make final
determination as to its use for peaceful purposes. The Government of the
United States of America may make any modifications to the first SL unit it
desires. However, in the case of intended major modifications, the European
Partners will be given advance notification to permit the opportunity for
them to express their views and to provide modification kits.
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E.
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With regard
to the first flight of the first SL unit, the system test objectives will be
the responsibility of the Government of the United States of America. The
experimental objectives of this first flight will be jointly planned on a
cooperative basis. Thereafter, the cooperative use of this first SL unit by
the European Partners and ESRO will be encouraged throughout its useful life,
although not to the exclusion of cost reimbursable use by them. The
Government of the United States of America will otherwise have unrestricted use
of the first SL unit free of cost.
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F.
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The
Government of the United States of America will provide SL flight crew
opportunities to nationals of the European Partners in connection with their
space missions involving an SL. It is contemplated that a European crew
member will be included in the flight crew of the first SL flight.
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G.
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The results
of NASA and ESRO experiments on cooperative SL missions shall be made freely
available to the Parties to this Agreement, subject to any proprietary rights
and to the usual priorities to be granted to individual experimenters for the
purpose of advance exploitation and publication of the data obtained.
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H.
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The use of
Space Shuttles and SLs by European nationals may be arranged through ESRO or
by the appropriate European Partner.
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