Dr. Eilene M. Galloway
Eilene Galloway, one of the first and foremost experts in space policy and space law, lost a long battle with cancer on May 2, 2009, two days short of her 103rd birthday. She passed away in the Washington, D.C. home in which she had lived since 1941, surrounded by family.
On the day the Space Age began with the Soviet launch of Sputnik, October 4, 1957, Dr. Galloway was a senior specialist in national defense and international relations at the Legislative Reference Service (now the Congressional Research Service), Library of Congress. Leaders of the Senate and the House both turned to her to help determine how the United States should respond to this startling development. Dr. Galloway worked with then-Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson and the Senate Armed Services Committee to hold a series of hearings. Dr. Galloway often commented on how those hearings, and the testimony of scientists and engineers engaged in the International Geophysical Year (IGY), “turned fear into hope” as everyone came to understand the tremendous potential of using space for peaceful purposes.
She also worked with then-Speaker of the House John McCormack and others in the House and Senate in drafting the law that created NASA.
She was instrumental especially in drafting Section 205, which allows NASA to engage in international space activities. Dr. Galloway was passionate about international cooperation, and was closely involved in the formation of the International Institute of Space Law and the International Academy of Astronautics and was an active participant in those organizations.
Dr. Galloway was similarly passionate about preventing weapons from being launched into space, and the need for human exploration of space.
Dr. Galloway retired from CRS in 1975, but continued to write and speak about space policy and space law. Her most recent op-ed article — Space Law for a Moon-Mars Program — was published in Space News on March 30, 2009.
She leaves her son, Jonathan, currently a Vice President of the International Institute of Space Law, six grandchildren and five great grandchildren. A memorial service will be held in Washington, DC, probably in June.
To see three short videoclips of a NASA interview as she turned 100 in 2006, click here.
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