This is an emergency. Your supervisor has been directed to make a report to a Congressional sub-committee in the morning, and you have to prepare the statement she will present. She must make a short, crisp presentation about the status of the space programs of two nations. She has been told: no history, no review of launch vehicles, just what is happening right now and what is expected to happen in the next 12 months.
“Now” means now. What is the situation that the two space agencies face at the present moment? Are things moving ahead or is there turmoil? Are there sufficient resources for what they are doing or will they run short? Have there been any significant developments or occurrences in the past six months? What changes have been made to their plans in the past few months?
As for the future, what is the launch schedule for the next 12 months? Is anything new and interesting planned? What are they likely to do that could be of particular interest to the United States? Any manned launches? Are there any cooperative ventures planned with other nations that would be of interest or concern to the U.S.? Will any new systems or equipment come on line in the next year? Will there be any lunar or Martian or other missions beyond LEO that we should be concerned about?
The specs of your report are as follows:
1. Choose any two nations other than the United States and the one for which you are preparing your major country report.
2. Each country is to be presented separately.
3. The overall document is to have four sections with estimated lengths in parentheses:
a. Introduction (~100 words)
b. Country one summary (~750 words)
c. Country two summary (~750 words)
d. Implications for the United States – what does it mean and what should we do? (~250 words)
4. Each report is to be no less than 1,500 and no more than 2,000 words in length.
5. Each report must contain bibliographic information for at least five relevant reference documents that you used and that could be of interest to the sub-committee.
Assessment will be based on content, crispness, and coverage. Presenting to Congress is no joke, your boss will not be pleased if this report doesn’t make them look good.
Use APA format, 11 or 12 pitch font, and double spaced.
