It is with sadness that the International Institute of Space Law notes the passing of Eilene Marie Galloway on 2 May 2009. She had been recently diagnosed with inoperable cancer and lived her final days at home surrounded by family and friends. Monday 4 May would have been her 103rd birthday.
In the 15 May 2006 U.S. Congressional Record, in honour of her 100th birthday, Rep. Bart Gordon, chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee, called Dr Galloway �an influential force in the development and analysis of domestic and international space law and policy."
Born less than three years after the Wright brothers' first powered flight, Dr Galloway was a 1928 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Swarthmore College.
She had worked with the Congressional Research Service of the United States Library of Congress in 1941, researching and writing House and Senate documents including "Guided Missiles in Foreign Countries" in 1957.
She was asked by the Senate after the launching of Sputnik to write the report on its impact to the United States.
On 29 July 1958, President Dwight Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, leading to the birth of NASA. Dr Galloway was solely responsible for Section 205 on international cooperation in the Act.
On Dr Galloway's advice, the origial proposal for a National Aeronautics and Space Agency was changed to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Eilene Galloway had been pivotal in helping to write the legislation, emphasizing international cooperation and peaceful exploration. She later served on nine NASA Advisory Committees, and continued to do so until 2003.
In the 1960s, she was America's representative in drafting treaties governing the exploration and uses of outer space, helping launch the field of international space law.
Dr Galloway worked for several decades with the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN-COPUOS) and was also instrumental in creating the International Institute of Space Law. She was Vice President of the IISL between 1967 and 1979, becoming the Institute's Honorary Director after that. She received the Andrew Haley Gold Medal in 1968 and the IISL's Lifetime Achievement Award in 1990.
Dr Galloway received a NASA Public Service Award in 1987 "for her outstanding achievements of advising the Congress on legal and technical aspects of outer space, and for further services to the United Nations and other international organisations in helping to develop a rational basis for international space law."
In 1999, Dr Galloway was awarded flag and crew emblems of the International Space Station "in appreciation for serving the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the nation as a member of the Advisory Committee on the International Space Station, and for your invaluable contribution in making the dream a reality."
In her name, the International Institute of Space Law created the Eilene Galloway Award for Best Written Brief in the Manfred Lachs space law moot court competition from 2000 onwards and since 2006, the Eilene Galloway Symposium on critical issues in space law.
In March this year, Dr Galloway wrote a paper "Space Law for a Moon-Mars Program", published in Space News.
The Institute availed of her valuable advice until her passing. As IISL Emeritus President Prof. Isabella Diederiks-Verschoor wrote in her tribute to Eilene Galloway in the 2006 IISL Proceedings: "She has lived her life of distinguished service to the U.S. and to the Space World and has been an inspiration to us all, and above all a reliable friend."
See the Book of Memorial Tributes for Eilene Galloway
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_channel.jsp?channel=space&id=news/GALLOWAY050409.xml
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/history/features/galloway_obit.html
http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=28133
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/05/AR2009050503745.html
http://www.space.com/spacenews/spacepolicy/GallowayObit_050509.html
http://www.secureworldfoundation.org/blog/2009/05/eilene-galloway-grand-matriarch-of.html
http://spacepolicyonline.com/pages/index.php/news/109-dr-eilene-galloway
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/everydaylife/galloway_100.html
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/history/galloway_space_act.html
http://www.aiaa.org/aerospace/images/articleimages/pdf/CONVERSATIONS_Jan2008.pdf
http://www.space.com/spacenews/archive94/sn93-94.fff782.html