“The USSR is publicly discussing an ambitious array of manned and unmanned space missions … planned over the next quarter century,” the CIA’s Foreign Broadcast Information Service reported in a 1987 internal assessment (pdf).
“Recent items in the Soviet press and scientific literature… have provided new details on Soviet space plans from the present through the end of this century,” said the FBIS analysis, which was marked “For Official Use Only.”
The Soviet Union ceased to exist in 1991. FBIS was absorbed into the DNI Open Source Center in 2004 2005.
See “Soviet Space Missions Planned Through the Year 2000,” Foreign Broadcast Information Service Science and Technology Perspectives, April 8, 1987 (4.5 MB PDF file, thanks to Allen Thomson).
Some other historical U.S. intelligence assessments of Soviet space programs can be found here.
Datasets and variables that do not align with Administration priorities, or might reflect poorly on Administration policy impacts, seem to be especially in the cross-hairs.
One month of a government shutdown is in the books, but how many more months will (or can) it go? Congress is paralyzed, but there are a few spasms of activity around healthcare and the prospects of a continuing resolution to punt this fight out until January or later.
At a period where the federal government is undergoing significant changes in how it hires, buys, collects and organizes data, and delivers, deeper exploration of trust in these facets as worthwhile.
Moving postsecondary education data collection to the states is the best way to ensure that the U.S. Department of Education can meet its legislative mandates in an era of constrained federal resources.