Eilene Marie Galloway, who helped draft the legislation that created NASA and went on to become an internationally recognized expert in space law and policy, died May 2 of cancer. She was 102.

After the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 on Oct. 4, 1957, then-Sen. Lyndon Johnson (D-Texas), who chaired the Armed Services preparedness subcommittee, turned to Galloway in her role as a national defense analyst at the Library of Congress, for help in setting up hearings on U.S. preparedness in space. Those hearings led to creation of the Senate Special Committee on Space and Astronautics. Johnson later became President, shepherding much of the U.S. build-up.

Galloway also advised Rep. John W. McCormack (D-Mass.), the House majority leader, on establishing the House Select Committee on Astronautics and Space Exploration, which recommended the creation of a national space agency. Taking Galloway's advice, McCormack altered President Eisenhower's proposal that the organization be constituted as an administration, which could coordinate space-related activities across the federal government.

In the May 15, 2006, Congressional Record, in honor of Galloway's 100th birthday, Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.), chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee, called Galloway "an influential force in the development and analysis of domestic and international space law and policy."

Eileen Galloway joined the U.S. government during the New Deal under President Roosevelt. She was assistant to Aubrey Williams, assistant administrator of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA), overseeing adult education programs nationwide. She also developed specific programs for the District of Columbia, where she lived from 1931 until her death, primarily to address adult illiteracy. She retired from the Congressional Research Serviceas senior specialist in international relations (national security) in 1975.

A 1928 graduate of Swarthmore College, Galloway also helped establish the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS), where she frequently represented the U.S. She was a founding member of the International Institute of Space Law (IISL), and wrote frequently in support of Article II of the Outer Space Treaty, which states "celestial bodies are not subject to national appropriations by claims of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means."

Galloway was the first woman elected Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (2006), the organization's highest honor. She was a fellow of the American Astronautical Society (1996), an honorary director of the IISL, and a trustee emeritus of the International Academy of Astronautics. She was the first recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from Women in Aerospace, and received the NASA Public Service Award and Gold Medal in 1984.

Photo credit: NASA TV