Abstract: In announcing a new Vision for the US space program, President George Bush committed the USA to “a long-term human and robotic program to explore the solar system”, via a return to the Moon, leading to exploration of Mars and other destinations. He also stated that other nations would be invited to join the vision. Many other nations have, or are developing, ‘exploration visions’ of their own. The potential for international cooperation therefore exists, both at the vision and program/project levels. This paper, based on Working Group discussions as part of an AIAA space cooperation workshop, 1 [1] The workshop was held in Anchorage, Alaska, 2–6 May 2004 and the Working Group discussed ‘International Cooperation in the Context of the Implementation of a Space Exploration Vision’. It took as its mandate the following statement: “In announcing his new Vision for space exploration, President Bush stated that ‘We‘ll invite other nations to share the challenge and the opportunities of this new era of discovery.’ Having characterized the Vision as ‘a journey, not a race’ he then called ‘on other nations to join us on this journey, in a spirit of cooperation and friendship.’ Other nations also have specific exploration missions or comprehensive exploration agendas (e.g. ESA''s Aurora program) as an integral part of their overall space strategies. Based on this background, the Working Group provided an appropriate independent forum in which to discuss the modalities of defining and implementing an exploration vision as a coordinated international endeavor.” The full report of the Workshop (Report of the AIAA 7th workshop on international space cooperation, working group on “International Cooperation in the Context of a Space Exploration Vision”, May 3–6, 2004), containing details of the output of this Working Group and two others addressing different topics, can be found on the AIAA''s web site at www.aiaa.org, under ‘International Outreach’. presents an approach for maximizing the return on all global investments in space exploration. It proposes an international coordination mechanism through which all these various national activities could be integrated into an inherently global enterprise for space exploration, a ‘virtual program of programs’. Within the context of the coordination, individual activities would utilize the full range of cooperative mechanisms for implementation. A significant benefit of this mode of conducting cooperation is that it would not require the negotiation of complex overarching international agreements as a precondition for initiating international activity. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]