The Bioscience Program Office of the Office of Space Science and Applications was organized in 1962. The goals of the Bioscience Program are: (1) to determine if extraterrestrial life exists anywhere in the solar system and to study its origin, nature, and level of development, if it is present; (2) to determine the effects of space and planetary environments on Earth organisms, including man; (3) to conduct biological research to develop life support and protective measures for extended manned space flight; and (4) to develop fundamental theories in biology relative to origin, development, and relationship to environment. Research and development has been carried out to design life-detection experiments and instruments for future flights to Mars and to develop experiments to study the effects of the space environment on living organisms. A biosatellite program, started in 1963, has the first of six flights scheduled for 1966. Space exploration has demanded a rigorous development, especially in the biosciences area. Investigation of the solar system for exotic life forms, the environmental extremes to which Earth organisms (including man) are being exposed, the possibilities for modification of planetary environments by biological techniques yet to be developed, and the problems of communication in biosystems are areas which have required refinement of the theoretical framework of biology before progress could be made rapidly enough to keep pace with technological advances in transportation. Of all the sciences, biology alone has not yet benefited from comparisons with the universe beyond Earth. It is reasonable to suppose that breakthroughs might be made in biology on the basis of comparisons with life from other worlds. Organisms elsewhere may have found alternatives to processes we think of as basic characteristics of life. In contrast, physical science has advanced sufficiently to provide a great body of laws which may be expressed in mathematical terms, and by which phenomena may be predicted with complete accuracy. A well-known characteristic of biological phenomena is variability. The Darwinian concept of evolution is perhaps the only pervading generalization in biology. This concept has been supported by evidence of a hereditary mechanism in the discovery of genes and gene mutations. Space bioscience represents the convergence of main disciplines with a single orientation, whose direction is determined by the problems of manned space travel which have, in turn, created a host of bioengineering problems concerned with supporting man in space.