Space Shuttle Return to Flight
July 13th, 2005Posted by: Roger Pielke, Jr.
United States space policy remains bound by NASA’s decades-old “vision” of voyaging to Mars that shapes everything from agency priorities to its political machinations. Don’t be fooled into thinking that this is George Bush’s “vision” – it was also his father’s and Ronald Regan’s, but really it has been NASA’s vision, whispered into the president’s ear. Perhaps Richard Nixon is the only President not to be swayed by NASA’s lobbying for a commitment to go to Mars. Of course, NASA worked around Nixon with its “next logical steps: shuttle-station-Mars” that got us to where we are today. For those interested in some history on the shuttle and space station program that develop these political dynamics, here are a few resources:
On costs of the shuttle program, see this tabulation — to date over $150 billion and counting.
On why the space shuttle developed as it did, see this analysis:
Pielke Jr., R. A., 1993: A Reappraisal of the Space Shuttle Program. Space Policy, May, 133-157. (PDF)
On the dynamics of the space station program:
Brunner, R., R. Byerly, Jr., and R.A. Pielke, Jr., 1992: The Future of the Space Station Program. Chapter in Space Policy Alternatives, edited by R. Byerly, Westview Press, Boulder, 199-222. (PDF)
July 14th, 2005 at 10:31 am
Personally, I think it is actually Bush’s “vision” in that he’s using it as a cover to implement Rumsfeld’s oft-stated desire to militarize space. I recognize I don’t have any actual evidence for this, but considering the nature of this administration, I’m suspicious that there’s something covert going on if they trumpet something loudly and then stop *talking* about it when the PR side isn’t well received, but continue pushing it. (It’s amazing the number of people I talk to who think the Mars mission was just a Kennedyesque blue-sky in a speech that has since been dropped, and have no idea that it’s been the driving policy ever since, gutting scientific research as it goes.)