After Apollo?: Richard Nixon and the American Space Program

356 Pages·2015·4.729 MB·English

by  John M. Logsdon (auth.)

Palgrave StudieS in the hiStory of
Science and technology
James Rodger Fleming (Colby College) and Roger D. Launius (National Air and
Space Museum), Series Editors
This series presents original, high-quality, and accessible works at the cutting edge
of scholarship within the history of science and technology. Books in the series aim
to disseminate new knowledge and new perspectives about the history of science
and technology, enhance and extend education, foster public understanding, and
enrich cultural life. Collectively, these books will break down conventional lines
of demarcation by incorporating historical perspectives into issues of current and
ongoing concern, offering international and global perspectives on a variety of
issues, and bridging the gap between historians and practicing scientists. In this way
they advance scholarly conversation within and across traditional disciplines but also
to help define new areas of intellectual endeavor.
Published by Palgrave Macmillan:
Continental Defense in the Eisenhower Era: Nuclear Antiaircraft Arms and
the Cold War
By Christopher J. Bright
Confronting the Climate: British Airs and the Making of
Environmental Medicine
By Vladimir Jankovic´
Globalizing Polar Science: Reconsidering the International Polar and
Geophysical Years
Edited by Roger D. Launius, James Rodger Fleming, and
David H. DeVorkin
Eugenics and the Nature-Nurture Debate in the Twentieth Century
By Aaron Gillette
John F. Kennedy and the Race to the Moon
By John M. Logsdon
A Vision of Modern Science: John Tyndall and the Role of the Scientist in
Victorian Culture
By Ursula DeYoung
Searching for Sasquatch: Crackpots, Eggheads, and Cryptozoology
By Brian Regal
Inventing the American Astronaut
By Matthew H. Hersch
The Nuclear Age in Popular Media: A Transnational History
Edited by Dick van Lente
Exploring the Solar System: The History and Science of Planetary Exploration
Edited by Roger D. Launius
The Sociable Sciences: Darwin and His Contemporaries in Chile
By Patience A. Schell
The First Atomic Age: Scientists, Radiations, and the American Public,
1895–1945
By Matthew Lavine
NASA in the World: Fifty Years of International Collaboration in Space
By John Krige, Angelina Long Callahan, and Ashok Maharaj
Empire and Science in the Making: Dutch Colonial Scholarship in
Comparative Global Perspective
Edited by Peter Boomgaard
Anglo-American Connections in Japanese Chemistry: The Lab as
Contact Zone
By Yoshiyuki Kikuchi
Eismitte in the Scientific Imagination: Knowledge and
Politics at the Center of Greenland
By Janet Martin-Nielsen
Climate, Science, and Colonization: Histories from Australia and
New Zealand
Edited by James Beattie, Matthew Henry and Emily O’Gorman
The Surveillance Imperative: Geosciences during the Cold War and Beyond
By Simone Turchetti and Peder Roberts
Post-Industrial Landscape Scars
By Anna Storm
Voices of the Soviet Space Program: Cosmonauts, Soldiers, and
Engineers Who Took the USSR into Space
By Slava Gerovitch
After Apollo?: Richard Nixon and the American Space Program
By John M. Logsdon
After Apollo?

Richard Nixon and the American
Space Program
John M. Logsdon
after apollo?
Copyright © John M. Logsdon, 2015.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2015 978-1-137-43852-2
All rights reserved.
First published in 2015 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-49397-5 ISBN 978-1-137-43854-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137438546
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Logsdon, John M., 1937–
After Apollo? : Richard Nixon and the American space program / John M.
Logsdon.
pages cm—(Palgrave studies in the history of science and technology)
Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Astronautics and state—United States—History—20th century.
2. United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration—Planning—
History—20th century. 3. Project Apollo (U.S.)—History. 4. Nixon, Richard M.
(Richard Milhous), 1913–1994—Influence. I. Title.
TL789.8.U5L6385 2014
629.4500973909047—dc23 2014035724
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: March 2015
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is dedicated to my grandchildren—Jacob, Sara, and Aaron—
with the hope that they will see the space dream become reality. I was
present when men first left for the Moon in 1969. I hope that they will see
men and women return to the Moon and leave for Mars—or maybe even
make the trip themselves.
TTTTTTTTThhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiisssssssss pppppppppaaaaaaaaagggggggggeeeeeeeee iiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnttttttttteeeeeeeeennnnnnnnntttttttttiiiiiiiiiooooooooonnnnnnnnnaaaaaaaaallllllllllllllllllyyyyyyyyy llllllllleeeeeeeeefffffffffttttttttt bbbbbbbbblllllllllaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnkkkkkkkkk
Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments ix
Overture 1
Act 1 No More Apollos
Chapter 1
Richard Nixon and Apollo 11 7
Chapter 2
Setting the Post-Apollo Stage 31
Chapter 3
After the Moon, Mars? 55
Chapter 4
Space and National Priorities 83
Chapter 5
The Nixon Space Doctrine 103
Chapter 6
The End of the Apollo Era 117
Intermission 125
Act 2 What Next?
Chapter 7
A New Cast of Characters 131
Chapter 8
The Space Shuttle Takes Center Stage 143
Chapter 9
National Security Requirements Drive Shuttle Design 161
viii Contents
Chapter 10
A Time of Transitions 173
Chapter 11
A Confused Path Forward 197
Chapter 12
Debating a Shuttle Decision 213
Chapter 13
Which Shuttle to Approve? 239
Chapter 14
A “Space Clipper” 255
Finale 271
Epilogue
Richard Nixon and the American Space Program 277
Notes 303
Bibliography 339
Index 343
Preface and Acknowledgments
T
his study has had a very long genesis. When my first book, The Decision to
Go to the Moon: Project Apollo and the National Interest, was published by the
MIT Press in summer 1970, I gave a copy to NASA Deputy Administrator
George Low. By that time there had been two successful landings on the
Moon—Apollo 11 and Apollo 12—and one near-tragedy—Apollo 13. Low
told me that NASA at that point in time was in the midst of a confused pro-
cess of dealing with Richard Nixon’s White House with respect to what the
space agency should do after Apollo. He suggested that I take a look at that
post-Apollo decision-making process similar to the one that had led to my
Apollo study, and provided a modest NASA grant to facilitate such an effort.
That suggestion set me on the lengthy and winding path that 44 years later
has resulted in this book.
Working with NASA chief historian Gene Emme and especially Nat
Cohen of NASA’s policy office, during late 1970 and 1971 I carried out a
series of interviews with many of the key actors in the post-Apollo debate;
these interviews took place as NASA was struggling to get White House
approval for developing the space shuttle as the central focus of its efforts
for the 1970s. Those interviews are one basis for the current study; they
provide an “at the moment” look at what was on the minds of those trying
to decide what kind of post-Apollo space program was in the nation’s, and
President Nixon’s, interest. In 1973, I wrote up but never published an initial
account of post-Apollo decision making, and put that draft and transcripts
of the supporting interviews in the NASA Historical Reference Collection at
NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC; other researchers have drawn on
that material over the years. I continued on a sporadic basis over the follow-
ing years to interview individuals involved in post-Apollo decisions; the last
of those interviews was with top Nixon assistant John Ehrlichman in 1983.
I published several articles on the space shuttle, most notably a controversial
analysis titled “The Space Shuttle Program: A Policy Failure?” that appeared
in the journal Science a few months after the January 1986 Challenger acci-
dent. But the press of teaching and administrative responsibilities was a bar-
rier to completing the book-length study needed to tell the full post-Apollo
story.