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Battle for the space shuttle (16)
final battles for the shuttle...

Washington DC
December 14 1971

Tensions between NASA and the Bureau of Budget had never been so latent. Low and Fletcher had been battling the BoB for five sterile weeks, and the situation was now explosive.

Low had gone to the Flax Committee fourth meeting, and drawn a diagram on a blackboard, demonstrating why the TAOS was now NASA preferred option.

Fletcher then sent a copy to the White House, with a cover letter.

"All of these configurations of the Shuttle can be developed for costs substantially below those we planned six months ago. We have progressed to the point where a decision to proceed with the shuttle in connection with the FY 1973 budget process is definitely in order. “

Alas, the elements of a consensus were nowhere in sight. The Flax committee was firmly against Mathematica's shuttle whatever booster it used. The orbiter was just oversized, period.
Fletcher recommended the Mark I/Mark II orbiter with the parallel-staged pressure-fed booster and four J-2S engines burning at liftoff – later replaced by SSMEs – with Mathematica TAOS as backup plan.

Flax bluntly answered Fletcher that in their opinion the Mark I/Mark II concept had never been more than an artificial stratagem to reduce peak funding by stretching out the development, while accepting serious compromises in design.

This tactic evidently irritated the hell out of Flax and its committee. Flax complained of NASA general attitude to Weinberger and the White House, and this made matters worse.
A moment of decision had apparently come on December 2, as the BoB sent Nixon a Memorandum for the President. It dealt with space policy, covering a range of issues.

The memo included a two-page discussion of the Space Shuttle, and presented the BoB's recommendation: "over $1.5 billion for developing the Big Gemini capsule and the Titan III-M, along with approximately $2.25 billion in recurring operational costs. This is the way to go.”

With a stroke of his pen, Nixon would grant his consent:
1. Initiate low-cost manned capsule program
2. Conduct Soviet docking mission
3. Conduct other manned earth-orbital missions – including a follow-on to the Skylab program
4. Apollo 16 and 17
- Cancel both missions
- Cancel just Apollo 16
- Reschedule Apollo 16 and fly both


The BoB's Memorandum for the President acknowledged NASA's recent design revisions, noticing the shift toward Mathematica's shuttle. It however called on the agency to accept a manned spacecraft that would be much less costly

Last year NASA was proposing a $10-12 Billion Shuttle. In response to questions from BoB and OST about whether the benefits justified such a large investment, NASA has since designed a $5.5 B Shuttle which can do all the missions of the larger, more expensive one because it has exactly the same payload capability. (We think both costs are underestimated, perhaps by 50%, i.e., cost overruns are likely on both but more likely on the more expensive version.)
In either case, NASA would plan to replace all of the U.S. expendable booster programs with the Shuttle. Thus, one program, the Shuttle, would dominate NASA for the coming decade, as did Apollo in the 1960's. This would make efforts to reorient NASA to domestic pursuits more difficult, and tend to starve unmanned earth applications missions for resources.
The Shuttle alternative that is chosen must balance costs, benefits and subjective considerations.
What are the Options? NASA, NASA contractors, OST, PSAC and the Bureau of Budget have all given consideration to alternatives to NASA's large Space Shuttle proposal. In summary these alternatives run the gamut from: large systems with partially reusable powered orbiters and boosters ($6 B) to small systems with a capsule and a Titan III non-reusable launch vehicle ($2.5 B).


The BoB proposal stated explicitly that the nation was to "retain the reliable Titan III expendable booster." Nixon took about a week before he read and accepted the OMB memo. Interestingly, he stroke 3. and insisted on this point.


This Saturday, December 11, Fletcher and Low met with Rice, David, and Flanigan.
Rice welcomed them with the following words.
"Felicitation, you saved America’s manned spaceflight program. President Nixon tell us yesterday he appreciated your efforts and the resulting TAOS concept. However he decided to go with a capsule, perhaps that Big Gemini or some uprated Apollo, together with an extended Skylab program."

Fletcher was shocked.

"I just can't accept this decision. We need the shuttle, even in reduced form. We brought with us many TAOS variations – pressure-fed or solid boosters, J-2S or SSME, varied payload and bay sizes. We summarized these variants into the following table" he added "Look at this !" he showed Rice a document


A visibly uninterested Flanigan briefly looked at the table, then said calmly

"You don't understand. We told you again and again that Titan III was cheaper that any shuttle; and Big Gemini or Apollo will preserve manned spaceflight for the future. Because they are less expensive than any shuttle, the President tell us that he wouldn't oppose a manned space station to complement the capsule. What's wrong with these proposals ? Why can’t you accept that ?”

"We don’t accept that because our mantra is cutting cost to orbit, not having a space station. Thus I can't accept such a decision - I want to see the President by myself". Fletcher insisted, his face like a tombstone.

"You can't and won't change his opinion " Rice answered, glacial. An enraged Fletcher finally left the room, warning he would fight for the Shuttle "to the end".

George Low now faced Rice, David and Flanigan alone. Flanigan voice was full of ice as he just said "He can't see the President like this." Low shivered. There was something decidly wrong with all the president men.

The Nixon White House

"He said WHAT ?" Nixon shouted in the phone
"He told us to go to Hell" Flanigan said
"You mean James Fletcher, a Mormon ?"
"Yes."
Nixon hanged the phone and took a reflexion.

"Damn those Mormons. I knew something was definitively wrong with them when I met George Romney in '68" Nixon cackled. "What a jerk"

George Romney was a strong supporter of the American Civil Rights Movement.
He briefly represented moderate Republicans against conservative Republican Barry Goldwater during the 1964 U.S. presidential election.
He requested the intervention of federal troops during the 1967 Detroit riot.
Initially a front runner for the Republican nomination for President of the United States in the 1968 election, Romney proved an ineffective campaigner and fell behind Nixon in polls.
Then there was that remark that his earlier support for the Vietnam War had been due to a "brainwashing" by U.S. military and diplomatic officials in Vietnam
Unsurprisingly his campaign faltered even more and he withdrew from the contest in early 1968.
After my election as president, I appointed Romney as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Romney's ambitious plans for housing production increases for the poor, and for open housing to desegregate suburbs, were modestly successful but often thwarted by me.

"Whatever, the shuttle is surely as dead as door nail. That, and that Lockheed bailout that passed only by the slimmest of margin."

Last week when I arrived at the Azores on the Spirit of '76, a Boeing 707, I saw parked in front of me a Concorde which had carried the President of France Georges Pompidou. Our Ambassador to France, Mr. Watson, pointed out that he had come from France at a speed three times as fast as we had come from the United States. I do not speak in envy; I only wish we had made the plane ourselves.

Made the plane ourselves ? or better ?

Preisdent Nixon took up the phone and dialed "John ? John Magruder ? how is that Boeing SST revival going ?"
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