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Apollo: the space station lifeboat
Document title: James T. McIntyre, Jr., Acting Director, Office of Management and Budget, to Robert A. Frosch, Administrator, NASA, December 23, 1977.
Source: Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, Atlanta, Georgia.
DECEMBER 23, 1977
Honorable George Low
Deputy Administrator,
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Washington, D.C. 20546
Dear George:
The interpretation in your December 21 letter that “The President decided that an option for the Apollo space station lifeboat should be negotiated now . . .,” is not a correct reading of the President’s decision. Two decisions would have to be made in the outyears: 1) a decision in the context of the FY 1981 budget on whether to provide additional funds for the option; and 2) a decision then or later to exercise that option.
The President stated his explicit concern that no action be taken that might be interpreted as a possible commitment now by the Government to build Apollo space station lifeboat. The option for a lifeboat should be kept open for future Presidential consideration and it is NASA’s obligation to assure that no actions, contractual or otherwise, are taken that might tend to pre-empt the President’s future decision on Apollo rescue vehicles.