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March 1983 - [instead of Star Wars] President Ronald Reagan announces a program to develop industries in space, by building self-replicating factories on the moon, and eventually other bodies. Part of the goal is to eventually establish a human [US] presence, and thus remove the possibility of extinction by nuclear war.
(BTW, I am aware there were some people in space, who got advance wind of Reagan about to do a major space speech, and really thought he was about to announce something like this)