The Space Task Group – 'Paine's Folly'
Months before the first historic landing on the Moon, NASA commissioned a 'Space Task Group' to prepare plans for the post-Apollo future of the agency, and provide options for the recently elected President Nixon. This project was the brainchild of NASA Administrator Thomas O. Paine; he was hoping to provide for a glorious future for the agency, and certainly encouraged boldness and vision among the picked members of the group. The amazing success of Apollo 11 – which held the world spellbound – only led to greater enthusiasm among Agency staffers.
In September, the group prepared three proposals for the President. The first was the boldest – a major expansion into space, with the construction of a space shuttle, large orbiting space station, lunar base, and an expedition to Mars by 1981. The second and third options had essentially the same goals, but assumed reduced funding levels, with the Mars mission delayed until later in the century. This plan was submitted to the White House for consideration...and met with a stony response.
The President – looking at the increasing costs of the war in Vietnam and other budgetary crises – was not about to commit to an eternally ongoing increased spend; his scientific advisers questioned the likelihood of these goals being attained on the timescale indicated, and as importantly, none of the key results would bear fruit until long after the conclusion of his second term.
Not that the President disliked space; Apollo was the child of Kennedy, and he found that hard to forgive, but the President did like heroes, and astronauts fitted that bill perfectly. Additionally, the space program had become key to the Cold War, and there were rumours that a space station was being considered by the Soviets for early in the next decade, and this was something the United States had to keep pace with. It was also noted that NASA had accumulated a substantial inventory of hardware, already paid for – and it would be a great shame to waste it.
The President's directive to NASA became simple: he would not authorise any new programmes, but would continue to fund existing ones. An emphasis on lunar exploration was ordered for the manned programme, but the 'Skylab' project should continue – with an eye to potential military applications – so the USAF would have an increased role.
Administrator Paine, seeing his dreams torn asunder, threatened to resign unless at least the Space Shuttle programme was continued; Nixon, laughing at the idea of, “a bus to nowhere”, accepted his resignation, and George Low – an Apollo expert – was named as NASA Administrator on November 10, 1969. He immediately commissioned an Apollo Applications Working Group to determine how best NASA hardware could be used to meet the President's demands, under General Sam Philips, Dr. Charles Townes, and astronaut James McDivitt. Apollo 12, 13 and 14 would continue as planned for the present, and preparations for the second flight to the moon continued apace. In addition, the new administrator quietly called upon the FBI to launch discrete investigations of the astronauts. If the President wanted heroes, he was going to need to make sure that there were no unpleasant surprises coming up...
Months before the first historic landing on the Moon, NASA commissioned a 'Space Task Group' to prepare plans for the post-Apollo future of the agency, and provide options for the recently elected President Nixon. This project was the brainchild of NASA Administrator Thomas O. Paine; he was hoping to provide for a glorious future for the agency, and certainly encouraged boldness and vision among the picked members of the group. The amazing success of Apollo 11 – which held the world spellbound – only led to greater enthusiasm among Agency staffers.
In September, the group prepared three proposals for the President. The first was the boldest – a major expansion into space, with the construction of a space shuttle, large orbiting space station, lunar base, and an expedition to Mars by 1981. The second and third options had essentially the same goals, but assumed reduced funding levels, with the Mars mission delayed until later in the century. This plan was submitted to the White House for consideration...and met with a stony response.
The President – looking at the increasing costs of the war in Vietnam and other budgetary crises – was not about to commit to an eternally ongoing increased spend; his scientific advisers questioned the likelihood of these goals being attained on the timescale indicated, and as importantly, none of the key results would bear fruit until long after the conclusion of his second term.
Not that the President disliked space; Apollo was the child of Kennedy, and he found that hard to forgive, but the President did like heroes, and astronauts fitted that bill perfectly. Additionally, the space program had become key to the Cold War, and there were rumours that a space station was being considered by the Soviets for early in the next decade, and this was something the United States had to keep pace with. It was also noted that NASA had accumulated a substantial inventory of hardware, already paid for – and it would be a great shame to waste it.
The President's directive to NASA became simple: he would not authorise any new programmes, but would continue to fund existing ones. An emphasis on lunar exploration was ordered for the manned programme, but the 'Skylab' project should continue – with an eye to potential military applications – so the USAF would have an increased role.
Administrator Paine, seeing his dreams torn asunder, threatened to resign unless at least the Space Shuttle programme was continued; Nixon, laughing at the idea of, “a bus to nowhere”, accepted his resignation, and George Low – an Apollo expert – was named as NASA Administrator on November 10, 1969. He immediately commissioned an Apollo Applications Working Group to determine how best NASA hardware could be used to meet the President's demands, under General Sam Philips, Dr. Charles Townes, and astronaut James McDivitt. Apollo 12, 13 and 14 would continue as planned for the present, and preparations for the second flight to the moon continued apace. In addition, the new administrator quietly called upon the FBI to launch discrete investigations of the astronauts. If the President wanted heroes, he was going to need to make sure that there were no unpleasant surprises coming up...
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