10 Space Shuttle

James C. Fletcher

"NASA Document III-31: The Space Shuttle"

Published in November 22, 1971; reprinted from Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civil Space Program. Volume I: Organizing for Exploration, published in 1995

Remarks on the Space Shuttle Program

Richard M. Nixon

Presented on January 5, 1972

The U.S. space program began in 1958 with the establishment of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). This initiative was the direct result of a space race between the United States and the former Soviet Union at a time when the two superpowers were involved in a period of hostile relations known as the Cold War (1945–91). A year earlier the Soviets had sent Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, into orbit. Americans were shocked by the event, fearing that the United States was losing the Cold War. NASA responded by launching Project Mercury for the training of astronauts. The seven members of the first astronaut corps were called the Mercury 7 (see Tom Wolfe entry). In May 1961 Mercury astronaut Alan Shepard (1923–1998) became the first American in space. Yet the United States was still lagging behind the Soviet Union in the space race: A month before Shepard made his brief flight over the Atlantic Ocean, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (1934–1968) became the first human to travel in space by making a nearly complete orbit of Earth.

On May 25, 1961, less than three weeks after Shepard's flight, President John F. Kennedy (1917–1963; served 1961–63) confronted the Soviet challenge in a speech before a joint session of Congress. He committed the United States to putting a man on the Moon within the next ten years (see John F. Kennedy entry). NASA immediately accelerated Project Apollo and its Moon mission program, and within eight years the agency had achieved Kennedy's goal. In 1969 the spacecraft Apollo 11 successfully landed astronauts Neil Armstrong (1930–) and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin (1930–) on the Moon (see Michael Collins and Edwin E. Aldrin entry). The moon landing was a victory for the United States in the space race. The Soviet Union had never developed a moon exploration program because of political power struggles and lack of government funding.

In the meantime, however, the Soviet Union had moved ahead in another important area. By the early 1960s the Soviets had already launched the Salyut space station and were operating Soyuz space shuttles. (A space station is an orbiting craft in which humans can live for extended periods of time. A space shuttle is a reusable craft that transports people and cargo between Earth and space.) When Apollo 11 landed on the Moon the United States had preliminary research on a space station and a space shuttle, but there were no official programs. The situation changed in the early 1970s, with the end of Project Apollo. In 1972 Apollo 17 made the final moon landing. The American public and the U.S. government had lost interest in moon exploration, so NASA had turned its attention to unmanned spaceflight projects such as the Large Space Telescope (LST). Initiated in 1969, the LST was an observatory (a structure housing a telescope, a device that observes celestial objects) that would continuously orbit Earth. NASA officials also realized that they could not abandon the manned spaceflight program. An immediate result of the LST project was a plan for a space shuttle that would release the LST into orbit. (The LST eventually became the Hubble Space Telescope, which was launched in 1990.)

On November 22, 1971, at the height of discussions about building a space shuttle, NASA administrator James C. Fletcher (1919–1991) presented a paper to the White House. The paper was titled "The Space Shuttle" but officially designated "NASA Document III–31."

Things to remember while reading "NASA Document III-31: The Space Shuttle":

• Fletcher was told to offer a "best-case scenario" to make the shuttle program appealing to the United States government. Fletcher breaks his arguments down into four major areas, primarily emphasizing the importance of the United States staying ahead of the Soviet Union in the space race.
• Like President Nixon, Fletcher believes that the shuttle will usher in an age of space travel in which complicated missions will become routine and frequent.
• Fletcher notes that "Americans went on to set foot on the Moon, while the Russians have continued to expand their capabilities in near-Earth space." Since the early 1960s the Russians had been developing the Soyuz, a reusable manned spacecraft. In 1971 a three-seat Soyuz vehicle delivered two crews to the Russian space station Salyut, the world's first space station. This was an important event in the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union.

"NASA Document III-31: The Space Shuttle"

This paper outlines NASA's case for proceeding with the space shuttle. The principal points are as follows:

1. 1. The U.S. cannot forego manned space flight.
2. 2. The space shuttle is the only meaningful new manned space program that can be accomplished on a modest budget.
3. 3. The space shuttle is a necessary next step for the practical use of space. It will help
   • —space science,
   • —civilian space applications,
   • —military space applications, and
   • —the U.S. position in international competition and cooperation in space.
4. 4. The cost and complexity of today's shuttle is one-half of what it was six months ago.
5. 5. Starting the shuttle now will have significant positive effect onaerospace employment. Not starting would be a serious blow to both the morale and health of the Aerospace Industry.

The U.S. Cannot Forego Manned Space Flight

Man has worked hard to achieve—and has indeed achieved—the freedom of mobility on land, the freedom of sailing on his oceans, and the freedom of flying in the atmosphere.

And now, within the last dozen years, man has discovered that he can also have the freedom of space. Russians and Americans, at almost the same time, first tooktentative small steps beyond the earth's atmosphere, and soon learned to operate, to maneuver, and torendezvous and dock in near-earth space. Americans went on to set foot on the moon, while the Russians have continued to expand their capabilities in near-earth space.

Man has learned to fly in space, and man will continue to fly in space. And, given this fact, the United States cannot afford to forego its responsibility—to itself and to the free world—to have a part in manned space flight. Space is not all remote. Men in near-earth orbit can be less than 100 miles from any point on earth—no farther from the U.S. than Cuba. For the U.S. not to be in space, while others do have men in space, is unthinkable, and a position which Americans cannot accept.

Why the Space Shuttle?

There are three reasons why the space shuttle is the right next step in manned space flight and the U.S. space program:

First, the shuttle is the only meaningful space program which can be accomplished on a modest budget. Somewhat less expensive"space acrobatics" can be imagined but would accomplish little and be dead-ended. Additional Apollo or Skylab flights would be very costly, especially as left-over Apollo components run out, and would give diminishing returns. Meaningful alternatives, such as a space laboratory or a revisit to the moon to establish semi-permanent bases are much more expensive, and a visit to Mars, although exciting and interesting, is completely beyond our means at the present time.

Second, the space shuttle is needed to make space operations less complex and costly. Today we have to mount an enormous effort every time we launch a manned vehicle, or even a large unmanned mission. The reusable space shuttle gives us a way to avoid this. This airplane-like spacecraft will make a launch into orbit an almost routine event—at a cost 1/_10th of today's cost of space operations. How is this possible? Simply by not throwing everything away after we have used it just once—just as we don't throw away an airplane after its first trip from Washington to Los Angeles.

The shuttle even looks like an airplane, but it has rocket engines instead of jet engines. It is launched vertically, flies into orbit under its own power, stays there as long as it is needed, then glides back into the atmosphere and lands on a runway, ready for its next use. And it will do this so economically that, if necessary, it can provide transportation to and from space each week, at an annual operating cost that is equivalent to only 15 percent of today's total NASA budget, or about the total cost of a single Apollo flight. Space operations would indeed become routine.

Third, the space shuttle is needed to do useful things. The long term need is clear. In the 1980's and beyond, the low cost to orbit the shuttle gives is essential for all the dramatic and practical future programs we can conceive. One example is a space station. Such a system would allow many men to spend long periods engaged in scientific, military, or even commercial activities in a more or less permanent station which could be visited cheaply and frequently andrefurbished, by means of a shuttle. Another interesting example is revisits to the moon to establish bases there; the shuttle would take the systems needed to orbit for the assembly.

But what will the shuttle do before then? Why are routine operations so important? There is no single answer to these questions as there are many areas—in science, in civilian application, and in military applications—where we can see now that the shuttle is needed; and there will be many more by the time routine shuttle service is available.

Take, for example, space science. Today it takes two to five years to get a new experiment ready for space flight, simply because operations in space are so costly that extreme care is taken to make everything just right. And because it takes so long, many investigations that should be carried out—to get fundamental knowledge about the sun, the stars, the universe, and, therefore, about ourselves on earth—are just not undertaken. At the same time, we have already demonstrated, by taking scientists and their instruments up in a Convair 990 airplane, that space science can be done in a much more straight-forward way with a much smaller investment in time and money, and with an ability to react quickly to new discoveries, because airplane operations are routine. This is what the shuttle will do for space science.

Or take civilian space applications. Today new experiments in space communications, or in earth resources, are difficult and expensive for the same reasons as discussed under science. But with routine space operations instruments could quickly be adjusted until theoptimum combination is found for any given application—a process that today involves several satellites, several years of time, and great expense.

One can also imagine new applications that would only be feasible with the routine operation of the space shuttle. For example, it may prove possible (with an economical space transportation system, such as the shuttle) to place into orbit huge fields of solar batteries—and then beam the collected energy down to earth. This would be a truly pollution-free power source that does not require the earth'slatent energy sources. Or perhaps one could develop a global environment monitoring system, international in scope, that could help control the mess man has made of our environment. These are just two examples of what might be done with routine space shuttle operations.

What about military space applications? It is true that our military planning has not yet defined a specific need for man in space for military purposes. But will this always be the case? Have the Russians made the same decision? If not, the shuttle will be there to provide, quickly and routinely, for military operations in space, whatever they may be. It will give us a quick reaction time and the ability to flyad hoc military missions whenever they are necessary. In any event, even without new military needs, the shuttle will provide the transportation for today's rocket-launched military spacecraft at substantially reduced cost.

Finally, the shuttle helps our international position—both our competitive position with the Soviets and our prospects of cooperation with them and with other nations.

Without the shuttle when our present manned space program ends in 1973 we will surrender center stage in space to the only other nation that has the determination and capability to occupy it. The United States and the whole free world would then face a decade or more in which Soviet supremacy in space would be unchallenged. With the shuttle, the United States will have a clear space superiority over the rest of the world because of the low cost to orbit and theinherent flexibility and quick reaction capability of a reusable system. The rest of the world—the free world at least—would depend on the United States for launch of most of their payloads.

On the side of cooperation, the shuttle would encourage far greater international participation in space flight. Scientists—as well as astronauts—of many nations could be taken along, with their own experiments, because shuttle operations will be routine. We are already discussing compatible docking systems with the Soviets, so that their spacecraft and ours can join in space. Perhaps ultimately men of all nations will work together in space—in joint environmental monitoring, internationaldisarmament inspections, or perhaps even injoint commercial enterprises —and through these activities help humanity work together better on its planet earth. Is there a more hopeful way?

The Cost of the Shuttle Has Been Cut in Half

Six months ago NASA's plan for the shuttle was one involving heavy investment—$10 billion before the first manned orbital flight—in order to achieve a very low subsequent cost per flight—less than $5 million. But since then the design has been refined, and a tradeoff has been made between investment cost and operational cost per flight. The result: a shuttle that can be developed for an investment of $4.5–$5 billion over a period of six years that will still only cost around $10 million or less per flight. (This means 30 flights per year at an annual cost for space transportation of 10 percent of today's NASA total budget, or one flight per week for 15 percent.)

This reduction in investment cost was partly the result of a tradeoff just mentioned, and partly due to a series of technical changes. The orbiter has been drastically reduced in size—from a length of 206 feet down to 110 feet. But the payload carrying capacity has not been reduced: it is still 40,000 pounds in polar orbit, or 65,000pounds in an easterly orbit, in a payload compartment that measures 15 × 60 feet.

The reduction in investment cost is highly significant. It means that the peak funding requirements, in any one year, can be kept down to a level that, even in a highly constrained NASA budget, will still allow for major advances in space science and applications, as well as in aeronautics.

The Shuttle and the Aerospace Industry

The shuttle is a technological challenge requiring the kind of capability that exists today in the aerospace industry. An accelerated start on the shuttle would lead to a direct employment of 8,800 by the end of 1972, and 24,000 by the end of 1973. This cannotcompensate for the 270,000 laid off by NASA cutbacks since the peak of the Apollo program but would take up the slack of further layoffs from Skylab and the remainder of the Apollo programs.

Conclusions

Given the fact that manned space flight is part of our lives, and that the U.S. must take part in it, it is essential to reduce drastically the complexity and cost of manned space operations. Only the space shuttle will do this. It will provide both routine and quick reaction space operations for space science and for civilian and military applications. The shuttle will do this at an investment cost that fits well within the highly constrained NASA budget. It will have low operating costs, and allow 30 to 50 space flights per year at a transportation cost equivalent to 10–15 percent of today's total NASA budget.

The shuttle program is launched

The U.S. space shuttle program officially began in 1972, when President Richard M. Nixon (1913–1994; served 1969–74) announced NASA's plans to develop a multiuse spacecraft. It would perform a wider variety and greater number of missions than the traditional one-use space rocket, and at a lower cost to the taxpayer. On January 5, 1972, in a speech in San Clemente, California, President Nixon informed the American people that the United States was going to enter into the next phase of space exploration. Having already put a man on the

Moon, NASA wanted to build a fleet of ships that would make traveling to space a routine experience.

Things to remember while reading President Nixon's Remarks on the Space Shuttle Program:

• Presidents have a long tradition of being associated with major events in space travel. President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969; served 1953–61) signed the act that brought NASA into existence; President Kennedy made an important speech announcing the United States' intention to send a man to the Moon. President Ronald Reagan (1911–2004; served 1981–89) addressed the nation after the Challenger (see entry) disaster, and President George W. Bush (1946–; served 2001–; see entry) commemorated the crew of the Columbia explosion.
• Notice that President Nixon emphasizes that the space shuttle program will cost less than the Apollo missions and that shuttle flights will happen with greater regularity. These two factors were big selling points to the U.S. government and the American people. There was a sense that space travel could become "routine."
• President Nixon imagined that the United States would be able to establish a number of space stations, leading the world in space exploration and settlement. It soon became clear that such projects, while achievable, were decades away.

President Nixon's Remarks on the Space Shuttle Program

I have decided today that the United States should proceed at once with the development of an entirely new type of space transportation system designed to help transform the space frontier of the 1970's into familiar territory, easily accessible for humanendeavor in the 1980's and 90's.

This system will center on a space vehicle that can shuttle repeatedly from Earth to orbit and back. It will revolutionize transportation into near space, byroutinizing it. It will take the astronomical costs out of astronautics. In short, it will go a long way toward delivering the rich benefits of practical space utilization and the valuable spin offs from space efforts into the daily lives of Americans and all people.

The new year 1972 is a year of conclusion for America's current series of manned flights to the Moon. Much is expected from the two remaining Apollo missions—in fact, their scientific results should exceed the return from all the earlier flights together. Thus they will place a fittingcapstone on this vastly successful undertaking. But they also bring us to an important decision point—a point ofassessing what our space horizons are as Apollo ends, and of determining where we go from here.

In the scientific arena, the past decade of experience has taught us that spacecraft are an irreplaceable tool for learning about our near-Earth space environment, the Moon, and the planets, besides being an important aid to our studies of the Sun and stars. In utilizing space to meet needs on Earth, we have seen the tremendous potential of satellites for international communications and world-wide weather forecasting. We are gaining the capability to use satellites as tools in global monitoring and management of nature resources, in agricultural applications, and in pollution control. We can foresee their use in guiding airliners across the oceans and in bringing TV education to wide areas of the world.

However, all these possibilities, and countless others with direct and dramatic bearing on human betterment, can never be more than fractionally realized so long as every single trip from Earth to orbit remains a matter of special effort and staggering expense. This is why commitment to the Space Shuttle program is the right step for America to take, in moving out from our present beach-head in the sky to achieve a real working presence in space—because the Space Shuttle will give us routine access to space by sharply reducing costs in dollars and preparation time.

The new system will differ radically from all existing booster systems, in that most of this new system will be recovered and used again and again—up to one hundred times. The resulting economies may bring operating costs down as low as one-tenth of those present launch vehicles.

The resulting changes in modes of flight and re-entry will make the ride safer, and less demanding for the passengers, so that men and women with work to do in space can "commute" aloft, without having to spend years in training for the skills and rigors of old-style space flight. As scientists and technicians are actually able to accompany their instruments into space, limiting boundaries between our manned and unmanned space programmes will disappear. Development of new space applications will be able to proceedmuch faster. Repair or servicing of satellites in space will become possible, as will delivery of valuablepayloads from orbit back to Earth.

The general reliability and versatility which the Shuttle system offers seems likely to establish it quickly as the workhorse of our whole space effort, taking the place of all present launch vehicles except the very smallest and very largest.

NASA and many aerospace companies have carried out extensive design studies for the Shuttle. Congress has reviewed and approved this effort. Preparation is now sufficient for us to commence the actual work of construction with full confidence of success. In order to minimize technical and economic risks, the space agency will continue to take a cautious evolutionary approach in the development of this new system. Even so, by moving ahead at this time, we can have the Shuttle in manned flight by 1978, and operational a short time later.

It is also significant that this major new nationalenterprise will engage the best efforts of thousands of highly skilled workers and hundreds of contractor firms over the next several years. The amazing 'technology explosion' that has swept this country in the years since we ventured into space should remind us that robust activity in the aerospace industry is healthy for everyone—not just in jobs and income, but in the extension of our capabilities in every direction. The continuedpreeminence of America and American industry in the aerospace field will be an important part of the Shuttle's 'payload.'

Views of the Earth from space have shown us how small and fragile our home planet truly is. We are learning theimperatives of universal brotherhood and global ecology, learning to think and act as guardians of one tiny blue and green island in the trackless oceans of the Universe. This new program will give more people more access to the liberating perspectives of space, even as it extends our ability to cope with physical challenges of Earth and broadens our opportunities for international cooperation in low-cost, multi-purpose space missions.

'We must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it', saidOliver Wendell Holmes, 'but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.' So with man's epic voyage into space—a voyage the United States of America has led and still shall lead.

What happened next …

In cooperation with the U.S. Air Force, which had been working on a multiuse space plane program known as Dynasoar, NASA began work on the space shuttle program. Originally, it was thought that the space shuttles would be used as transport vehicles to service a massive space station and a permanently manned lunar colony. It was also hoped that the space shuttles would be used for a manned mission to Mars. The Air Force and NASA worked together—sometimes less than pleasantly—to develop a craft that would serve both as a vehicle for work in space and for defensive purposes, such as launching spy satellites.

A number of designs were debated and considered before it was finally decided that the space craft would consist of four major parts: the orbit ship—the shuttle—which could be used over and over again; a large external fuel tank; and two reusable solid-fuel booster rockets. The external fuel tank contains liquid oxygen and liquid nitrogen that power the three main engines of the orbit ship. The tank is discarded eight and one-half minutes after takeoff and breaks up in the atmosphere upon reentry. The pieces fall into the ocean. The two solid-fuel rocket boosters contain a propellant made of ammonium perchlorate (an oxidizer) and aluminum. The boosters fall off two minutes after liftoff and also land in the ocean. However, the booster rockets are equipped with parachutes to slow their descent and allow them to land safely in the ocean, where they are recovered and prepared for use on the next mission.

At launch time the ship is set upright. It explodes from the launchpad and is sent into orbit. The shuttle's stack height (its height in launch position) is 184.2 feet (56 meters), although the orbit ship alone is 122.17 feet (37.24 meters) long. The wing span is 78.06 feet (23.7 meters) and the cabin can hold up to ten astronauts, although crews of five to seven are more common. The shuttle reaches speeds of 17,321 miles (27,869 kilometers) per hour.

NASA has built seven different shuttle types. The Pathfinder and Enterprise ships were test vehicles, never intended for space missions. The five operating shuttles were Challenger, Columbia, Atlantis, Discovery, and Endeavour. The first shuttle mission was performed by Columbia, which launched on April 12, 1981, commanded by a crew of two. Challenger was completed in July 1982, Discovery in November 1983, and Atlantis in 1985. The various shuttles have flown over 130 missions combined. The space shuttle program paved the way for modern space exploration. Originally designed to be transport ships, the various shuttles have performed a number of important missions—such as making service flights to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and transporting crews to the Russian Mir space station and the International Space Station (ISS)—and greatly increased our knowledge of the universe. The program suffered two tragedies in its thirty-year history: the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger on January 28, 1986; and the explosion of the space shuttle Columbia on February 1, 2003. In both cases, the entire crew was killed (see Challenger and Columbia Space Shuttle Disaster entries). In 2004, as a result of the Columbia accident, NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe (1956–) announced that future shuttle flights would be canceled until safety problems had been resolved.

Many critics consider the space shuttle program to be a failure. Originally, the shuttles were supposed to reduce the cost of space missions greatly and to increase the frequency of manned space flight. NASA soon discovered, especially after the explosion of Challenger that too many missions in a short period of time can result in disaster. The low cost estimate was based on an increased number of missions, so the shuttle eventually was not cost effective because a fewer number of flights were successfully completed. However, many supporters of the space shuttle program point out that the shuttle did mark a major advance in space travel by producing a space craft capable of making numerous journeys into space and, a great percentage of the time, returning safely to Earth.

Did you know …

• A space shuttle weighs 4.5 million pounds (2.04 kilograms) at takeoff. When the orbiter lands, it weighs 230,000 pounds (104,420 kilograms).
• The first orbiter that was completed was originally called Constitution. However, after a massive write-in campaign by fans of the television show Star Trek, the ship was renamed Enterprise in honor of the famous ship from the show.
• In January 2004 President George W. Bush announced that the space shuttle will be retired from service in 2010. NASA plans to replace it with the Crew Exploration Vehicle, which is expected to conduct its first manned mission by 2014.

Consider the following …

• Some people think that investing in NASA is a waste of taxpayer money and that the money is better used trying to improve education, health care, and other domestic issues. Do you think space exploration should be a national priority? Why or why not?
• Although the space shuttles have flown many more successful missions than those that ended in disaster, space flight is still very dangerous. Do you think that NASA and President Nixon were too optimistic about how the space shuttle program would succeed? Some people argue that there was too much pressure, either from NASA or from popular opinion, to make it seem that flying in the space shuttle was as easy as driving a car, and because of that pressure, two terrible accidents resulted. Do you think we will ever get to a point where space travel is routine? Should we even have that as a goal, given how dangerous space flight is?
• If you were to become an astronaut, where would you want to fly? Why? Can you think of any experiments you might be able to conduct that might help our understanding of the universe?

For More Information

Books

Fletcher, James C. "NASA Document III-31: The Space Shuttle." In Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civil Space Program, Volume I: Organizing for Exploration. Edited by John M. Logsdon. Washington, DC: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1995.

Taylor, Robert. The Space Shuttle. San Diego, CA: Lucent Books, 2002.

Torres, George. Space Shuttle, A Quantum Leap. Navato, CA: Presidio Press, 1986.

Web Sites

January 28: 1986: The Challenger Disaster.http://www.chron.com/content/interactive/special/challenger (accessed on August 10, 2004).

Nixon, Richard M. Remarks on the Space Shuttle Program. NASA.http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/stsnixon.htm (accessed on August 10, 2004).

"Space Shuttle Columbia and Her Crew." NASA.http://www.nasa.gov/columbia (accessed on August 10, 2004).

"Space Shuttle Program." Wikipedia.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_shuttle (accessed on August 10, 2004).

Other Sources

The Dream Is Alive. National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution. Burbank, CA: Warner Home Video, 2001 (DVD).

Aerospace: Science that deals with Earth's atmosphere and the space beyond, including travel in, and creation and manufacture of vehicles used in aerospace.

Tentative: Uncertain.

Rendezvous: Meet up with.

Refurbished: Resupplied.

Optimum: Most favorable.

Latent: Capable of becoming active though not now visible; hidden.

Ad hoc: Unplanned, improvised.

Inherent: Part of the basic nature of a person or thing; essential.

Disarmament: Laying aside arms or weapons.

Joint commercial enterprises: A business project or undertaking done by two parties for the purpose of making a profit.

Compensate: Make up, be equal to.

Endeavor: Effort.

Routinizing: Making routine or everyday.

Capstone: High point.

Assessing: Determining the rate or amount of.

Payloads: Load carried by an aircraft or spacecraft consisting of things (such as passengers or instruments) necessary to the purpose of the flight.

Enterprise: Project that is especially difficult, complicated, or risky.

Preeminence: Superiority.

Imperatives: Orders or commands.

Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809–1894): American physician, poet, and essayist.