Abstract
The Reagan administration brought with it to Washington a firm belief in the principle that the U.S. government should not carry out activities that could just as well, if not better, be private sector responsibilities. That perspective had been reflected in the July 1982 statement of National Space Policy, which set as one of its six major space goals expanding “United States private-sector investment and involvement in civil space and space-related activities.” Between 1982 and 1984, first in parallel to the debates over whether to approve a space station and then on its own momentum, space commercialization was a major area of White House and interagency attention. One focus was transferring to private sector ownership and management all or part of the existing government programs observing the Earth from orbit. A second was both to allow U.S. industry to assume ownership and operation of the existing expendable launch vehicles (ELVs) that were due to be phased out as the space shuttle became the primary launch vehicle for all government payloads and to encourage entrepreneurial firms interested in developing new space launch capabilities. The first of these initiatives was a failure, while the attempt to commercialize ELVs got off to a slow start in the face of competition from the space shuttle for commercial contracts.
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Notes
- 1.
Ronald Reagan: “Radio Address to the Nation on the Space Program,” January 28, 1984. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, APP, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=40349.
- 2.
A copy of NSDD-42, portions of which remain classified, can be found at www.reaganlibrary.gov/sites/default/files/archives/reference/scanned-nsdds/nsdd42.pdf.
- 3.
For an overview of the origin and evolution of the Landsat program, see Pamela Mack and Ray Williamson, “Observing the Earth from Space,” in John M. Logsdon et al., eds., Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in the History of the U.S. Civilian Space Program, Volume III: Using Space, NASA SP-4407 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1998), 155–177.
- 4.
Memorandum from Allen Lenz to Robert Carlstrom, “Land Remote Sensing Legislation,” April 29, 1981, Box 1, Outer Space Files, RRL; memorandum from Ed Harper, Office of Management and Budget, to Craig Fuller and Martin Anderson, “Resolution of Issues Related to Private Sector Transfer of Civil Land Observing Satellite Activities,” July 13, 1981, reprinted in Logsdon et al., eds., Exploring the Unknown, Volume III, 306; Philip Boffey, “Administration Proposes Selling U.S. Weather Satellites to Industry,” NYT, March 9, 1983, 1.
- 5.
Cabinet Council on Commerce and Trade, “Decision Memorandum,” December 14, 1981, CIA-RDP84B00049R001700060009-4, CREST; memorandum from Chief, Interdepartmental Affairs Staff, OPP to Director of Central Intelligence, “CCCT Meeting – LANDSAT Issue,” December 15, 1981, CIA-RDP84B000449R001700060018-4, CREST.
- 6.
Ibid.
- 7.
Memorandum from Director, Intelligence Community Staff, to Director of Central Intelligence, “Civil Satellite Transfers to the Private Sector,” August 31, 1982, CIA-RDP84M00396R000300020028-6, CREST. “National Security Concerns Regarding Meteorological Satellite Commercialization,” paper attached to Cabinet Council on Commerce and Trade, “Agenda,” April 20, 1982, CIA-RDP84M00395R000600220030-9, CREST.
- 8.
Memorandum from Director, Intelligence Community Staff, to Director of Central Intelligence, “Civil Satellite Transfers to the Private Sector,” August 31, 1982, CIA-RDP84M00396R000300020028-6, CREST.
- 9.
Transmittal from the Department of Commerce to Commerce Business Daily, “Civil Operation Remote Sensing from Space,” September 3, 1982 (published September 10, 1982), CIA-RDP84M00127R000200030028-4, CREST.
- 10.
Government Technical Review Panel, Report on Industry Responses on Commercialization of Civilian Remote Sensing Systems,” November 10, 1982, reprinted in Logsdon et al., eds., Exploring the Unknown, Volume III, 310–311. “Advisory Unit Urges that U.S. Fund Remote Sensing to 1995,” AWST, November 29, 1982, 26.
- 11.
Memorandum from the Cabinet Council on Commerce and Trade to the President, “Transfer of the Civil Remote Systems to the Private Sector,” February 28, 1983, Folder 12772, NHRC.
- 12.
Philip Boffey, “Administration Proposes Selling U.S. Weather Satellites to Industry,” NYT, March 9, 1983, 1; Philip Hilts, “Reagan Took Solo Action on Weather Satellite Sale,” WP, March 26, 1983, A1; Hobart Rowan, “Reagan’s Satellite Sell-Off Would Rip Off Taxpayers,” WP, March 13, 1983, F1.
- 13.
House Concurrent Resolution 168, “Transfer of Civil Meteorological Satellites,” November 14, 1983, reprinted in Logsdon et al., eds., Exploring the Unknown, Volume III, 321–329.
- 14.
For a summary of this period in the evolution in U.S. remote sensing activities, see Mack and Williamson, “Observing the Earth from Space,” in Logsdon, Exploring the Unknown, Volume III, 172–175 and Brian Jarout, “Lessons of Landsat: Experimental Program to Commercial Land Imaging, 1969–1989,” in Roger D. Launius and Howard E. McCurdy, eds., NASA Spaceflight: A History of Innovation (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), 155–184.
- 15.
Much of this discussion of David Hannah and SSI comes from Michael A.G. Michaud, Reaching for the High Frontier: The American Pro-Space Movement, 1972–1984 (New York: Praeger, 1986), Chap. 12, and an interview with Charles Chafer, March 6, 2017.
- 16.
Memorandum from David Hannah to George Keyworth, “Government Regulation of Private Enterprise in Outer Space,” October 22, 1981, RAC 14, Papers of George Keyworth, RRL.
- 17.
Michaud, Reaching for the High Frontier, 260.
- 18.
“Interagency Space Launch Policy Working Group Report,” April 1983, Document CIA-RDP92B00181R00170160018-7, CREST, 3–4, 14–16, 20–22.
- 19.
Andrew Butrica, Single Stage to Orbit: Politics, Space Technology, and the Quest for Reusable Rocketry (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003), 25.
- 20.
Joan Lisa Bromberg, NASA and the Space Industry (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999), 115, 129.
- 21.
“Interagency Space Launch Policy Working Group Report,” April 1983, 32–33. Memorandum from Norm Terrell to Dr. (James) Fletcher, May 2, 1986, Box 10, Papers of James Fletcher, NARA.
- 22.
Memorandum from William P. Clark for the president, “NSDD on Commercialization of Expendable Launch Vehicles (ELVs),” undated.
- 23.
A copy of NSDD 94 can be found at www.reaganlibrary.gov/sites/default/files/archives/reference/scanned-nsdds/nsdd94.pdf.
- 24.
Memorandum from Jim Chamberlin, Arms Control and Disarmament Agency to SIG (Space) ELV Working Group, “Soviet Interest in ELV Commercialization, with attached diplomatic cables, September 7, 1983, CIA-RDP92B00181R001701600008-8, CREST.
- 25.
Charles Horner, “Personal Note for Crag Fuller,” August 19, 1983, Box 7, Outer Space Files, RRL.
- 26.
SIG (Space) Working Group on the Commercialization of ELVs, “Report on U.S. Government Organization and Process for Handling U.S. Commercial Space Launch Operations,” September 15, 1983, CIA-RDP92B00181R001701600007-9, CREST.
- 27.
Handwritten note from Gil Rye to Craig (Fuller), September 21, 1983, Box 8, Outer Space Files, RRL.
- 28.
Letter from Malcolm Baldrige to Robert McFarlane, November 4, 1983, National Security Council, Executive Secretariat, 13–82 File, RRL.
- 29.
Memorandum from Constance Horner to Craig Fuller, “Talking Points on H.R. 3942, Expendable Launch Vehicle Commercialization Act,” November 8, 1983, Folder 12772, NHRC.
- 30.
Memorandum from Craig Fuller to the president, “Determining the Lead Agency for Commercializing Expendable Launch Vehicles,” November 16, 1983, Folder 12772, NHRC.
- 31.
Interview of Courtney Stadd by Rebecca Wright, January 7, 2003, NHRC; Douglas Brinkley, ed., The Reagan Diaries (New York: HarperCollins, 2007), 198.
- 32.
Ronald Reagan: “Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the Union,” January 25, 1984. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, APP, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=40205.
- 33.
Memorandum from Craig Fuller to Fred Ryan, “Schedule Proposal,” January 27, 1984, Box 8, Outer Space Files, RRL.
- 34.
Ronald Reagan: “Remarks on Signing an Executive Order on Commercial Expendable Launch Vehicle Activities,” February 24, 1984. Online by Peters and Woolley, APP, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=39560.
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Logsdon, J.M. (2019). Space Commercialization. In: Ronald Reagan and the Space Frontier. Palgrave Studies in the History of Science and Technology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98962-4_12
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