Abstract
In the aftermath of the Challenger accident, and particularly after the reviews by the Rogers Commission and others assessing the reality of the shuttle’s operations and National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA’s) less-than-stellar performance in managing them, it became clear that there was a high degree of self-delusion in the way the shuttle had been perceived. Rather than a vehicle delivering on the promises that NASA had made to Richard Nixon in 1972, claiming that the space shuttle would “revolutionize transportation into near space by routinizing it” and would “take the astronomical costs out of astronautics,” the shuttle was revealed to be a vehicle that was expensive and difficult to operate safely. The stage was thus set for a debate over post-Challenger launch policy. That seven-month debate proved very contentious, with its focal points being both whether to build a new shuttle orbiter to replace Challenger and what role the shuttle would play in future U.S. launch policy.
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- 1.
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- 2.
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- 3.
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- 4.
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- 9.
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- 10.
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- 11.
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- 13.
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- 14.
“Washington Roundup,” AWST, April 28, 1986, 15; “Escape the NASA Nightmare,” NYT, April 25, 1986; Stuart Diamond, “NASA Wastes Billions, Federal Audits Disclose,” NYT, April 23, 1986, 1. Reagan’s remarks can be found at https://reaganlibrary.gov/archives/speeches/51286a.
- 15.
Memorandum from Norm Terrell to Dr. Fletcher, May 2, 1986, Box 10, Papers of James Fletcher, NARA.
- 16.
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- 17.
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- 20.
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- 21.
Letter from Al Rockwell to Donald Regan, May 28, 1986, Files of Valerie Neal.
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- 23.
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Letter from James Fletcher to James Miller, June 23, 1986, Files of Valerie Neal, and letter from James Miller to James Fletcher, June 23, 1986, Files of Darrell Branscome. Dr. Branscome is a veteran leader in the space community, working for NASA, the Congress, and industry. In 1986, he was a senior adviser to NASA Administrator Fletcher dealing with the post-Challenger recovery efforts. I am grateful for his willingness to share material from his files.
- 29.
Kathy Sawyer, “Decisions for Reagan,” WP, June 10, 1986, A15; Kathy Sawyer, “U.S. Policy-Makers Struggle to Rechart NASA’s Course,” WP, June 22, 1986, A1; Lou Cannon and David Hoffman, “Reagan Adviser Poindexter Under Criticisms by Colleagues,” WP, June 24, 1986, A1.
- 30.
Kathy Sawyer, “U.S. Policy-Makers Struggle to Rechart NASA’s Course,” WP, June 22, 1986, A1.
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Logsdon, J.M. (2019). Recovering from the Accident. 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_19
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