Abstract
Ronald Reagan’s enthusiasm for the space program as a frontier activity was a genuine part of his personality and of his ability to lead. However, that enthusiasm was held in check both by Reagan’s concern for government fiscal responsibility and by his “bottom up” decision-making approach, which often gave space skeptics equal voice with fellow enthusiasts in preparing issues for presidential decision. This reality led to a persistent gap between Reagan’s space-related rhetoric and the actual policies and programs of his administration. The Reagan space legacy, then, is a combination of memorable rhetoric and largely pragmatic practice. The Reagan administration was a period during which the space shuttle went from the centerpiece of access to space to an extremely capable system carrying out cutting edge NASA missions and serving to help construct a permanent outpost in orbit; during which the program to develop that outpost was begun; during which the foundational policies to support private sector space activities were first developed; and during which lasting international space partnerships were forged.
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- 1.
Andrew J. Butrica, Single Stage to Orbit: Politics, Technology, and the Quest for Reusable Rocketry (Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003), 13. William Broad, “Reagan’s Legacy in Space: More Reach Than Grasp,” NYT, May 8, 1988, IV-9.
- 2.
When material from earlier chapters is quoted in this analysis, the citations to original sources will not be repeated.
- 3.
Columbia Accident Investigation Board, Report, Volume I, August 2003, 209.
- 4.
An example of such criticism is in Alex Roland, “Barnstorming in Space: The Rise and Fall of the Romantic Era of Spaceflight, 1957–1986,” in Radford Byerly, ed., Space Policy Reconsidered (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1989).
- 5.
Gary Brewer, “Perfect Places: NASA as an Idealized Institution” in Byerly, Space Policy Reconsidered, 159, 163, 166.
- 6.
Ibid., 159.
- 7.
Hans Mark, The Space Station: A Personal Journey (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1987), 190–191.
- 8.
For a discussion of the influence of the space vision on U.S. space policy, see Howard McCurdy, Space and the American Imagination (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1997). The quote is on 1.
- 9.
Howard McCurdy, The Space Station Decision: Incremental Politics and Technological Choice (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press, 1990). The quote is on 233.
- 10.
“Washington Roundup,” AWST, October 6, 1986, 17; “Space Commerce Chastened” and Nicholas Kernstock, “Most Investors Shun High Risk Space Ventures,” AWST, December 19, 1988, 7, 45.
- 11.
Negroponte is quoted in Task Force on International Relations in Space, NASA Advisory Council, International Space Policy for the 1990s and Beyond, October 12, 1987, 20.
- 12.
Committee on Space Policy, National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering, Toward a New Era in Space: Realigning Policies to New Realities (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1988), 22, 2, 1.
- 13.
Ibid., 2.
- 14.
George Bush: “Remarks on the 20th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing,” July 20, 1989. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, APP, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=17321.
- 15.
For an account of the fate of the Space Exploration Initiative, see Thor Hogan, Mars Wars: The Rise and Fall of the Space Exploration Initiative (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2013).
- 16.
Roger D. Launius, “The Declining Significance of the Frontier in Space History?” July 30, 2012, https://launiusr.wordpress.com/2012/07/30/the-declining-significance-of-the-frontier-in-space-history/.
- 17.
Ronald Reagan: “Farewell Address to the Nation,” January 11, 1989. Online by Peters and Woolley, APP, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=29650.
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Logsdon, J.M. (2019). The Reagan Space Legacy. 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_24
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