The Future of NASA and the U.S. Enterprise in Space

The Future o f NASA and the US. Enterprise i n Space I Hans Mark M y hope is that the reader will forgive me if I write this paper in a personal vein rather than as a properly analytical policy paper. I was a member of NASA’s civil service work force for the better part of a decade, and I therefore have strong personal feelings on the subject, more so perhaps than those who have contributed to the nation’s space program in industry and in the academic world. Last January’s loss of the Space Shuttle Challenger has forced a reevaluation of the U.S. space program and, most importantly, NASA’s role in that program. Much has been said about what is wrong with NASA, and I suppose that there is some truth in all of this. I want to concentrate on those things that have been done that are right since it is time for someone to spell that out. There has been much criticism of NASA’s management of the nation‘s space science program, especially by influential members of the scientific community. Having lived through much of it, my defense is to say what everyone else in the world has long recognized: the United States has made more contributions to the expansion of human knowledge about the space environment, the planets, and the earth through observations from space than any other country by a wide margin. I was personally involved in the Pioneer Program that led to the first reconnaissance of the giants of the solar system, Jupiter and Saturn, and to the first mapping of the planet Venus. I watched the triumphant landing of the first Viking spacecraft on the planet Mars, and I marveled at the revelations about the structure of galaxies that came from the flight of the Infra Red Astronomical Observatory. Most criticisms of the space science program have two aspects. One is that the United States could have done much better had it done whatever the particular critic recommends, and that is probably true. Another is that it will do much worse in the future unless it does what the critic recommends, and that is also probably true. But the fact remains that it has done very well indeed, and I believe that it will continue to do so. There has been criticism of NASA because many people believe that no long-range goal has been formulated that guides the U.S. space program. Hans Mark is Chancellor of The University of Texas System. He has served as Deputy Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and before that, as Secretary of the U S . Air Force. International Security, Spring 1987 (Vol. 11, No. 4) 0 1987by the President and Fellows of Harvard College and of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 174 The Future of NASA I 175 The truth is that NASA has had a long-range goal, but it is one that has not had the unanimous support of NASA’s friends and constituents and has long been the target of NASA’s critics. The long-range goal that has been pursued consistently and with success for the last seventeen years is the development of the Space Shuttle and the Space Station to achieve the permanent presence of human beings in space. This goal was formulated as part of the ”Post-Apollo” program development effort in 1968 and 1969. Many other appropriate programs were suggested at the time to follow the successful Apollo missions. Among these were manned missions to Mars and the establishment of bases on the moon, but these proved to be too expensive for the political conditions prevailing at the time. Thus, the Space Shuttle/Space Station plan was adopted, which is now well on the way to completion. The coherent philosophy behind the Space Shuttle/Station was and is the development of the technical capability to put people permanently in space and to allow them to conduct a wide variety of functions ranging from the maintenance and repair of satellites, the performance of scientific experiments, and the conduct of operations in space that will eventually make more ambitious missions possible. I...