{"id":44788,"date":"2024-12-30T22:08:18","date_gmt":"2024-12-30T14:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/a-cold-war-mystery-why-did-jimmy-carter-save-the-space-shuttle\/"},"modified":"2024-12-30T22:08:18","modified_gmt":"2024-12-30T14:08:18","slug":"a-cold-war-mystery-why-did-jimmy-carter-save-the-space-shuttle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/a-cold-war-mystery-why-did-jimmy-carter-save-the-space-shuttle\/","title":{"rendered":"A Cold War mystery: Why did Jimmy Carter save the space shuttle?"},"content":{"rendered":"

With 39th President Jimmy Carter passing away at the age of 100, we are revisiting this story of how he unexpectedly saved the space shuttle.<\/p>\n

We\u2019d been chatting for the better part of two hours when Chris Kraft\u2019s eyes suddenly brightened. \u201cHey,\u201d he said, \u201cHere\u2019s a story I\u2019ll bet you never heard.\u201d Kraft, the man who had written flight rules for NASA at the dawn of US spaceflight and supervised the Apollo program, had invited me to his home south of Houston for one of our periodic talks about space policy and space history. As we sat in recliners upstairs, in a den overlooking the Bay Oaks Country Club, Kraft told me about a time the space shuttle almost got canceled.<\/p>\n

It was the late 1970s, when Kraft directed the Johnson Space Center, the home of the space shuttle program. At the time, the winged vehicle had progressed deep into a development phase that started in 1971. Because the program had not received enough money to cover development costs, some aspects of the vehicle (such as its thermal protective tiles) were delayed into future budget cycles. In another budget trick, NASA committed $158 million in fiscal year 1979 funds for work done during the previous fiscal year.<\/p>\n

This could not go on, and according to Kraft the situation boiled over during a 1978 meeting in a large conference floor on the 9th floor of Building 1, the Houston center\u2019s headquarters. All the program managers and other center directors gathered there along with NASA\u2019s top leadership. That meeting included Administrator Robert Frosch, a physicist President Carter had appointed a year earlier.<\/p>\n

Kraft recalls laying bare the budget jeopardy faced by the shuttle. \u201cWe were totally incapable of meeting any sort of flight schedule,\u201d he said. Further postponing the vehicle would only add to the problem because the vehicle\u2019s high payroll costs would just be carried forward.<\/p>\n

There were two possible solutions proposed, Kraft said. One was a large funding supplement to get development programs back on track. Absent that, senior leaders felt they would have to declare the shuttle a research vehicle, like the rocket-powered X-15, which had made 13 flights to an altitude as high as 50 miles in the 1960s. \u201cWe were going to have to turn it, really, into a nothing vehicle,\u201d Kraft said. \u201cWe were going to have to give up on the shuttle being a delivery vehicle into orbit.\u201d<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

On the eve of the 40th anniversary of the first human landing on the Moon, Apollo 11<\/em> crew members, Buzz Aldrin, left, Michael Collins, and Neil Armstrong and NASA Mission Control creator Chris Kraft, right, during their visit to the National Air and Space Museum on July 19, 2009.<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n NASA\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

Armed with these bleak options, Frosch returned to Washington. Some time later he would meet with Carter, not expecting a positive response, as the president had never been a great friend to the space program. But Carter, according to Kraft, had just returned from Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) in Vienna, and he had spoken with the Soviet leader, Leonid Brezhnev, about how the United States was going to be able to fly the shuttle over Moscow continuously to ensure they were compliant with the agreements.<\/p>\n

So when Frosch went to the White House to meet with the president and said NASA didn\u2019t have the money to finish the space shuttle, the administrator got a response he did not expect: \u201cHow much do you need?\u201d<\/p>\n

In doing so, Jimmy Carter saved the space shuttle, Kraft believes. Without supplementals for fiscal year 1979 and 1980, the shuttle would never have flown, at least not as the iconic vehicle that would eventually fly 135 missions and 355 individual fliers into space. It took some flights as high as 400 miles above the planet before retiring five years ago this week. \u201cThat was the first supplemental NASA had ever asked for,\u201d Kraft said. \u201cAnd we got that money from Jimmy Carter.\u201d<\/p>\n

As I walked out of Kraft\u2019s house that afternoon in late spring, I recall wondering whether this could really be true. Could Jimmy Carter, of all people, be the savior of the shuttle? All because he had been bragging about the shuttle\u2019s capabilities to the Soviets and, therefore, didn\u2019t want to show weakness? This Cold War mystery was now nearly 40 years in the past, but most of the protagonists still lived. So I began to ask questions.<\/p>\n

Carter\u2019s apathy toward space<\/h2>\n

At the root of my skepticism was this simple fact\u2014Jimmy Carter was no great friend to the space program or, at least initially, the shuttle. Less than five months after he became president, on the date of June 9, 1977, Carter wrote the following in his White House Diary: \u201cWe continued our budget meetings. It\u2019s obvious that the space shuttle is just a contrivance to keep NASA alive, and that no real need for the space shuttle was determined before the massive construction program was initiated.\u201d<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

On NASA\u2019s own 50th anniversary website, space historian John Logsdon described the Carter presidency in less than flattering terms. \u201cJimmy Carter was perhaps the least supportive of US human space efforts of any president in the last half-century,\u201d Logsdon wrote.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In 1978 President Jimmy Carter visited Kennedy Space Center to check on the space shuttle\u2019s progress and participate in an awards ceremony. Here he is greeted by Kennedy Space Center Director Lee Scherer.<\/p>\n

NASA<\/p>\n

<\/path><\/clipPath><\/defs><\/path><\/g><\/svg><\/p>\n

In 1978 President Jimmy Carter visited Kennedy Space Center to check on the space shuttle\u2019s progress and participate in an awards ceremony. Here he is greeted by Kennedy Space Center Director Lee Scherer.<\/p>\n

NASA<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Carter, with wife Rosalynn and daughter Amy, listens to Center Director Lee Scherer explain a model of the crawler transporter during their tour of the Kennedy Space Center.<\/p>\n

NASA<\/p>\n

<\/path><\/clipPath><\/defs><\/path><\/g><\/svg><\/p>\n

Carter, with wife Rosalynn and daughter Amy, listens to Center Director Lee Scherer explain a model of the crawler transporter during their tour of the Kennedy Space Center.<\/p>\n

NASA<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Astronaut Neil Armstrong receives the first Congressional Space Medal of Honor from President Jimmy Carter, assisted by Captain Robert Peterson, in 1978.<\/p>\n

NASA<\/p>\n

<\/path><\/clipPath><\/defs><\/path><\/g><\/svg><\/p>\n

Astronaut Neil Armstrong receives the first Congressional Space Medal of Honor from President Jimmy Carter, assisted by Captain Robert Peterson, in 1978.<\/p>\n

NASA<\/p>\n

<\/path><\/clipPath><\/defs><\/path><\/g><\/svg><\/p>\n

Carter, with wife Rosalynn and daughter Amy, listens to Center Director Lee Scherer explain a model of the crawler transporter during their tour of the Kennedy Space Center.<\/p>\n

NASA<\/p>\n

<\/path><\/clipPath><\/defs><\/path><\/g><\/svg><\/p>\n

Astronaut Neil Armstrong receives the first Congressional Space Medal of Honor from President Jimmy Carter, assisted by Captain Robert Peterson, in 1978.<\/p>\n

NASA<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

President Jimmy Carter presents the Congressional Space Medal of Honor to Neil Armstrong, Frank Borman, Charles Conrad, John Glenn, Betty Grissom, and Alan Shepard in 1978.<\/p>\n

NASA<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Former President Jimmy Carter, in 1980, presents the National Space Club\u2019s Goddard Memorial Trophy to NASA Administrator Dr Robert A Frosch on behalf of the team that planned and executed the Voyager mission to Jupiter and beyond.<\/p>\n

NASA<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Carter returned to Kennedy Space Center in 2002. Here Center Director Roy D Bridges Jr welcomes him. Behind Carter, at right, is Rosalynn Carter, Jimmy Carter\u2019s wife.<\/p>\n

NASA<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Rosalyn and Jimmy Carter talk with Bridges and the director of external affairs and business development, JoAnn H Morgan, in 2002<\/p>\n

NASA<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In the Space Station Processing Facility, the Carters listen to an explanation of the station\u2019s different modules.<\/p>\n

NASA<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In the Space Station Processing Facility, former President Carter pauses for a photo with astronauts Scott Kelly (left) and Joseph Tanner (right). Kelly would go on to become one of NASA\u2019s most recognizable astronauts after his one-year mission in 2015.<\/p>\n

NASA<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Carter is shown packages of food that are used on the International Space Station. Astronaut Scott Kelly (far left) relates how the food is prepared and how it tastes.<\/p>\n

NASA<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Carter, Ted Turner, and Virgin Galactic\u2019s Sir Richard Branson participate in an event during the Captain Planet Foundation\u2019s benefit gala at Georgia Aquarium on December 7, 2012.<\/p>\n

Ben Rose\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Then there was Carter\u2019s vice president, Walter Mondale, who in 1972 had called the space shuttle a \u201csenseless extravaganza.\u201d A senator from Minnesota at the time, Mondale had vigorously opposed early funding measures to begin development of the shuttle. His views exemplified those who believed the United States had more pressing needs for its money than chasing the stars.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe it would be unconscionable to embark on a project of such staggering cost when many of our citizens are malnourished, when our rivers and lakes are polluted, and when our cities and rural areas are dying,\u201d Mondale argued during one debate over shuttle funding. \u201cWhat are our values? What do we think is more important?\u201d<\/p>\n

Now these two men were responsible for establishing priorities for the government\u2019s budget and supporting a shuttle that was already years behind schedule as it faced cost overruns of hundreds of millions of dollars. They <\/em>were going to keep the program afloat?<\/p>\n

The shuttle, canceled?<\/h2>\n

If Kraft is to be believed, cost overruns began really catching up to the shuttle program in 1978, necessitating the big meeting at Johnson Space Center. By then the Enterprise<\/em> had already made its first free flight in the atmosphere, and the test vehicle was a public relations success. However, the programs to develop the space shuttle\u2019s main engines and its thermal protective tiles remained far behind schedule. It does not seem beyond the realm of possibility that the program might be canceled altogether and that program managers might have worried about this.<\/p>\n

John Logsdon, the eminent space historian who has written books about Nixon\u2019s space policy and is working on one about Reagan, told Ars that as costs mounted, the White House Office of Management and Budget suggested to Carter that he might want to cancel the program in 1978 and 1979. This set off a series of White House meetings that culminated in an influential memo to Carter from Brigadier General Robert Rosenberg, of the National Security Council. Titled \u201cWhy Shuttle Is Needed,\u201d the Rosenberg memo offered an effective counterpoint to the OMB concerns about cost, according to Logsdon. Written in November 1979, it helped lead Carter to a decision to fund the vehicle.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The crew of Star Trek<\/em> gathers around space shuttle Enterprise<\/em> in 1977.<\/p>\n

Credit:
\n NASA<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

\u201cStrong national support and prestige is focused on Shuttle as a means for maintaining space dominance as evidenced by broad user interest and recent space policy statements,\u201d Rosenberg wrote. \u201cSignificant delay or abandonment of the Shuttle and manned space capabilities at this time would be viewed as a loss of national pride and direction. The notion that we are forced for short term economic reasons to abandon a major area of endeavor in which we have achieved world leadership at great cost is simply not credible.\u201d<\/p>\n

A key player in the shuttle program at this time, Robert Thompson, pushed back on the idea that the shuttle was ever at any real risk of being canceled. Thompson and Kraft are contemporaries. They were classmates at Virginia Tech University in the early 1940s, and later both were original members of the Space Task Group that put together Project Mercury. When Kraft managed flight operations during the Apollo Program, Thompson was in charge of capsule recovery. Ultimately Thompson became the first shuttle program manager in 1970, a post he headed until 1981. Today, Thompson lives about a mile away from Kraft, and his home overlooks the same golf course.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never worried an instant about Carter cutting the funding off,\u201d he said in an interview at his dining room table. \u201cYou\u2019d have to be an idiot to get up in front of people and say, \u2018I\u2019m now going to trash $5 billion even though we\u2019re that close to the finish line, and I\u2019m going to quit human spaceflight.\u2019 Carter was kind of an oddball guy to be president, but he wasn\u2019t stupid.\u201d<\/p>\n

So why wasn\u2019t it canceled?<\/h2>\n

Still, there seem to be valid reasons for concern about a program that would ultimately run three years behind schedule and, according to NASA\u2019s comptroller, about 30 percent over its initial $5.15 billion estimated development cost. Why did Carter remain so steadfastly behind the shuttle? Was it really because Carter valued the shuttle in his arms control discussions with the Soviet Union? The answer appears to be yes.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is conceivable that one of his arguments to Brezhnev on why there should be SALT was our ability to use the shuttle to verify the agreements,\u201d Logsdon said. Whereas the president unquestionably felt lukewarm toward spaceflight, he felt conversely strong about arms control. And to verify that the Soviet Union was complying with the treaty, the United States would need a constellation of spy satellites. Back in 1970, to win Department of Defense support at the program\u2019s outset, NASA had redesigned the shuttle to launch national security payloads. Now, that decision paid off.<\/p>\n

A book about Carter\u2019s space policy, Back Down to Earth<\/em> by Mark Damohn, draws this conclusion about a president who liked NASA\u2019s robotic exploration and science but didn\u2019t see the value of humans in space. \u201cThe ability of the shuttle to launch arms control verification satellites is what saved it during the Carter administration,\u201d Damohn writes. His book does not recount any meetings with Brezhnev. When asked whether Carter might have discussed the shuttle with the Soviet general secretary and whether that might have influenced his decisions, Damohn replied that Kraft\u2019s story is essentially correct except for the part of Carter bragging to Brezhnev. Bragging is not in Carter\u2019s personality, Damohn told Ars.<\/p>\n

Another person who could verify or debunk Kraft\u2019s anecdote is Frosch himself, who left NASA in 1981 and remains a senior research fellow at Harvard\u2019s Kennedy School of Government. After I related Kraft\u2019s story, Frosch said he didn\u2019t recall a Brezhnev connection with Carter\u2019s decision to support shuttle funding. \u201cThat does not mean it\u2019s not true,\u201d he added. \u201cI just don\u2019t remember any clear sequence like that. But it\u2019s certainly possible if the dates fit together correctly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The timeline<\/h2>\n

Do the dates fit together? For some of the story, yes, and for other parts, no. Kraft recounted fiscal problems plaguing the space shuttle program in 1977 and 1978 that delayed development of the space shuttle\u2019s main engines, thermal protection system, and other flight critical elements. According to TA Heppenheimer\u2019s excellent History of the Space Shuttle<\/em>, by May of 1979 the shuttle\u2019s costs had already run $830 million over the initial $5.2 billion projected cost.<\/p>\n

,<\/p>\n

Moreover, by the time of Kraft\u2019s come-to-Jesus meeting with the shuttle program managers and Frosch at Johnson Space Center, the vehicle had already missed its original March 1978 flight date. Ultimately, the vehicle would not fly until April 12, 1981.<\/p>\n

It is also true that the White House provided additional funding when NASA needed it most. The president approved a $185 million supplemental for fiscal year 1979 to address the technical and manufacturing delays, and NASA would receive another $300 million supplemental for the fiscal year 1980 budget. The message from Carter to his OMB officials at this time regarding these supplementals was clear\u2014\u201cfind the money.\u201d<\/p>\n

What is not consistent with Kraft\u2019s narrative is the notion that Carter bragged about the shuttle to Brezhnev and then felt compelled to follow through with the shuttle\u2019s development for this reason. The 1979 supplemental was formally signed into law by Carter on June 4, 1979, and by then he had already greenlit another supplemental for 1980. These dates are important, because Carter did not meet with Brezhnev in Vienna to sign the SALT II Treaty until June 15.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With 39th President Jimmy Carter passing away at the age of 100, we are revisiting this story of how he unexpectedly saved the space shuttle. We\u2019d been chatting for the better part of two hours when Chris Kraft\u2019s eyes suddenly brightened. \u201cHey,\u201d he said, \u201cHere\u2019s a story I\u2019ll bet you never heard.\u201d Kraft, the man […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9647,190,9506],"class_list":["post-44788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-jimmy-carter","tag-nasa","tag-space-shuttle-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44788"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}