May 14 1972
From The Space Library
Physicist Dr. Ralph E. Lapp said in Washington Post article that NASA followed "cart-before-the-horse" or "rocket-before- payload policy" in figuring shuttle costs. Question to be debated was not shuttle transportation "but the basic purpose and worth of payloads." NASA was "sorely perplexed as a federal agency whose basic mission was accomplished when men landed on the moon." Skylab mission in 1973, "when a temporary, makeshift station is placed in orbit," would end NASA manned space flight "unless the shuttle project goes ahead. In a sense, it's a shuttle to nowhere unless a permanent space station is also approved. This project, last costed at $10 billion, was once the basic rationale of the shuttle, but its price tag scared off congressmen. Now NASA downplays the space station, but the Jan. 31, 1972, Mathematica study includes 62 shuttle trips to space stations in one scenario." (W Post, 5/14/72, B3)
Role of Vandenberg Air Force Base in space shuttle program was doubtful, Frank Macomber said in San Diego Union. California politicians were claiming "partial victory" in NASA's selection of West Coast site for second shuttle launch and landing site. But "clear-cut win went to Florida's Cape Kennedy." Dr. James C. Fletcher, NASA Administrator, had "made it clear it will be another eight years before space shuttle launch base work would begin at Vandenberg." In eight years "entire U.S. space picture will have changed. There will be a whole new set of American leaders, and a Congress which today would approve a space shuttle program for the West Coast might be so changed by 1980 that it would be voted down." (Copley News Service, SD Union, 5/14/72, 23)
U.S. was moving towards conversion to metric system despite opposition from some industries concerned about resultant confusion and cost, New York Times reported. American chemical and pharmaceutical industries were now largely on metric system, as were NASA and "important parts" of weapon and aircraft industries. General Electric Co., whose products for foreign consumption were already made to metric dimensions, had come out for conversion. In "carefully timed manner," each industry was following pace suited to its needs. (Sullivan, NYT, 5/14/72, 4:6)
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