Jan 25 1984
From The Space Library
President Reagan, in his State of the Union address, endorsed the development of the U.S.'s first permanently manned space station. "We can follow our dreams to distant stars, living and working in space for peaceful, economic and scientific gain. Tonight., I am directing NASA to develop a permanently manned space station and to do it within a decade," he said. "A space station will permit quantum leaps in our research in science, communications and in metals and life-saving medicines which can be manufactured only in space. We want our friends to help us meet these challenges and share in their benefits. . . . Just as the oceans opened up a new world for clipper ships and Yankee traders, space holds enormous potential for commerce today," he said.
NASA presented the agency's plans to the president on the day that he spoke to astronauts in the Spacelab orbiting in the Space Shuttle in December 1983. NASA Administrator James H. Beggs had sought the space station as a science laboratory, astronomical observatory, space manufacturing center, servicing facility for spacecraft, and an assembly site for larger orbiting structures.
Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director William J. Casey had opposed any major commitment to space station funding because they feared it could draw money from their own space programs, government officials said. The officials added that military and intelligence agencies were concerned that they would have to share the space station with civilian agencies such as NASA and sometimes with astronauts of other countries.
NASA also had found little enthusiasm when it turned for support from other agencies. When the National Academy of Sciences space science board was asked whether basic research in science would "require or be enhanced by the space station," Thomas M. Donahue, chairman of the space board, said the answer was no. "I don't think you could ever really justify $20 billion for a space station," he said.
At this early stage, there was no design for the space station, but officials of NASA had previously sketched the broad outlines of the most likely initial design. (Weekly Compilation of the Papers of Ronald Reagan, Jan 25/84, 87ff; NY limes, Jan 26/84, A-1; W Post, Jan 18/84, A--1, Jan 29/84, A-4)
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