Mar 28 1972
From The Space Library
Space leaders endorsed shuttle in supplement published by Washington Daily News: Dr. James C. Fletcher, NASA Administrator, said shuttle would "produce substantial flight economies, ease strictures on spacecraft design, lower manufacturing cost, remedy malfunctions in orbit, and afford a built-in versatility that will alter the nature of space planning and operations in major ways." Editorial writer had described shuttle's impact on space program as transition from dramatics of a countdown to an airport routine, Dr. Fletcher said. "The dramatics will be fondly remembered by many of us, but nostalgia will not obscure the hard fact that the routine and economic access to space, of which the shuttle is the hinge pin, is the practical and commonsense means by which we shall reap the great harvest of benefits that space holds for mankind."
Supplement interview quoted Dr. Wernher von Braun, NASA Deputy Associate Administrator for Planning, as eagerly looking forward to shuttle flight. "By the time the first passenger shuttle flies I'll be 68. I think flying into space in a shuttle will be just like being a passenger in an airliner, only smoother." Dr. von Braun foresaw use of shuttle for travel to Mars "probably around 1990, or at least before the end of the 20th Century." Flight probably would begin with Mars space-craft being hauled, piece by piece, in space shuttle cargo bays, to be assembled in orbit. "I think the only way to fly to Mars is with nuclear power, and because we would never want to ignite a nuclear rock on earth, we'll have to begin the journey from orbit." Dr. von Braun saw shuttle preparing way for manned exploration by ferrying small, unmanned spacecraft into orbit and launching them toward Mars in late 1970s and 1980s.
Article by Rep. James W. Symington (D-Mo.), member of House Committee on Science and Astronautics, said shuttle offered opportunity "not only to the United States to advance its own aerospace science and technology, but also to countries which could not finance a complete shuttle system. The advantages will be mutual and conducive to needed international scientific cooperation." Proper use of shuttle "can help us in our efforts toward the resources management necessary to make this planet fit to house future generations of man." James J. Harford, Executive Secretary of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, said in article that guessing shuttle's significance was "like trying to predict what the DG3 would lead to in air transportation six years before its first flight. The space shuttle could be that powerful and more." If shuttle performed the way NASA intended it to-"and NASA'S Apollo track record has to impress even the cynical"-shuttle would "help to create entire new industries and . hundreds of thousands of new jobs." (W News, 3/28/72, 27, 29)
New York Times published response by Univ. of Michigan astronomer James A. Loudon to Jan. 16 letter in which former scientist- astronaut Dr. Brian T. O'Leary questioned compatibility of space shuttle with national goals. O'Leary letter had been "strange document from a man who wrote a whole book to complain that scientists don't have access to space." Shuttle's most important aspect, "aside from its economy," was its ability to carry passengers. "For the first time, scientists will be able to perform experiments in space without spending years in irrelevant pilot training first." Shuttle's effect would be "to make space very much more available, with results for a dozen different branches of science that are now incalculable." (NYT, 3/28/72)
U.S. and U.S.S.R. began seventh round of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks in Helsinki, Finland. (Hamilton, NYT, 3/29/72, 3)
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