Remembering the Space Age. - Black Vault Radio Network (BVRN)

“the ‘rIGht’ StUFF: the reaGaN revOLUtION
aND the U.S. SpaCe prOGraM”
131
National Security Council, by order of the president in august 1981. a Senior
Interagency Group, known as SIG (Space), came together under the direction of
the president’s Science advisor, George Keyworth, and the National Security
Council. It addressed a range of issues, such as launch vehicle needs, the adequacy
of existing space policy for national security requirements, Space Shuttle
responsibilities and capabilities, and potential new legislation. 37 the study led to
the issuance of the National Space policy (National Security Decision Directive
42) on July 4, 1982, which for the frst time ever included business in space
policy and marked the start of a national policy on space commerce.
the economic benefts of space (such as telecommunications, weather
forecasting, remote sensing, and navigation) were not new; however, this was
the frst time in the history of the U.S. space program that a high-level ofcial
document made a direct reference to the american business community. the
new National Space policy thus marked a dramatic redefnition of space policy
not seen since the launch of Sputnik in 1957. 38 Specifcally, it laid out four
goals to be accomplished in space; the third and fourth of which called for
“obtain[ing] economic and scientifc benefts through the exploitation of space”
and for “expand[ing] United States private-sector investment and involvement
in civil space and space-related activities.” 39
the release of the 1982 National Space policy revealed its indebtedness
to the Space Shuttle. National Security Decision Directive (NSDD) 42 called
for making the Space Shuttle available to all commercial users, provided only
that national security conficts did not result. On July 4, 1982, the same date
as the new space policy, president reagan spoke before an audience of some
ffty thousand people at edwards air Force Base, with american fags fying
in the background, as the Space Shuttle Columbia landed. 40 this was the Space
Shuttle’s fnal test mission and the beginning of its operational status. It also was
the frst mission to carry a pentagon payload and the frst “Get away Special”
experiments conducted for a NaSa business customer. 41 the Space Shuttle was
now fully in the service of the conservative space agenda.
37. “National Space policy,” July 4, 1982, folder 386, box 15, X-33 archive.
38. Kay, 127.
39. Christopher Simpson, National Security Directives of the Reagan and Bush Administrations: The
Declassifed History of US Political and Military Policy, 1981-1991 (Boulder, CO: Westview press,
1995), 136-143 (classifed version) and 144-150 (unclassifed version); Kay, 128.
40. Lyn ragsdale, “politics Not Science: the U.S. Space program in the reagan and Bush Years,”
Launius and McCurdy, eds., Spacefight and the Myth of Presidential Leadership (Urbana, IL:
University of Illinois press, 1997), p. 133.
41. Judy a. rumerman and Stephen J. Garber, Chronology of Space Shuttle Flights, 1981-2000,
hhr-70 (Washington, DC: NaSa, October 2000), p. 5.