Nixon's 1972 Space Shuttle promised cheap, routine spaceflight

President Richard Nixon approved the Space Shuttle on January 5, 1972, announcing at San Clemente, California, with NASA Administrator James C. Fletcher that the United States would build “an entirely new type of space transportation system.” It came more than two years after his Space Task Group had laid out options for life after Apollo.

That 1969 menu included an Earth-orbiting space station, a lunar base and a human expedition to Mars. Every option needed more money, and NASA’s budget was falling. The reusable shuttle was the only piece of the plan to survive. Fletcher called the decision “an historic step in the nation’s space program.”

Nixon’s statement made bold claims. Most of the system would be “used again and again — up to 100 times”, operating costs might fall to one-tenth of existing rockets, and NASA expected a fleet flying about every two weeks. Here is how the timeline actually ran:

• 1966: NASA’s budget stands at $5.9 billion, 4.4% of federal spending.
• 1969: it has fallen to $4.25 billion (2.3%) as the Space Task Group weighs its options.
• January 5, 1972: Nixon approves the shuttle.
• 1978: the promised date for carrying crews passes.
• April 12, 1981: Columbia makes the first flight, three years late.
• July 21, 2011: the final landing closes 135 missions, an average of about four or five a year; the most-flown orbiter, Discovery, managed 39, well short of 100.

The shuttle never made spaceflight cheap or routine. It did deliver much of the rest of the vision, though. It launched, recovered and repaired satellites, and hauled up the pieces of the International Space Station, which remains the largest structure ever built in space.