Location
Howard Johnson Plaza-Hotel, Columbia/ Enterprise Rooms
Start Date
25-4-1995 2:00 PM
End Date
25-4-1995 5:00 PM
Description
The first thirty seven years of American exploration and exploitation of space has been marked by two fundamental things - the forcing function of the Cold War and the resulting relative abundance of funding for space activities. In the public's mind, the Cold War ended six years ago. They and their representatives in Congress have been waiting for the Executive Branch to see this "fact" for some time and have become increasingly impatient with a lack of "appropriate" response. Frankly, they have been promised a peace dividend and they want it - NOW. Since the Executive Branch has been unable to deliver it as desired, Congress has been in the process of taking it. The immediate consequences of these actions are the precipitous drops in space funding for DoD and NASA in the Fiscal Year 1995 budgets. A clear example has been the signal inability of the DoD and NASA to get Congressional support - and therefore funding - for new spacelift and satellite systems. The successive fates of the Advanced Launch System, the National Launch System, Spacelifter, and various Single-Stage-to-Orbit programs are instructive. One reason for this failure is the lack of a generally accepted reason for being in space and therefore needing more cost-effective systems.
As far as can be seen, the public no longer accepts the old, Cold War answers for being in space. A fundamental truth that we are being faced with is that the American people, in the guide of their representatives in Congress, demand a clear rationale for spending public monies. We're finding out that pure science and Cold War national security requirements as arguments for space spending are failing in the face of National health care or environmental clean-up, for example. To at least maintain our share of the Federal budget, and, incidentally, continue to perform those space missions we feel are essential, we are going to have to provide an obvious, unarguable reason to spend $14 billion a year in space. What is necessary, then, is a new reason for America to be in space. As the Air Force Association's Advisory Group on Military Roles and Missions states in their 1994 report, "There is little to be gained by arguing the need for increased space budgets. Rather, we must look toward achieving improved efficiency by eliminating areas of duplication and redundancy." (1:51)
Paper Session I-B - A New Fundamental Mission for the US Space Program
Howard Johnson Plaza-Hotel, Columbia/ Enterprise Rooms
The first thirty seven years of American exploration and exploitation of space has been marked by two fundamental things - the forcing function of the Cold War and the resulting relative abundance of funding for space activities. In the public's mind, the Cold War ended six years ago. They and their representatives in Congress have been waiting for the Executive Branch to see this "fact" for some time and have become increasingly impatient with a lack of "appropriate" response. Frankly, they have been promised a peace dividend and they want it - NOW. Since the Executive Branch has been unable to deliver it as desired, Congress has been in the process of taking it. The immediate consequences of these actions are the precipitous drops in space funding for DoD and NASA in the Fiscal Year 1995 budgets. A clear example has been the signal inability of the DoD and NASA to get Congressional support - and therefore funding - for new spacelift and satellite systems. The successive fates of the Advanced Launch System, the National Launch System, Spacelifter, and various Single-Stage-to-Orbit programs are instructive. One reason for this failure is the lack of a generally accepted reason for being in space and therefore needing more cost-effective systems.
As far as can be seen, the public no longer accepts the old, Cold War answers for being in space. A fundamental truth that we are being faced with is that the American people, in the guide of their representatives in Congress, demand a clear rationale for spending public monies. We're finding out that pure science and Cold War national security requirements as arguments for space spending are failing in the face of National health care or environmental clean-up, for example. To at least maintain our share of the Federal budget, and, incidentally, continue to perform those space missions we feel are essential, we are going to have to provide an obvious, unarguable reason to spend $14 billion a year in space. What is necessary, then, is a new reason for America to be in space. As the Air Force Association's Advisory Group on Military Roles and Missions states in their 1994 report, "There is little to be gained by arguing the need for increased space budgets. Rather, we must look toward achieving improved efficiency by eliminating areas of duplication and redundancy." (1:51)
Comments
World Peace through Vigilance and Diligence
Session Chairman: Timothy J. McMahon, Deputy Director of Operations, Headquarters Air Force Space Command, Peterson AFB, CO
Session Organizer: Laurie Jordan