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Wasn’t the space shuttle program dictated by the needs of the military? Something tells me any NASA military pork won’t be touched, it’ll be the scientists.
by mullingitover 2y ago
Wasn’t the space shuttle program dictated by the needs of the military? Something tells me any NASA military pork won’t be touched, it’ll be the scientists.
- hedora 2y agoNo. It was kept alive by congressional decree for at least a decade after NASA wanted to wind it down. The explicit reason for this was that parts of the space shuttle were built in 50 states, and the “economic stimulus” trumped things like science or national security.
- mullingitover 2y agoAnswered my own question. Yes[1]. You're talking about the how of the space shuttle construction but not the why. It was indeed intended for at least some military use, and it was originally intended to be capable of polar orbits and would've launched from Vandenberg. Of course there was major government pork and horse trading to southern states but this was a side effect of the project, not the primary driver. [1] https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/1398/did-the-space-shuttle-have-military-uses https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/1398/did-the-space...
- cratermoon 2y agoThe design was dictated in part by military needs, but then the DOD figured out their requirements resulted in such a compromised design that it was cheaper and more reliable to keep launching Titan III and later expendables.