EDITORIAL INFORMATION

The vision of a winged space plane, what we know and cherish as our Space Shuttle, has existed as a dream since the first whimsical conception of a space program. In The Space Shuttle Decision, T.A. Heppenheimer historically takes on the first realization of that dream. This significant new study of the decision to build the Space Shuttle explains the Shuttle's origins and early development. In addition to internal NASA discussions, this works details the debates in the late 1960s and early 1970s among policymakers in Congress, the Air Force, and the Office of Management and Budget over the roles and technical designs of the Shuttle. In the creation of this unique vehicle, the first in the world with the dual ability to deliver and return large payloads to and from orbit, at times goals clearly conflicted. Heppenheimer studies these disagreements and explains not only how the Shuttle came into being from under this contention, but also how politics can interact with science, technology, national security, and economics in national government.

(Extracted from the press release.)

GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

-Contents.

-Acknowledgments.

-Introduction.

-Abbreviations and Acronyms.

-1. Space Stations and Winged Rockets.

-The Collier's Series.
-Background to the Space Station.
-Winged Rockets. The Work of Eugen Sänger.
-The Navaho and the Main Line of American Liquid Rocketry.
-The X-15: An Airplane for Hypersonic Research.
-Lifting Bodies: Wingless Winged Rockets.
-Solid-Propellant Rockets: Inexpensive Boosters.
-Dyna-Soar: A Failure in Evolution.

-2. NASA's Uncertain Future.

-Technology Bypasses the Space Station.
-Apollo Applications: Prelude to a Space Station.
-Space Station Concepts of the 1960s.
-Early Studies of Low-Cost Reusable Space Flight.
-Two Leaders Emerge: Max Hunter and George Mueller.
-NASA and the Post-Apollo Future.

-3. Mars and Other Dream Worlds.

-Nuclear Rocket Engines.
-A New Administrator: Thomas Paine.
-Space Shuttle Studies Continue.
-Space Shuttle Policy: Opening Gambits.
-Paine Seeks a Space Station.
-Space Shuttles Receive New Attention.
-Space Task Group Members Prepare Plans.
-Agnew Leads a Push Toward Mars.

-4. Winter of Discontent.

-The Sixties.
-Mars: The Advance.
-Mars: The Retreat.
-The Turn of Congress.
-Paine Leaves NASA.

-5. Shuttle to the Forefront.

-The Air Force in Space.
-The Air Force and NASA.
-A New Shuttle Configuration.
-Station Fades: Shuttle Advances.
-The Space Shuttle Main Engine.

-6. Economics and the Shuttle.

-Why People Believed in Low-Cost Space Flight.
-The Shuttle Faces Questions.
-Change at NASA and the Bureau of the Budget.
-The Fall of the Two-Stage Fully-Reusable Shuttle.

-7. Aerospace Recession.

-The Boing 747.
-The Supersonic Transport (SST).
-The Lockheed L-1011.
-Aftermaths.

-8. A Shuttle to Fit the Budget.

-The Orbiter: Convergence to a Good Solution.
-The Booster: Confusion and Doubt.
-End Game in the Shuttle Debate.
-TAOS: A New Alternative.
-A Time to Decide.

9. Nixon's Decision.

-Nixon and Technology.
-Space Shuttle: The Last Moves.
-The Hinge of Decision.
-Loose Ends I: A Final Configuration.
-Loose Ends II: NERVA and Cape Canaveral.
-Awarding the Contracts.

-Bibliography.

-Index.
-The NASA History Series.