Book Description
The book begins with a comparison of all of the previous U.S. space policies, beginning with President John F. Kennedy’s selection of a manned lunar landing goal in May, 1961. Using declassified tapes and records from the Kennedy Library, his administration’s internal debates over what would become the Apollo project are detailed. President Richard M. Nixon’s decision to build a reusable space shuttle, and the placing of the shuttlecraft at the center of NASA’s programs, are also detailed. How and why President Ronald Reagan chose a permanent space station as his major civil space goal is recounted as well, as is the failure of President Bush’s father to launch a return-to-the-Moon and Mars initiative in 1989.
With this as the backdrop, the book describes the last decade of space policy under President Bill Clinton, and the inside story of the leadership of NASA by administrator Daniel S. Goldin. Using previously unreported stories of the inner workings of Goldin’s NASA, the book shows how the once proud space agency fell into disarray during the 1990s decade.
With the election of President George W. Bush in 2000, the book takes the reader into the inner councils of the new Bush presidency in the months after the September 11, 2001 attacks as Bush himself chooses a long-time family friend to head up NASA-Sean O’Keefe. For the first time, the private conversations between Bush and his senior staff over NASA’s future are told, including Bush’s charge that O’Keefe transform the broken space agency. O’Keefe’s internal battles within NASA to institute reforms are told, ending with an agency on the mend-on the morning of February 1, 2003 when space shuttle Columbia fell from the skies above Texas. In a virtual minute-by-minute recounting, the events of that tragic day are told from the inside of O’Keefe’s inner circle for the first time. Based on extensive, on-the-record interviews with O’Keefe and his top managers and leaders, the book gives the reader the feeling of being present as the details of the space disaster unfold. In the weeks and months following the event, the reader learns of how NASA struggled to reform its failed safety program, and what the secret debates were inside the Bush administration on how to accept the recommendations of the Columbia accident board-or to fight them publicly.
While NASA struggles to reform itself to continue human space exploration and repair the damaged shuttles, a quiet and largely unknown review begins at the White House as to what the nation’s purpose in space should really be. Working independent from NASA for many months, the story of how a handful of young staffers, supporters of space, work in secret to devise a series of potential space policy pathways. Others, outside the space program are solicited for their views as well. As the cause of the Columbia accident becomes clear, Bush moves to forge a new framework for an expansive space vision. The book brings the reader into these deliberations as a ‘fly-on-the-wall’, as one-by-one options for space exploration are studied-and rejected as either too expensive or too risky. As the summer of 2003 draws to a close, the policy process appears to be headed towards recommending manned lunar exploration as the new goal for the U.S. space program. But as the process draws towards a conclusion and a recommendation, Bush himself enters the picture, ordering the space vision reshaped to include other destinations in the solar system beyond the moon. Thus the moon becomes a location to craft new technologies that would provide a technology boost to industry as well as open space beyond earth orbit to traversing astronauts.
But beside the debate on where to go in space was another debate on how to pay for it. The book brings the reader into the deliberations on how to retire the fleet of winged space shuttles, exit the space station, and virtually reform the space agency to free up billions to pay for the new space plan. By fall, 2003 planners are ready to propose to Bush a bold space exploration agenda, blending new generations of space robots with space voyaging astronauts and a new series of manned spaceships resembling Wernher Von Braun’s original space goals.
The book takes the reader inside the Bush White House on December 19, 2003 when, in secret, the President adopts the new space plan for America. Then, the book reconstructs January 14, 2004 when Bush makes his speech announcing his vision for NASA-as Vice president Dick Cheney speaks in California at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. But no sooner does the new plan become public waves of criticisms roll over NASA about another policy decision- abandon the Hubble Space Telescope. The book gives previously unreported details on how the Hubble decision was reached-and how NASA scrambled to defend its choice. The book also takes readers to Capitol Hill as the new policy faces withering criticisms from Republicans and Democrats alike. While the plan supporters battle for its survival in a crucial election year, the book also takes the reader into NASA headquarters, as the first contracts and studies on what would be called 'Project Constellation'are developed, giving readers a first look at possible designs for the new ships. The book also tells how NASA gained the crucial support of former moonwalker Neil Armstrong, and why the reclusive American space hero agreed to come forward to help rescue the plan from political defeat.
The book ends with the June 2, 2004 report of the Presidential Commission appointed by Bush to vet the NASA plan. Calling for a massive restructuring of the civil space program, the book ends with how NASA was secretly planning to ‘one up’ the commission-by announcing a new plan of its own to redesign the American space program to get back to the moon-and to go to worlds beyond.
Main Points
The inside story of how NASA responded to the 2003 Columbia accident in never-before-reported detail
The secret deliberations within NASA on how to make way for a new goal such as manned lunar and Mars flight
The story of the major U.S. political figure who came to NASA’s aid during the debates, and whose support became crucial to helping get Bush on board
The role of the president himself in shaping-and reshaping-the space plan
How NASA reached the decision to abandon the space shuttle and station to free up funds to pay for the new plan
How the Sean O’Keefe administration built a quiet political coalition to support the proposal-and why it almost came undone during the critical weeks following the Bush announcement
What it was like at the helm of U.S. civil space as tragedy gave way to an unexpected opportunity, told from the insider’s unique perspective in a you-are-there- in- the- room style with Sean O’Keefe and his inner circle, battling over options to save NASA-and what President George W. Bush really believed the space program should do for America.
Note:
This book was written with the full cooperation of NASA and the Bush administration, but has not been and will not be reviewed by them or pre-approved in any way.
About the author
Frank is a Washington, DC-based writer and analyst specializing in spaceflight related issues. He writes a monthly column for Geospatial Solutions and Aerospace America magazines, and a weekly column on space politics and technology for United Press International Science News.
Keith L. Cowing
Keith is editor of the space news websites NASA Watch and Spaceref.com which are read regularly within NASA, Congress, and the global space community. He is a former NASA civil servant and a biologist, and is a frequent space commentator on national and international television networks.
