Following the success of the Apollo program, NASA had ambitions to build a series of increasingly large space stations that could house up to 100 people, ambitions that would require the economics of a reusable launch vehicle (Cayatte, 2008). However, with the election of President Nixon, political priorities changed in Washington and with subsequent budget cuts, NASA had to scrap their ambitions for large space stations, instead accepting the mission to “revolutionize transportation into near space, by routinizing it” (Nixon, 1972, p. 1). The new mission allowed NASA to continue development of the space shuttle, while forgoing their original purpose, in favor of building a vehicle that would allow “men and women with work to do in space [to] “commute” aloft, without having to spend years in training for the skills and rigors of old-style space flight” (Nixon, 1972). The new mission was the result of an agenda compromise and incremental decision-making in reaction to the struggling economy of the early seventies. Unfortunately, the political compromise contributed to mission fog, given the shuttle “was designed to be a transportation system, to go someplace else, but it eventually became, because of the lack of money, its own destination” (Cayatte, 2008, p. 1). Moreover, the space shuttle program needed to become cost-effective by hauling military and commercial satellites into low-earth orbit, further altering the shuttle design and introducing production performance pressure into a research and development agency.
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How did the space shuttle's mission change over time? Though the shuttle began as a platform for scientific studies, the need for subsidizing additional shuttle launches opened it up to commercial and military interests. But after the Challenger disaster in 1986, those parties withdrew their missions and the shuttle was rededicated to science pursuits.
Why did the shuttle's original mission priorities change? President Richard Nixon decided to cancel the Apollo program and the space station in favor of developing the space shuttle program, a low-Earth orbit initiative.
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How did the space shuttle's mission change over time? Though the shuttle began as a platform for scientific studies, the need for subsidizing additional shuttle launches opened it up to commercial and military interests. But after the Challenger disaster in 1986, those parties withdrew their missions and the shuttle was rededicated to science pursuits.
Why did the shuttle's original mission priorities change? President Richard Nixon decided to cancel the Apollo program and the space station in favor of developing the space shuttle program, a low-Earth orbit initiative.
