Additional Inputs

In addition to the thoughts of the invited contributors, there were several other inputs to the STG, none of which had much direct impact on the group’s final report except perhaps to provide background context. One con­tribution came from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the leading aerospace professional society. The AIAA report noted that the society’s members “have discussed at length the appropriateness of establishing a single national space objective for the next ten years, compa­rable with the lunar objective of the sixties.” It said that “such a course is not recommended,” because “the proliferation of useful space applications which is foreseen during the next few years is so great that a single objective would be over-restrictive.” With respect to human space flight, the report gave higher priority to activities in Earth orbit rather than continuing lunar exploration, and concluded that “it would not be reasonable” to commit to developing the capability for human missions to the planets. The AIAA report gave higher priority to developing “a partially reusable space trans­portation system” to deliver medium and large unmanned payloads to orbit than to a commitment to an “entirely new space station.” This cautious approach was somewhat surprising, coming from the organization repre­senting aerospace professionals who stood to benefit from an ambitious post – Apollo space effort.16

The Space Science Board (SSB) of the National Academy of Sciences, the country’s top nongovernment space science advisory body, also submitted an input to the STG process. As had been its traditional position, the SSB remained skeptical of the value of human space flight. Its report suggested that robotic exploration of the solar system and the use of space-based obser­vations to follow up on the rapid pace of discoveries in astronomy and astro­physics should have high priority, as should “the development of applications of space technology to the economic and social uses of mankind.” The SSB added “in the future, we can foresee possible roles for man,” but “we do not believe the country is, at the moment, ready to decide as to the nature and extent of the long-term manned program.”17