Finalizing the STG Report

Although the target date for submitting the STG report to the president had been set in February as September 1, it became increasingly clear dur­ing August that more time would be needed to reconcile the differences among the STG principals. Rather than strongly advocate the views of the President’s Science Advisory Committee contained in its report to the STG, which had endorsed the space shuttle but not the space station, DuBridge in these final weeks gave priority to his role as STG staff director in trying to find a way to bridge the differing views among his colleagues on the Staff Directors Committee. DuBridge’s assistant Russ Drew took the lead in drafting the report, but DOD’s Nevin Palley, Agnew’s assistant Wolff, and NASA’s Newell were also deeply involved in that effort. By the end of August, a draft report had been produced that in Newell’s view repre­sented “a consensus, one that could be accepted by all members” of the Staff Directors Committee and forwarded to the STG principals. Newell suggested that the goals and objectives of the draft report were those that NASA “probably would have chosen by ourselves.”44