Final STG Report Prepared

The STG decisions to re-label the program options and restructure the report text led to a hurried effort over the next several days to reflect these decisions in the printed text of the STG report in time for it to be presented to the president four days later. NASA’s Wyatt was the key NASA actor in this final revision. What had been Option A was relabeled “Maximum Pace.” The report said that because that option represented “an initial rate of growth of resources which cannot be realized because such budgetary requirements would substantially exceed predicted funding capabilities,” it had “been rejected by the Space Task Group.” What had been Option E was relabeled “Low Level.” The report noted that “the Space Task Group is con­vinced that a decision to phase out manned space flight operations, although painful, is the only way to achieve significant reductions in NASA budgets over the long term.”

The “Conclusions and Recommendations” section of the draft report was moved to the front of the text and set in a different type face than the rest of the 29-page report. The basic recommendation was “that this Nation accept the basic goal of a balanced manned and unmanned space program con­ducted for the benefit of all mankind.” The group noted its conclusion that “a forward-looking space program for the future of this Nation should include continuation of manned space flight activity.” The STG recommended “as a focus for the development of new capability,” that “the United States accept the long-range option or goal of manned planetary exploration with a manned

Mars mission before the end of this century as the first target.” This was a much softer goal than was contained in the program options presented later in the report, and in effect removed issues associated with a decision to send humans to Mars from consideration during the Nixon administration. The rewritten text noted that “schedule and budgetary implications. . . are subject to Presidential choice” and that decisions on what systems to develop and on what schedule would be determined “in a normal annual budget and program review process.” The report proposed that NASA should “develop new systems and technology for space operations with emphasis on the criti­cal factors of: (1) commonality, (2) reusability, and (3) economy, through a program directed initially toward development of a new space transpor­tation capability and space station modules that utilize this capability.” In particular, “should it be decided to develop concurrently the space transpor­tation system and the modular space station, a rise of annual expenditures to approximately $6 billion in 1976 is required.” However, “if the space station and the transportation system were developed in series. . . a lower level of approximately $4-5 billion could be met.”50