When to Release the Space Statement?

As they met on January 22, 1970, after the final budget decisions, President Nixon, Paine, and Flanigan agreed that the statement should be issued before the Apollo 13 launch in April. Nixon stressed that the statement should be written in a way to avoid opponents of the space program being able “invidi­ously” to compare “his positive statements on space to problems in poverty and social problems here on earth.” He did not want to be put in a position of appearing as if “he is taking money away from social programs and the needs of the people here to fund spectacular crash programs out in space.”14 This was another example of the impact of treating space as a domestic issue, competing for funding with other domestic programs.

Following the presidential meeting, Flanigan reported that “Dr. Paine sees no necessity for the President’s Space Statement being made in the very near future. In fact, he believes the ideal time would be between the last week in February and the middle of March.” The release was then sched­uled Saturday, February 28, in time for it to be reported in that Sunday’s newspapers. Flanigan told Paine of the date, suggesting that if it was “not appropriate would you please let me know” and asking Paine to be sure that any changes in the early January draft of the statement “are discussed with us early enough so that we can staff them through the speechwriting office.” Paine had suggested that a delay in releasing the statement would allow NASA to insert in the draft “some additional information. . . to give it more sex appeal.”15

Paine reminded Flanigan that he would be out of the country beginning February 22 on a two-week trip to Australia and Japan “to develop possibili­ties for further space cooperation.” This would mean that Paine would not be in Washington if the statement were released on February 28. Additional discussions between NASA and Flanigan’s office led to a decision to delay the statement’s release by one week, until Paine had returned from his over­seas trip; the release was then set for Saturday, March 7. At the January 22 meeting among Nixon, Paine, and Flanigan, the desirability of increased attention to international partnerships was discussed, and Paine had sug­gested that the statement should be revised to “put somewhat more emphasis on international cooperation.”16