Origins of the OMB Shuttle

The detailed performance and budget requirements for a smaller shuttle that OMB presented to NASA did not originate from the OMB staff, none of whom were aerospace engineers. Rice had sought outside advice on shuttle configuration and capability. He noted “some of my information came from the Defense Department, but not very much of it.” He added “some of it came from industry. There were clearly some people in industry who were concerned that NASA was going to lead them down the road of another C-5A or F-111 debacle and that they would end up with nothing.” The two programs Rice cited were DOD aircraft development efforts during the 1960s characterized by major cost overruns. Rice noted that “there was some interest at least among some people in the aerospace industry [in] hav­ing whatever was done be a program that was politically survivable.” That interest translated into an attitude of “let’s have it be less rather than more so it doesn’t turn out to cost so much and it is less likely to overrun and you can keep it.” Given this feeling, Rice worked with an aerospace firm, almost certainly one of NASA’s shuttle study contractors, to help his staff spell out the characteristics of a shuttle concept that both made technical sense and could be developed at an acceptable cost. Weinberger was aware of what Rice was doing, saying “Don Rice asked me if he could go out and get some other people, or he told me that he had.”21