Advisory Committee on the Future of the United States Space Program
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The Advisory Committee on the Future of the United States Space Program, commonly known as the Augustine Committee, was a 1990
space policy Space policy is the political decision-making process for, and application of, public policy of a state (or association of states) regarding spaceflight and uses of outer space, both for civilian (scientific and commercial) and military purposes. I ...
group requested by Vice President
Dan Quayle James Danforth Quayle (; born February 4, 1947) is an American politician who served as the 44th vice president of the United States from 1989 to 1993 under President George H. W. Bush. A member of the Republican Party, Quayle served as a U.S. ...
, chairman of the
National Space Council The National Space Council is a body within the Executive Office of the President of the United States created in 1989 during the George H. W. Bush administration, disbanded in 1993, and reestablished in June 2017 by the Donald Trump administrat ...
. The objective of the committee was to evaluate the long-term future of
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...
and the United States civilian space program. The committee's final report (known as the Augustine Report) recommended that the space program should comprise five activities— space science, Earth science, human spaceflight,
space technology Space technology is technology for use in outer space, in travel (''astronautics'') or other activities beyond Earth's atmosphere, for purposes such as spaceflight, space exploration, and Earth observation. Space technology includes space vehicles ...
and space transportation—with space science as the highest priority for funding. It also proposed an unmanned launch vehicle to replace some
Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program ...
launches, and a scaled-back redesign of space station Freedom.


Original recommendations

In its original report, the committee ranked five space activities in order of priority: # Space science # Technology development # Earth science # Unmanned launch vehicle # Human spaceflight At a dinner with Vice President Quayle and committee members,
Office of Management and Budget The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). OMB's most prominent function is to produce the president's budget, but it also examines agency programs, pol ...
director Richard Darman argued that the low priority projects would be eliminated during the budget process. The committee members decided to change their report. Space science was still given first priority, but the other activities were assigned equal priority behind space science. After discussing the Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' disaster the executive summary of the committee's report recommended, "saving the Space Shuttle for those missions requiring human presence."


Members

The committee had twelve members in total, with one chairman and one vice chairman. * Norman Augustine (chairman), CEO of Martin Marietta * Laurel L. Wilkening (vice chairman), provost of the
University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattl ...
* Edward Aldridge, president of the McDonnell Douglas Electronic Systems Company * Joseph Allen, former astronaut and president of Space Industries International * D. James Baker, president of Joint Oceanographic Institutions *
Edward Boland Edward Patrick Boland (October 1, 1911 – November 4, 2001) was an American politician from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. A Democrat, he was a representative from Massachusetts's 2nd congressional district. Early life and education Bol ...
, former Massachusetts congressman * Daniel Fink, former senior vice president of
General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable en ...
*
Don Fuqua John Donald Fuqua (born August 20, 1933) is a former U.S. Democratic politician. Early years and Education Don Fuqua was born in Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida in 1933. Fuqua attended the University of Florida at Gainesville from 1951 t ...
, president of the Aerospace Industries Association of America * Robert Herres, former commander of the
United States Space Command United States Space Command (USSPACECOM or SPACECOM) is a unified combatant command of the United States Department of Defense, responsible for military operations in outer space, specifically all operations 100 kilometers (62 miles) and grea ...
* David Kerns, chairman of
Xerox Xerox Holdings Corporation (; also known simply as Xerox) is an American corporation that sells print and electronic document, digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut (ha ...
* Louis Lanzerotti, chairman of the Space Studies Board *
Thomas Paine Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In th ...
, former
NASA administrator The Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the highest-ranking official of NASA, the national space agency of the United States. The administrator is NASA's chief decision maker, responsible for providing clarity to ...


See also

*
Criticism of the Space Shuttle program Criticism of the Space Shuttle program stemmed from claims that NASA, NASA's Space Shuttle program failed to achieve its promised cost and utility goals, as well as design, cost, management, and safety issues. Fundamentally, it failed in the goal o ...
*
Review of United States Human Space Flight Plans Committee The Review of United States Human Space Flight Plans Committee, better known as the HSF Committee, Augustine Commission, or Augustine Committee, was a group convened by NASA at the request of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), to ...
*
Space Exploration Initiative The Space Exploration Initiative was a 1989–1993 space public policy initiative of the George H. W. Bush administration. On July 20, 1989, the 20th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing, US President George H. W. Bush announced plans f ...


References


External links


Report of the Advisory Committee on the Future of the U.S. Space Program
NASA History Division

NASA Public Affairs Office {{Use American English, date=January 2014 NASA oversight Reports of the United States government Space policy of the United States United States national commissions Augustine studies