After the Moon, Mars?

Abstract

NASA Acting Administrator Thomas Paine told a reporter a few days after the November 1968 presidential election that he intended to present the incoming Nixon administration with an ambitious proposal for future human space flight. He was true to his word. In his first communication to President Nixon, on February 4, 1969, Paine urged the new president to “give early personal attention to the question of the future direction and pace of the nation’s space program.” He noted, in words he and his advisers thought would appeal to the new people in the White House, that “the future position in space of the United States relative to the USSR is at stake” and that “significant opportunities exist now for new leadership and initiatives.” Casting space choices in terms of U.S.-Soviet competition was rather tone deaf on Paine’s part, a characteristic that was to persist through his time at NASA. Richard Nixon during his campaign and then in his inaugural address had made it clear that he was seeking areas of cooperation, not competition,with the Soviet Union.¹