Throughout Jimmy Carter's presidency he was pulled in opposite directions between his idealism and the harsh reality of politics. The argument that will be presented throughout this dissertation is this conflict faced by Carter concerning NASA. Historians have neglected the Carter Administration's affairs with NASA because they believe nothing exciting or important happened. The Carter Administration is the only one in the Space Age that Americans have not been in space. I propose to show that, while it might not have been exciting, it was important what Carter did with NASA throughout his Administration. During the 1976 presidential campaign and early in his Administration several Carter advisors recommended that the Shuttle be postponed or even cancelled, but Carter continued his support for the Shuttle. Towards the end of his Administration it took a high level presidential meeting to put the full weight of his presidency behind completing the Shuttle. While Carter was not enthralled with manned space flight he was aware and very supportive of what NASA could do to expand knowledge outward by its robotic exploration of the universe. Several NASA projects, that he supported and started the funding, only came to fruition long after Carter left the White House such as the Hubble Telescope, the Jupiter Galileo project and the Venus Magellan project. Carter also strongly endorsed NASA projects for use on Earth such as communications, weather, environmental, and military satellites. He wanted NASA to meet the needs of the taxpayers who paid for it. He wanted to bring the space agency "back down to earth". This was a consistent theme throughout his Administration. Carter had good plans for NASA but left so many people disappointed who wanted great things from NASA but wound up only with good things.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:636341 |
| Date | January 2000 |
| Creators | Damuhn, M. D. |
| Publisher | Swansea University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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