The Space Station Decision

Incremental Politics and Technological Choice

Howard E. McCurdy (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

290 Seiten

2008
Johns Hopkins University Press (Verlag)
978-0-8018-8749-9 (ISBN)

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Outstanding Academic Title, 1991, Choice Magazine Although building a space station has been an extraordinary challenge for America's scientists and engineers, the securing and sustaining of presidential approval, congressional support, and long-term funding for the project was an enormous task for bureaucrats. The Space Station Decision examines the history of this controversial initiative and illustrates how bureaucracy shapes public policy. Using primary documents and interviews, Howard E. McCurdy describes the events that led up to the 1984 decision to build a permanently occupied, international space station in low Earth orbit. As he follows the trail of the space station proposal through the labyrinth of White House policy review, McCurdy explains the evolution of the presidential budget review process, the breakup of the cabinet system, the proliferation of subcabinets and Executive Office interagency, the involvement of White House staff in framing issues for presidential review, and the role of bureaucracy in advancing administration legislation on Capitol Hill.
Comparing the space station decision to earlier decisions to go to the moon and to build the space shuttle, McCurdy shows how public officials responsible for long-term science and technology policy maneuvered in a political system that demanded short-term flexibility.

Howard E. McCurdy is a professor in the School of Public Affairs at American University and the author of Faster, Better, Cheaper: Low-Cost Innovation in the U.S. Space Program; Inside NASA: High Technology and Organizational Change in the U.S. Space Program; and the coauthor of Robots in Space: Technology, Evolution, and Interplanetary Travel, all published by Johns Hopkins.

Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Vision
Part I
1. The Race (Spring 1961)
2. One New Initiative (January 5, 1972)
3. Beggs (June 17, 1981)
4. The Team (May 20, 1982)
5. Independence Day (July 4, 1982)
Part II
6. Budget Strategy
7. Wheels, Cans, and Modules
8. Configurations
9. The First Move
10. How to Organize a Task Force
11. International Participation
12. Technology
13. Budget Wars
Part III
14. Positions
15. The White House
16. The Rabbit in the Hat
17. SIG (Space)
18. The Number
19. Reagan
Part IV
20. Congress
21. Momentum
22. Management
23. Congress II
Afterword: Politics, Bureaucracy, and Public Policy
Notes
Photo Credits
Index

Erscheint lt. Verlag	12.3.2008
Reihe/Serie	New Series in NASA History
Zusatzinfo	2 Line drawings, black and white; 21 Halftones, black and white
Verlagsort	Baltimore, MD
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	476 g
Themenwelt	Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung
Themenwelt	Technik ► Luft- / Raumfahrttechnik
ISBN-10	0-8018-8749-6 / 0801887496
ISBN-13	978-0-8018-8749-9 / 9780801887499
Zustand	Neuware