A Path Not Taken: Space Platforms and the Space Shuttle

Article

“A Path Not Taken: Space Platforms and the Space Shuttle” by Christopher Gainor
Published in Quest Volume: 29 #4 (2022)

Abstract

As NASA began flying the Space Shuttle and sought approval for a space station in the early 1980s, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center proposed flying robotic “space platforms” carrying scientific and engineering experiments that would evolve into a crewed space platform. This incremental approach contrasted with the Johnson Space Center’s proposal to build a crewed space station, which eventually won approval when President Ronald Reagan began the space station program that later became the International Space Station. Marshall’s Science and Applications Space Platform (SASP) represents an evolutionary path for US human spaceflight, the Shuttle and long-term human presence in space that was not taken.

Citation

Gainor, Christopher. “A Path Not Taken: Space Platforms and the Space Shuttle.” Quest: The History of Spaceflight Quarterly 29, no. 4 (2022): 27-34.