Shuttle Brief Chronology
Stephen Garber

Harvey Allen’s blunt body research — early 1950s

Air Force’s Dynamic Soaring (Dyna-Soar) — 1959-December 1963

DoD cancels SAINT — 1962

Air Force’s Manned Orbital Laboratory (MOL) program — January 1964-June 1969

Space Task Group offered future options: Mars, lunar, and Earth-orbiting space stations; reusable Shuttle — 1969

Thomas Paine is Administrator — March 1969-October 1970

Joint DOD/NASA Study of Space Transp. Sytems — 16 June 1969

OMB slashes NASA budget — 1971

Fletcher is Administrator — April 1971-May 1977

Air Force tacitly agrees to Shuttle program — 1971

Faget’s two-stage flyback design

AF insists on cross range

AF insists on payload capacity

Nixon announcement of Shuttle design configuration — 5 January 1972

Mathematica conclusions confirming TAOS design Nixon just approved — 31 January 1972

KSC, Vandenberg selected as Shuttle launch and landing sites — April 1972

DoD Shuttle User Committee established — January 1973

First Shuttle flight — 1981

USAF Space Command established — September 1982

Soviet Buran program — 1976–1993

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Updated April 5, 2001
Steven J. Dick, NASA Chief Historian
Steve Garber, NASA History Web Curator
For further information, e-mail histinfo@hq.nasa.gov

Designed by Douglas Ortiz and edited by Lisa Jirousek
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