Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.
24 sions in the future, and a varied space science and Earth remote sensing program. A more ambitious base program would also include a vigorous space applications program and support for space commercialization. Beyond the base program, far-reaching presidential goals for science or human exploration would necessarily lead to one or more special initiatives, recognizing that each could be expected to add approximately $3 billion to the NASA budget in years of peak expenditures. With a space station among these, the current budget would need to grow to approximately $14 billion to meet the peak spending years of the station, without reflecting any other growth in the NASA program. In summary, the new President has a historic opportunity to create a space program that will continue and expand the role of the United States as a lead- ing spacefaring nation. In the committee's judgment the decisions described above are essential to realizing that opportunity. ENDNOTES 1. After examining alternative space station configurations, a committee of the National Research Council found that none of the alternates that had been considered by NASA over many years or introduced from the out- side was "as satisfactory as the current configuration." Report of the Committee on the Space Station of the National Research Council (NRC). 1987. 2. National Commission on Space. Pioneering the Space Frontier. 1986. 3. NASA. Leadership and America's Future in Space, A Report to the NASA Administrator by Dr. Sally K. Ride. August 1987. 4. The White House. Presidential Directive on National Space Policy. February 11, 1988. 5. Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board, NRC. Space Technology to Meet Future Needs. 1987. 6. NASA. Office of Space Science and Applications Strategic Plan 1988. April 6, 1988. 7. Space Science Board, NRC. Space Science in the Twenty-First Century. 1988. 8. Space Applications Board, NRC. Remote Sensing of the Earth from Space. 1985. 9. Space Applications Board, NRC. Industrial Applications of the Microgravity Environment. May 1988. 10. Congressional Budget Office. The NASA Program in the 1990s and Beyond. 1988.