Some thoughts on Robert Seamans—
July 3, 2008—There hasn’t been much coverage on this week’s passing of former NASA Deputy Administrator Robert Seamans. It was my privilege to interview him for “Final Countdown”, and hear firsthand about the politically charged process leading up to the commissioning of NASA’s Space Shuttle program.
“I thought it was asinine.”
On a related subject, I’ll make it a point to share some Robert Seamons stories at the
http://www.thehistorycenter.org/events/?art=calendar
More to come…
Photo courtesy of NASA |
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Let’s face it, I usually don’t get this kind of candor from NASA officials, current or former, when it comes to the Space Shuttle. That’s how Robert Seamans summed up the notion, back in the 1970’s, of the reusable space plane NASA wanted to take people to orbit following Apollo. Seamans occupies a unique spot in Space history. He was Deputy Administrator at NASA in the mid 1960’s when the Agency was gearing up for Project Gemini, which was the two-man space capsule that honed the skills needed to put people on the Moon. He’s pictured here to the left of Wernher Van Braun and JFK. Later, President Nixon asked him to be Secretary of the Air Force. That’s when NASA came calling to suggest that the military sign-on to use the yet-to-be built Shuttle to carry up Pentagon spy satellites. Seamans, needless to say, wasn’t enthusiastic. “I thought it was kind of shocking,” he said during our interview for “Final Countdown”. “Why risk Astronauts to put unmanned satellites into orbit?” Getting his perspective really added to the book, and was a chance for me to “go to school” courtesy of this NASA leader and MIT professor.