Spies and shuttles : NASA's secret relationships with the DOD and CIA / James David.

ISBN:

9780813055008

Title:

Author:

David, James E., 1951- author.

Personal Author:

David, James E., 1951- author.

Physical Description:

1 online resource.

Contents:

Introduction -- Forging close ties in NASA's early years -- NASA, the CIA, and foreign intelligence during the Apollo era -- Expanding interaction in old and new areas -- Restrictions on remote sensing from space -- Concerns over human spaceflight program experiments and lunar and astronomy program technologies -- The shuttle : NASA's radically new partnership with the national security agencies -- The national security agencies abandon the shuttle -- NASA's applications satellites and national security requirements -- Conclusion.

Local Note:

eBooks on EBSCOhost

Corporate Subject:

United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration -- History.

United States. Department of Defense -- History.

United States. Central Intelligence Agency -- History.

Subject Term:

Astronautics -- United States -- History.

Astronautics, Military -- Government policy -- United States.

National security -- United States.

Format:

Electronic Resources

Electronic Access:

Click here to view

Publication Date:

2015

Publication Information:

Gainesville :

University Press of Florida,

2015.

Available:*

Shelf Number	Material Type	Copy	Shelf Location	Status
327.1273 23	1:E-BOOK	1	1:ONLINE	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

In this real life spy saga, James E. David reveals the extensive and largely hidden interactions between NASA and U.S. defense and intelligence departments. The story begins with the establishment of NASA in 1958 and follows the agency through its growth, not only in scope but also in complexity.

In Spies and Shuttles , David digs through newly declassified documents to ultimately reveal how NASA became a strange bedfellow to the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He tracks NASA's early cooperation--supplying cover stories for covert missions, analyzing the Soviet space program, providing weather and other scientific data from its satellites, and monitoring missile tests--that eventually devolved into NASA's reliance on DoD for political and financial support for the Shuttle. David also examines the restrictions imposed on such activities as photographing the Earth from space and the intrusive review mechanisms to ensure compliance.

The ties between NASA and the intelligence community have historically remained unexplored, and David's riveting book is the first to investigate the twists and turns of this labyrinthine relationship.

Reviews (1)

Choice Review

NASA was founded in 1958 with a strong emphasis on keeping the US space program under civilian rather than military control. Nevertheless, the agency had strong ties to the military from its beginnings, which space historian David (Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum) relates in this intriguing account. Many top NASA officials at the time of its formation came from government and defense agencies involved in intelligence matters. The book explains that from the early days of NASA through Project Apollo, NASA relied upon the CIA for information on the secretive Soviet space program in the fierce space race. During the development of the space shuttle in the 1970s, the space agency forged strong ties with defense and intelligence communities to design and operate the shuttle as the sole vehicle to launch government payloads from the US into space. The author describes how organizational conflicts among the groups began in the early 1980s when the space shuttle failed to meet its ambitious launch schedule (24 launches per year), culminating in the explosion of Challenger in 1986. While the book is an academic treatise with extensive notes (40 pages) and a 12-page bibliography, space enthusiasts as well as scholars will enjoy the work. Black-and-white photographs. Summing Up: Recommended. General, academic, and professional space history collections. --John Z. Kiss, University of Mississippi