Thinking ahead to what NASA would in terms of human spaceflight the Apollo Moon landings, in the President's Space Task Group, by Vice-President Agnew, offered several The Space Task Group report three main options: a human to Mars, lunar and Earth-orbiting stations, and a reusable space or Shuttle. President Richard Nixon the first two options as expensive. NASA then decided to for a Shuttle as a block for these other goals, the space station. NASA officials that the Shuttle would be popular with Congress and the House than the other, more options. Nevertheless, in 1971 the of Management and Budget (OMB) NASA's budget, eliminating any growth the foreseeable future.

During the development program that soon some managers simply discounted or predictions of such high flight as unrealistic. Indeed, some managers that such lofty proclamations were for public consumption or public purposes and thus did not them seriously. In retrospect, Robert the Shuttle project manager at Johnson Space Center (JSC) said I never felt we d more than once a month, 18 flights a year [at maximum]. Even if virtually all payloads were to fly aboard Shuttle, Thompson couldn t figure the country would want to with all those flights that predicted by Mathematica.22 Another key remarked that there was a requirement for 55 flights per mainly to support the economics the system. In effect, the was wagging the dog; instead creating a launch system versatile rugged enough to launch often thus reduce operations costs, some were artificially creating a launch to justify a particular kind technology.