The State of the Art in Knowledge about the National Security Space Program

books:


	• Shades Of Gray: National Security And The Evolution Of Space Reconnaissance (Library of Flight Series) L. Parker Temple AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics & Ast, 2004 - 613 pages average customer review:based on 3 reviews view larger image
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The State of the Art in Knowledge about the National Security Space Program

This is an important, impressive, and infuriating book that should be on the shelf of anyone interested in the history of space policy. Practitioners should also read it for the story of how military space policy originated and evolved since the 1950s. The author notes that the U.S. government supports three separate space programs. The first is a national security space program which served as the wellspring for the other two. It was established to ensure that reconnaissance information about the Soviet Union and other potential enemies could be secured with a minimum of risk. The replacement of other methods of securing this information moved to spacecraft in the 1950s and has continued to evolve ever since. This program is highly secretive and its details virtually unknown. The other two programs are a civil program managed by NASA and conducted with considerable fanfare and public scrutiny and a military program built around intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM). There is also a fourth commercial space program, but it is not conducted by the federal government, only regulated by it.

Temple's emphasis in this book is clearly on the first of these three government space programs, and he has assembled a broad analysis focusing on its development over the last fifty years. This work represents the most in-depth study of the national security space effort yet published. The level of detail is impressive and represents an important statement of the state of knowledge on the subject. It is also infuriating because of the lack of historical narrative--the chapters read more like individual essays taking on a specific theme--and the text raises as many questions as it answers. That is in no small measure the result of the exceptionally high classification of information about the national security program. While I wish this were not the case, I cannot blame the author for this fact. But, as a result, this is far from the last word on the subject.

Temple argues that the early years of these three programs witnessed considerable synergy and mutual support. He believes that they converged, however, beginning in the 1970s over the nature of the launch vehicle to be used for reaching space. NASA pressed all entities of the federal government to launch its payloads on the Space Shuttle then under development. "When they shared a large stable of related expendable launch vehicles," he noted, "they could work quietly to schedule launchpads and minimize conflicts that otherwise would highlight the most secret of the programs" (p. 593). Reliance on the shuttle, however, forced interdependence in ways that were detrimental to all of the nation's space programs. Temple concluded, "That was more than a simple policy failure and created problems that still ripple through all of the U.S. space programs" (p. 594). Temple ends by noting that the era of spaceflight has just begun and that the U.S. will have an important role to fill in the future with its national security program.

This is a significant work and I urge all who are serious about understanding the development of the national security space arena to read it.

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Foundations of United States' space policy

"Shades of Gray" by Dr. L. Parker Temple III is an excellent historical foundation to the area of United States space policy. Within its pages, decisions and arguments between the Army, Air Force, NASA, and many Presidents show the fragility of creating, operating and managing these technical and complex systems.

The parts of the book I found most interesting were the CORONA/Discoverer policy decisions - even though this program was declassified back in 1995, bits and pieces about it still trickle out now and then; when piecing together a mosaic, those bits and pieces become vital.

While I am a fan of the technical side of military satellite histories, "Shades of Gray" gave insight into how we got the system we have today. At 612 pages, it is a daunting read and should not be attempted by the faint hearted. But those who venture and triumph this tome will get a peek into the battles that raged (and sometimes still do) in the darkened halls of the United States government.

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Drastic Changes In Space Exploration and Exploitation.

The real story of U. S. A. space odyssey is complex due to interdependence. The American space effort is separated into four sectors: commercial, civil, defense and security. He concentrates on the last three which began as a single sector with the military.

Written by a career Air Force official involved in the space program, he stresses national security and military space programs as stand-alone, and that the civil sector was political, for national prestige. He was able to document the historical interaction of the civil and military space programs due to the released (on the Internet) of previously classified information.

Now the whole story can be told, but is it? He places emphasis on national security and defense saying that the U.S.A. will go to any length to ensure this country's survival. Some information has yet to be downgraded because of the terrorists' access to the Internet. No expose here, either, but he declares that there is ongoing security classification.

The purpose of the earliest space policy in 1948 was to classify space efforts; security and classification are double-edged swords. Through the Fifties, Seventies, an Eighties, things expanded from technological innovation to adapting to changing technology. In his field, the military, he says that "the nature of war changed radically during the Space Age." Space programs have enabled the acceleration of time and the volume and quality of information, with the Air Force in control of doctrine, very important in the military.

Things almost fell apart with the loss of the 'Challenger.' That's been a long time now -- I remember that winter day with the icycles hanging from the fated space shuttle while working at the Giles County Library. So, now will it go commercial?

There is a new aerospace doctrine of the U.S.A. In one of the 'quirks of fate,' as America was trying to recover from the 'Challenger' disaster, the Soviet Union collapsed. Now, a new Commonwealth of Independent States have overtaken U.S.A. in prominenece. I recently reviewed a book about the United States of Europe who are passing us in affluence rapidly.

We no longer need the reconnaissance satallites and that secret SAC Headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska, was deactivated during Clinton's administration. That was a major mistake. Now, the terrorists have access to our classified information and will keep on until they destroy this country.

The Air Force covert programs were unrecognized and unacknowledged. But, since the former chairperson of the Space Commission has been confirmed as defense secretary for Bush, it is overt and no longer covert. God help us!

The author, L. Parker Temple III, earned a PhD in science and technology policy from George Washington University and worked in the military space program since 1976. This book "tracks the evolution of space reconnaissance systems from their seeds in the painful lessons of Pearl Harbor through the challenges of today." Not an easy book to get through, but worth the effort.

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