N.a.s.a.

Grover Loening, F.I.A.S., F.R.Ae.S., Consultant, N.A.C.A. (now N.A.S.A.).

Residual-load-plus-powerplant weights for orbital-launch nuclear rockets. P. G. Johnson et al. N.A.S.A. T.N. D-843. May 1961.

From this realization, it was but a short jump to the conclusion that a low-cost space transportation system, along with the space station, was an essential N.A.S.A. program for the 1970’s, and the shuttle program was born. / N.A.S.A.’s 1969 recommendations to a presidentially-chartered Space Task Group which was preparing plans for the nation’s future space program noted that “a new and truly low-cost space transportation system is an integral part of the space station concept.”