New Moon Rising: The Making of America's New Space Vision and the Remaking of NASA: Apogee Books Space Series 42 (Hardcover)

~ Keith L. Cowing (Author), Frank Sietzen Jr. (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...reveals how secret inner White House circle created the Bush Administration's new space vision..." -- Spaceflight, September 2004. "...provides a lucid look at the messy and tangled process by which national science and engineering policy really gets made." -- IEEE Spectrum, March 2005. "...not the usual technological, 'gee whiz' space book." -- The Observatory, June 2005.

Product Description

The book is a detailed history of the evolution of the U.S. civil space program from the February 1, 2003 space shuttle Columbia accident to the release of the Presidential Commission report on Moon, Mars, and Beyond on June 2, 2004. During these extraordinary 16 months, nearly every element of NASA’s leadership was placed under a political microscope, with the result that the space agency set upon a new course of reorganization, resulting with President George W. Bush’s announcement of an entirely new space policy for the U.S.

The book begins with a comparison of all of the previous U.S. space policies, beginning with President John F. Kennedy’s selection of a manned lunar landing goal in May, 1961. Using declassified tapes and records from the Kennedy Library, his administration’s internal debates over what would become the Apollo project are detailed. President Richard M. Nixon’s decision to build a reusable space shuttle, and the placing of the shuttlecraft at the center of NASA’s programs, are also detailed. How and why President Ronald Reagan chose a permanent space station as his major civil space goal is recounted as well, as is the failure of President Bush’s father to launch a return-to-the-Moon and Mars initiative in 1989.

With this as the backdrop, the book describes the last decade of space policy under President Bill Clinton, and the inside story of the leadership of NASA by administrator Daniel S. Goldin. Using previously unreported stories of the inner workings of Goldin’s NASA, the book shows how the once proud space agency fell into disarray during the 1990s decade.

With the election of President George W. Bush in 2000, the book takes the reader into the inner councils of the new Bush presidency in the months after the September 11, 2001 attacks as Bush himself chooses a long-time family friend to head up NASA-Sean O’Keefe. For the first time, the private conversations between Bush and his senior staff over NASA’s future are told, including Bush’s charge that O’Keefe transform the broken space agency. O’Keefe’s internal battles within NASA to institute reforms are told, ending with an agency on the mend-on the morning of February 1, 2003 when space shuttle Columbia fell from the skies above Texas. In a virtual minute-by-minute recounting, the events of that tragic day are told from the inside of O’Keefe’s inner circle for the first time. Based on extensive, on-the-record interviews with O’Keefe and his top managers and leaders, the book gives the reader the feeling of being present as the details of the space disaster unfold. In the weeks and months following the event, the reader learns of how NASA struggled to reform its failed safety program, and what the secret debates were inside the Bush administration on how to accept the recommendations of the Columbia accident board-or to fight them publicly.

While NASA struggles to reform itself to continue human space exploration and repair the damaged shuttles, a quiet and largely unknown review begins at the White House as to what the nation’s purpose in space should really be. Working independent from NASA for many months, the story of how a handful of young staffers, supporters of space, work in secret to devise a series of potential space policy pathways. Others, outside the space program are solicited for their views as well. As the cause of the Columbia accident becomes clear, Bush moves to forge a new framework for an expansive space vision. The book brings the reader into these deliberations as a ‘fly-on-the-wall’, as one-by-one options for space exploration are studied-and rejected as either too expensive or too risky. As the summer of 2003 draws to a close, the policy process appears to be headed towards recommending manned lunar exploration as the new goal for the U.S. space program. But as the process draws towards a conclusion and a recommendation, Bush himself enters the picture, ordering the space vision reshaped to include other destinations in the solar system beyond the moon. Thus the moon becomes a location to craft new technologies that would provide a technology boost to industry as well as open space beyond earth orbit to traversing astronauts.

But beside the debate on where to go in space was another debate on how to pay for it. The book brings the reader into the deliberations on how to retire the fleet of winged space shuttles, exit the space station, and virtually reform the space agency to free up billions to pay for the new space plan. By fall, 2003 planners are ready to propose to Bush a bold space exploration agenda, blending new generations of space robots with space voyaging astronauts and a new series of manned spaceships resembling Wernher Von Braun’s original space goals.

The book takes the reader inside the Bush White House on December 19, 2003 when, in secret, the President adopts the new space plan for America. Then, the book reconstructs January 14, 2004 when Bush makes his speech announcing his vision for NASA-as Vice president Dick Cheney speaks in California at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. But no sooner does the new plan become public waves of criticisms roll over NASA about another policy decision- abandon the Hubble Space Telescope. The book gives previously unreported details on how the Hubble decision was reached-and how NASA scrambled to defend its choice. The book also takes readers to Capitol Hill as the new policy faces withering criticisms from Republicans and Democrats alike. While the plan supporters battle for its survival in a crucial election year, the book also takes the reader into NASA headquarters, as the first contracts and studies on what would be called 'Project Constellation'are developed, giving readers a first look at possible designs for the new ships. The book also tells how NASA gained the crucial support of former moonwalker Neil Armstrong, and why the reclusive American space hero agreed to come forward to help rescue the plan from political defeat.

The book ends with the June 2, 2004 report of the Presidential Commission appointed by Bush to vet the NASA plan. Calling for a massive restructuring of the civil space program, the book ends with how NASA was secretly planning to ‘one up’ the commission-by announcing a new plan of its own to redesign the American space program to get back to the moon-and to go to worlds beyond.

Main Points

The inside story of how NASA responded to the 2003 Columbia accident in never-before-reported detail

The secret deliberations within NASA on how to make way for a new goal such as manned lunar and Mars flight

The story of the major U.S. political figure who came to NASA’s aid during the debates, and whose support became crucial to helping get Bush on board

The role of the president himself in shaping-and reshaping-the space plan

How NASA reached the decision to abandon the space shuttle and station to free up funds to pay for the new plan

How the Sean O’Keefe administration built a quiet political coalition to support the proposal-and why it almost came undone during the critical weeks following the Bush announcement

What it was like at the helm of U.S. civil space as tragedy gave way to an unexpected opportunity, told from the insider’s unique perspective in a you-are-there- in- the- room style with Sean O’Keefe and his inner circle, battling over options to save NASA-and what President George W. Bush really believed the space program should do for America.

Note:
This book was written with the full cooperation of NASA and the Bush administration, but has not been and will not be reviewed by them or pre-approved in any way.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 280 pages
• Publisher: Collector's Guide Publishing Inc; Har/DVD edition (July 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1894959124
• ISBN-13: 978-1894959124
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 6.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,275,581 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This is item 42 in The Apogee Books Space Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Recommended - with reservations., September 21, 2004

By	Hartmann - See all my reviews

I warily recommend this book as a very interesting and informative read, but one that is pretending to be something other than it is. In the Authors' Note at the beginning of the book the writing duo strenuously claim strict impartiality, saying of their central characters, Bush and O'Keefe, "The authors make no attempt to judge their actions as being good, bad or indifferent to the nation's interest."

This supposed impartiality is quickly shown to be an utter charade. Within a few pages, former NASA Administrator Dan Goldin is described as being in charge of a "nuthouse," a "Machiavelli" who is "dripping with ego and suspicion." Throughout the book he is described as demonic and incompetent in his personal and professional life. Others such as Bill Nelson suffer similar treatment, and even peripheral characters just as John Kerry are hauled into the fray to be swiped at and sniped at.

It is certainly an opinion, and the authors are entitled to it. However, to pretend that this book is not anything but heavily judgmental and biased is, frankly, laughable. A more accurate title for it would have been "Goldin Bad, O'Keefe Good." I am sure Sean O'Keefe loves every word in this book, but even he would not pretend it is impartial and must cringe at some of the more venomous attacks on his predecessor.

It's a great shame, as it is actually a pretty good book. The bureaucratic foibles of the Goldin era are in many cases reported very accurately, once you set aside the poisonous delivery. It's also very well written, in an engaging style that keeps you turning the pages through what could have been some rather dry bureaucratic deliberations. The authors' white knight on a charger, Sean O'Keefe, is thankfully shown to be human also at times. Once the rather fawning justification of his every action is skimmed over, there are some very insightful descriptions of the confusion in his inner circle on the day of the shuttle disaster, and other very illuminating glimpses at some key moments of recent NASA history. It's hard to know what to trust, however, when the book is so heavily slanted, and the authors do not admit their biases.

One of the authors, Keith Cowing, ran a website for many years called 'NASA Watch' which did a very important, in fact a vital job in pointing out many of the sillier bureaucratic decisions during the Goldin era. It appears that, with a change of administration, any critical thinking skills he had vanished, and he has now become the kind of apologist he once criticized. The book supports many of O'Keefe's decisions - such as the writing off of the Space Station when it was almost complete and finally ready to begin what it was designed for, and the ludicrous decision to abandon the Hubble space telescope - decisions that I suspect this book would have spent whole chapters criticizing if another administrator had taken such weak backward steps.

The long-term value of this book will only be known in a year or two. At the present time, it glorifies an event which so far has been a press conference with no real results. I support the aspirations of the authors for a reinvigorated NASA, but I suspect this book will turn out to be no more than a one-sided chronicling of another bureaucratic backwater in history.

39 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Propaganda pretending to be a book., September 1, 2004

By	Nan Taylor "Nantay" (Sandia) - See all my reviews

What could have been a fascinating insight into White House politics on the space program is marred by the vehement one-sidedness of the authors' point of view. I wouldn't mind if the author had admitted this - but this book advertises itself as a true behind-the-scenes account. Instead, it puffs up the story when it suits the authors, omits crucial details that don't suit the politics of the authors, and demonizes those who hold opposing viewpoints. It's a wasted opportunity and a sadly shallow book compared to what it could have been. I am surprised that Apogee Books, who have an excellent reputation in the field, chose to take on this poisoned chalice.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting insider information--not very objective, March 17, 2006

By	Daniel Grubb "Dan" (Leesburg, Virginia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book provides some interesting insights into the thinking behind the Bush Administration's new space initiative. Apparently the junior varsity staff at the White House got the ball rolling. That's regretable but reasonable considering the amount of time and energy devoted to the war of terror. The biggest problem with the book is the authors' venom toward former NASA administrator Daniel Goldin. Let's face it, the Shuttle Program was already a disaster before he took over. He's been gone since 2001 and we still can't get the Shuttle into space with any reliability. The book also fails to deal with the enormous obstacles confronting travel within the solar system. It's easy to talk about putting a man on Mars, but it's much more difficult to do it without killing the man. This book is worth your time and money if you're a space nut like me. However, what I would really like to read is a book that focues on future challenges, and doesn't dwell on the mistakes of the past.