posted 07-14-2016 08:56 AM               

Coincidentally, Eric Berger with Ars Technica recently investigated the reason for Carter's support, spurred on by a meeting with Chris Kraft and with input from the former president himself.

Both White and Berger reach the same basic conclusion, but Berger's reporting is much more detailed as to the factors at play.

...Jimmy Carter saved the space shuttle, Kraft believes. Without supplementals for fiscal year 1979 and 1980, the shuttle would never have flown, at least not as the iconic vehicle that would eventually fly 135 missions and 355 individual fliers into space. It took some flights as high as 400 miles above the planet before retiring five years ago this week. "That was the first supplemental NASA had ever asked for," Kraft said. "And we got that money from Jimmy Carter."

As I walked out of Kraft's house that afternoon in late spring, I recall wondering whether this could really be true. Could Jimmy Carter, of all people, be the savior of the shuttle? All because he had been bragging about the shuttle's capabilities to the Soviets and, therefore, didn't want to show weakness? This Cold War mystery was now nearly 40 years in the past, but most of the protagonists still lived. So I began to ask questions.