TheAdvisory Committee on the Future of the United States Space Program, commonly known as theAugustine Committee, was a 1990space policy group requested by Vice PresidentDan Quayle, chairman of theNational Space Council. The objective of the committee was to evaluate the long-term future ofNASA and the United States civilian space program.[1] The committee's final report (known as theAugustine Report) recommended that the space program should comprise five activities—space science,Earth science,human spaceflight,space technology andspace transportation—with space science as the highest priority for funding. It also proposed an unmanned launch vehicle to replace someSpace Shuttle launches, and a scaled-back redesign of space stationFreedom.[2]
In its original report, the committee ranked five space activities in order of priority:
At a dinner with Vice President Quayle and committee members,Office of Management and Budget directorRichard Darman argued that the low priority projects would be eliminated during the budget process. The committee members decided to change their report. Space science was still given first priority, but the other activities were assigned equal priority behind space science.[3]
After discussing theSpace ShuttleChallenger disaster the executive summary of the committee's report recommended, "saving the Space Shuttle for those missions requiring human presence."
The committee had twelve members in total, with one chairman and one vice chairman.[4]
