on April 9, 1969, Nixon ordered HEXAGON cancelled and approved completion of MOL-DORIAN.
on April 9, 1969 ordered that HEXAGON be canceled. Nixon also approved continuing the Manned Orbiting Laboratory program to completion.According to Jeffrey Richelson, in his 1990 book America’s Secret Eyes in Space, Roland Inlow, who was chairman of the Committee on Imagery Requirements and Exploitation (COMIREX), which established the target lists for American reconnaissance satellites, spoke to James Schlesinger, assistant director of the Bureau of the Budget with responsibility for national security programs. Inlow told him about the importance of HEXAGON for arms control verification. Presumably MOL, with its relatively small viewing area, had less usefulness for arms control purposes. In addition, an independent recommendation of the Land Panel, the senior advisory committee to the president on satellite reconnaissance issues, went to Nixon on May 6, 1969. Land and his group favored canceling MOL.According to one source who had been involved in training MOL astronauts how to become effective photo-interpreters, at some point Vice President Humphrey was given a briefing on both the KH-9 and the MOL at a secure briefing room in Washington, which he remembered was at the Washington Navy Yard and could have been at the National Photographic Interpretation Center located on the edge of the Navy Yard. The Director of Central Intelligence, Richard Helms, sat next to the Vice President and during the MOL briefing he wrote something on a piece of paper that he slid over to Humphrey, who looked at it without commenting. After the briefing ended, this source waited until everyone had left the room and then he retrieved the piece of note paper. On it, Helms had written “Why four inches?” Four inches was the resolution of the MOL’s large DORIAN camera. Presumably, MOL’s advocates lacked a convincing argument for why such a powerful, but limited reconnaissance system was necessary.According to NRO historian Perry, Nixon “reversed his earlier verdict” on HEXAGON and instead ordered cancellation of the MOL.
The USAF didn't provide any shuttle funding anyways, so MOL overruns would have no impact on the shuttle program development
WTH ? That I didn't knew. I really thought that the Air Force had provided some funding for the shuttle, if only because of the big payload bay and the delta wing with large crossrange they wanted. At the end of the day role of the military in the early shuttle program was at best very ambiguous. They really didn't helped NASA a lot. Talk about a lousy business
Chris, I've just discovered your blog and added to my favorite list. I'm very interested in the Baseline Reference Missions BRM-3A and BRM-3B.
Speaking of MOL.I recently came across the Gizmodo article that links to the MOL program photos that were declassified in July 2015.http://gizmodo.com/newly-declassified-photos-show-the-crewed-usaf-spy-spac-1739613728?utm_source=taboolaInteresting reading and tons of photos if you haven't seen them yet.