Why did Kennedy really kill Project Orion?

[RichA]

Was it because he shuddered at the thought of orbiting weapon's platforms, as proposed?  Or was it he just didn't like nuclear bombs?  In any case, that was the end of any human aspirations to go to the planets or even nearby stars.  50 years on, they are still using chemical rockets and no Moon base, no manned Mars mission.  Instead NASA, desperate to save their jobs, have taken up the global warming game and look down, not up.

[Rabidpanda]

Project Orion was never really feasible from a political standpoint.  A space ship that launches by detonating nuclear bombs in the atmosphere is not going to have a lot of public support.  IMHO, Kennedy made the right decision in going with chemical rockets. 

However, I don't think the basic idea of nuclear pulse propulsion is bad, if an Orion-like craft was operated from EML1 or EML2 as an interplanetary transportation system it could be very effective, as well as being safely out of the Earth's magnetosphere.

[Proponent]

Was it because he shuddered at the thought of orbiting weapon's platforms, as proposed?  Or was it he just didn't like nuclear bombs?  In any case, that was the end of any human aspirations to go to the planets or even nearby stars.  50 years on, they are still using chemical rockets and no Moon base, no manned Mars mission.

I don't have the book in front of me now, but I recall a section in the book on Orion by Dyson (George, the son, rather than Freeman) in which Kennedy attended a briefing on Orion.  A model of an Orion-based space battleship (my term; I'm not sure that was used in the book) was shown.  Someone present said he thought the battleship was a mistake, because it scared Kennedy.

In any event, I'm not sure it's accurate to say that Kennedy canceled it.  To my knowledge, it was never more than a study, and studies did continue until 1965.

[Jim]

Was it because he shuddered at the thought of orbiting weapon's platforms, as proposed?  Or was it he just didn't like nuclear bombs?  In any case, that was the end of any human aspirations to go to the planets or even nearby stars.  50 years on, they are still using chemical rockets and no Moon base, no manned Mars mission.  Instead NASA, desperate to save their jobs, have taken up the global warming game and look down, not up.

 Because it was an asinine idea much like his post

[Blackstar]

Er... now that I've counted to ten and noticed that this is "RichA's" first post, and that it's filled with a lot of button pushing, I think it is safe to say that this is a troll by somebody wishing to create trouble.

If that is not the case, then I'd ask Mr. RichA to rephrase his post and offer a little more logic and reasoned argument and less hyperbole.

[kevin-rf]

I've never considered Kennedy someone not to "like" nukes. Of all the Presidents of the nuke age, he has there at the height of the Cold War at its hottest. He came the closest to any President to pushing the button, he was not one to back down ever, and the real switch from long range bombers to a massive first strike with no notice ICBM systems really happened under his watch.

Of course I was not there, and I am most likely looking at him through Neon Green shaded glasses...

[brihath]

I've never considered Kennedy someone not to "like" nukes. Of all the Presidents of the nuke age, he has there at the height of the Cold War at its hottest. He came the closest to any President to pushing the button, he was not one to back down ever, and the real switch from long range bombers to a massive first strike with no notice ICBM systems really happened under his watch.

Of course I was not there, and I am most likely looking at him through Neon Green shaded glasses...

A point of information- while the decision to move toward more reliance on ICBM's may have occurred under Kennedy's watch, the major evolution of the Triad deterrent concept occurred under the Johnson and Nixon administrations.  There still was a reliance on bombers as one leg of the Triad at that time.  At its peak the triad consisted of 656 SLBM's in 41 boats, 1054 ICBM's and about 600 Bombers (B-52's, B-58's and later FB-111A's).
Keep in mind that during the 70's, a B-52 could be loaded out with up to 24 nuclear weapons, so they still carried a sizable portion of the deterrent. 

Also, the U.S. deterrent philosophy was not a massive first strike.  It was reliant on a massive retaliatory second strike.

[Vahe231991]

A 2002 thesis by Reuben David Ferguson notes that the signing of the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1963 made any development of Project Orion impossible because it outlawed all nuclear tests in space, and that NASA and the USAF cancelled the project in January 1965, a year and two months after JFK's assassination. Therefore, JFK laid the foundations for termination of Project Orion by signing the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in part to placate Khrushchev.

[Michel Van]

there is this story (urban legend ?)

That Kennedy and McNamara visit Pentagon
and USAF Generals presented a them huge Orion Battle ship model in size of a Cadillac !
Kennedy and McNamara were horrified about the Nuclear drive and overkill  capacity of this "weapon system"
and decided to cancel the USAF project move project to NASA in hope it would died there,
since NASA was occupy with Apollo program...

so far the story
if this is true, i don't know

[laszlo]

A 2002 thesis by Reuben David Ferguson notes that the signing of the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in 1963 made any development of Project Orion impossible because it outlawed all nuclear tests in space, and that NASA and the USAF cancelled the project in January 1965, a year and two months after JFK's assassination. Therefore, JFK laid the foundations for termination of Project Orion by signing the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty in part to placate Khrushchev.

Not just tests in space. It prohibits tests "or any other nuclear explosion" in the atmosphere as well as in space so Orion had no chance. And as part of the generation that had cesium-137 added to my bones and teeth courtesy of fallout from atmospheric detonations I'm grateful that treaty was signed, even if it was partly to make Khrushchev happy and the OP is disappointed.