A. Initiate immediately a program to deliver the ET into orbit. This program should plan for on-orbit maintenance of the delivered tanks and the possible inclusion of ET based structures and modules in the US Space Station. B. Arrive quickly at an ownership and sales policy. Suggest sales price be set to reflect ONLY the cost of operating the ET orbital storage facility, not an attempt to recover the costs of the entire STS. The rationale here is twofold. First, the ET is essentially a salvaged article. R&D funds expanded were spent in making the STS operational, NOT in using the ET. Second, the ownership issue should be solved quickly and early. This will encourage private investors who want to purchase inexpensive space capability and not feed lawyers. The precedent for this issue comes from the experience with the KC-135. This aircraft was constructed to fill a defense need. The sale of aircraft of the same or a similar design was not constrained by any attempt to recover the cost of monies already spent. Boeing and other American aerospace companies sold no small number of these KC-135 class aircraft to airline companies worldwide. The net result was an unexpected creation of new jobs, new industries, and the generation of more tax revenues. The utilization of the ET will have a similar impact. The External Tank is a very important item in the future of this nation in space. It provides the leverage necessary to make large scale space based operations of almost any kind affordable and therefore able to be done privately. The possible applications of the tank on-orbit are constrained only by the imagination. The ET should be stored in orbit for future use as soon as possible and the sales and ownership questions settled. This action will likely have an impact on this nation's future in space comparable to Apollo.
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