[net.columbia] DoD cargo

pcmcgeer (06/06/82)

	I've read various speculations in these newsgroups (on one occasion
backed up by congressional testimony) that the DoD cargo on STS-IV isn't
in fact very spectacular and that DoD is just testing NASA's security.  I
wonder, though, whether or not that's true.  Is it just a coincidence that
the President's first major address on space policy is to take place at the
completion of this mission?  You'd think he'd've been guaranteed a larger
audience when STS-I landed.  Of course, I suppose President Reagan would
want a few missions to go smoothly before he committed the nation to a major
space effort in the eighties.