2-860-633 - Heritage Space/Heritage Images

President Nixon and James Fletcher Discuss the Space Shuttle , 1972. President Richard M. Nixon and Dr. James C. Fletcher, NASA Administrator, discussed the proposed Space Shuttle vehicle in San Clemente, California, on January 5, 1972. The President announced that day that the United States should proceed at once with the development of an entirely new type of space transportation system designed to help transform the space frontier into familiar territory.