Word: mol
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...With his MOL mandate, McNamara has given the Air Force a proper opportunity to prove its claims. The project will amount to a massive experiment checking on man's ability to function for long periods in space. And it will be a step toward demonstrating whether or not that functioning can have a military value to match its cost...
...will have plenty of room to move around, and by making due allowance for zero gravity, they will be able to perform elaborate and delicate tasks. After several weeks in the lab, they will return to the capsule and close the hatch in the heat shield. After detaching the MOL and leaving it in orbit, they will ignite their retrorockets and make their flaming descent...
...ordering the development of MOL at this time, however, McNamara has further confused the very basic question of American priorities in space development and research. There are strong suggestions that the Pentagon made an apparently wise decision for entirely inappropriate reasons...
Until now, the Defense Department has limited its space goals to the development of defensive capabilities; it has explored projects like the communication satellite system and has avoided research in space programs with offensive military potential. By giving the go-ahead to MOL, Defense has entered the realm of offensive capability without redefining its goals. Does McNamara's decision mean, for instance, that the United States will also consider the possibilities of manned space stations armed with nuclear warheads? A sizable block of Congressmen has urged that the United States pursue such programs. The Pentagon should not formulate its space...
Instead, the Government should carefully reconsider its entire space program. Resources for space development are limited, the costs of many programs are exorbitant, and the justifications for several projects are unclear. Under no circumstances should an expensive program like MOL be begun until we are completely sure why we need it and what it will bring...