Comment Re:Just visit the damn Moon (Score 1) 73
Nixon (cancelled NERVA & Saturn)
Saturn rocket was way too expensive to be sustainable, NERVA was cancelled because only need for it is to go to Mars (and no money for that so need for such a rocket).
Reagan (Cancelled the Space Tug crippling the Shuttle)
problem with space tug is amount of energy to change orbits is more than sending a spacecraft to the moon. Gemini, Apollo, Shuttle can change orbit inclinations but these were very small.
Bush W (cancelled the Shuttle replacement - without replacing it)
Most certain intent was to "scuttle the fleet" to motivate a development of a new vehicle much like Cortez scuttling his fleet to motivate his troops to take down the Aztec Empire. Silly analogy but according to Paul Spudis there was this kind of thinking.