Space Station - The first step

The United States Space Station program, begun in Fiscal Year 1985 under significant cost constraints, should cause all those involved in the planning of manned interplanetary flight to revise their impressions of the cost and practicality of planetary missions. The presence of the Space Shuttle, as well as arrival of a capable Space Station, will provide a major impetus to planetary programs, both by removing most of the real barriers to extended manned space flights and by proving that significant manned space ventures may be performed very economically.