Jimmy Carter's complex legacy in space exploration includes Voyager missions, space shuttle challenges

ORLANDO, Fla. - By many accounts of those who served at NASA during Jimmy Carter's administration, he was viewed as the least supportive of U.S. human space efforts of any president. However, he is also recognized for his interest in planetary exploration and using space to help advance the quality of life on Earth.

President Carter's space policy would center less around "a single, massive engineering feat," his administration's space policy statement read, but rather it would be more evolutionary and focus on the "pluralistic objectives and needs of our society." 

Still, Carter is credited, in part, with keeping the space shuttle program alive and for his support of NASA's robotic exploration of the heavens through the twin Voyager missions, each of which carries a recorded message from the nation's 39th president, who died on Sunday in Plains, Georgia, at the age of 100.

"President Carter understood an important truth: that we find common ground when we look to the stars. His words will forever belong to the heavens, and his legacy has forever bettered our country – and our Earth," wrote NASA Administrator Bill Nelson on Carter's passing.

President Carter and the Voyager missions

By the time Carter took office in January 1977, NASA had already begun exploring the inner and outer planets of the solar system. 

Before Carter's term, between 1962 and 1973, 10 Mariner space probes were sent to conduct flybys of Venus, Mars, and Mercury. In 1972 and 1973, two Pioneer space probes completed flybys of Jupiter. And in 1975, two Viking probes orbited and then landed on Mars.  

However, not since the Apollo moon missions ended in 1972 had space exploration truly captured the imagination of the American people the way the twin Voyager missions did.  Launched in the summer of 1977, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were intended to conduct close-up studies of Jupiter and Saturn, Saturn's rings, and the larger moons of the two planets before continuing interstellar travel beyond our planetary system.

On the chance that they might encounter intelligent extraterrestrial life, NASA approved the placement of a phonograph record on each of the two Voyager spacecraft. 

Recorded on two 12-inch discs are the "Sounds of Earth," assembled by a group of prominent scientists and educators led by renowned American astronomer and planetary scientist Carl Sagan. It also consists of greetings from Earth in dozens of languages, samples of music from different cultures and eras, and natural sounds of surf, wind, thunder, and animals. Additionally, there are over 100 photographs and diagrams in analog form, depicting human beings, the solar system, DNA, and various fundamental concepts from mathematics, chemistry, geology, and biology. 

Lastly, the content includes greetings from then-President Jimmy Carter and then-Secretary General of the United Nations Kurt Josef Waldheim.

Read President Carter's message on Voyager's Golden Record

"This Voyager spacecraft was constructed by the United States of America. We are a community of 240 million human beings among the more than 4 billion who inhabit the planet Earth. We human beings are still divided into nation states, but these states are rapidly becoming a single global civilization.

We cast this message into the cosmos. It is likely to survive a billion years into our future, when our civilization is profoundly altered and the surface of the Earth may be vastly changed. Of the 200 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, some — perhaps many — may have inhabited planets and spacefaring civilizations. If one such civilization intercepts Voyager and can understand these recorded contents, here is our message:

‘This is a present from a small distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts, and our feelings. We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours. We hope someday, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of galactic civilizations. This record represents our hope and our determination, and our good will in a vast and awesome universe.’"

Listen to ‘Sounds of Earth’ on Voyager's Golden Record

Listen to ‘Greetings to the Universe’ on Voyager's Golden Record

Listen to the music on Voyager's Golden Record

See the images on the Voyager's Golden Record

The goals of Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 were far exceeded.  Voyager 2 continued on a course to survey Uranus and Neptune.  Voyager 1 entered interstellar space on August 25, 2012, followed by Voyager 2 on Nov. 5, 2018. Both probes are still considered active. 

Live Tracker: Where is Voyager 1 now?

President Carter and NASA's 20th Anniversary

President Carter took the occasion of NASA’s 20th anniversary celebration on Oct. 1, 1978, to visit the Kennedy Space Center and bestow the first Congressional Space Medals of Honor on astronauts Neil Armstrong, Frank Borman, Pete Conrad, John Glenn, Alan Shepard and Betty Grissom, the wife of the late astronaut Gus Grissom. 

In his remarks that day, Carter said, "Like the sea, the land, and the air, space will become an environment in which human beings can live and work for the welfare of their species." Carter concluded his remarks by stating, "In the last analysis, the challenge of space takes us very close to the heart of things. It brings us face to face with the mysteries of creation, matter, energy, and life. The men we honor today met that challenge, and were equal to it. Our nation met that challenge, and was equal to it. And in the final two decades of the 20th century, America will reach out once more to the beauty and mystery of space. And, once more, America will be equal to the task."

Congressional Space Medal of Honor Ceremony

The Congressional Space Medal of Honor has only been awarded to a very select group of astronauts. Despite the medal’s name, the U.S. President awards this medal based upon recommendations from the NASA Administrator. 

Congress authorized the president to "award, and present in the name of Congress, a medal of appropriate design, which shall be known as the Congressional Space Medal of Honor, to any astronaut who in the performance of his duties has distinguished himself by exceptionalIy meritorious efforts and contributions to the welfare of the Nation and of mankind."

President Carter and the Space Shuttle program

During his visit to the Kennedy Space Center, President Carter received an update on the space shuttle program.

One issue that persisted throughout the Carter administration was the appropriate number of space shuttle orbiters to build, and the future of the shuttle program overall. NASA argued five orbiters were needed to provide enough capability for the many missions it anticipated. Carter decided to approve the construction of only four along with "structural spares" for a fifth vehicle. (Those spare parts were used a decade later to build a replacement orbiter after the Challenger accident.)

In 1979, Carter considered terminating the space shuttle program, given its technical and schedule problems. He was advised, however, that the program was too far along to make such a move productive and the shuttle was needed to launch reconnaissance satellites required to verify arms control agreements – a top Carter priority. Based on these considerations, he decided to continue the program. Carter had hoped the first shuttle launch would occur during his term in office, but it slipped to April 1981.

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