About the Book:Setting the tone for the collection, NASA chief historian Roger D. Launius and Howard McCurdy maintain that the nation’s presidency had become imperial by the mid-1970s and that supporters of the space program had grown to find relief in such a presidency, which they believed could help them obtain greater political support and funding. Subsequent chapters explore the roles and political leadership, vis–vis government policy, of presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan.Table of Contents: The reluctant racer, Dwight D. Eisenhower and United States space policy / Da Callahan and Fred I. Greenstein — Kennedy and the decision to go to the moo Michael Beschloss — Johnson, Project Apollo, and the politics of space prog planning / Robert Dallek — The presidency, Congress, and the deceleration o the U.S. space program in the 1970s / Joan Hoff — Politics not science, the U.S. space program in the Reagan and Bush years / Lyn Ragsdale — Presidenti leadership and international aspects of the space program / Robert Ferrell – National leadership and presidential power / John M. Logsdon.