STS-1 landing

1st shuttle Columbia flew April 12, 1981

• then Challenger 1983, Discovery 1984, Atlantis 1985, Endeavour 1992.
• fatal accidents destroyed Challenger 1986, and Columbia 2003, killing 14 astronauts.
• Shuttle Transportation System (STS) cost $10 billion to develop, and 294 astronauts have flown the 112 missions since 1981 at a cost of $1.3 billion per flight, for a total 25-year cost of $145 billion.

April 28 - Economic Recovery program speech proposed drastic cuts in domestic programs to stop the growing federal deficit. However, after the first year of the program, unemployment had risen to 10%, 17,000 businesses had failed, inflation remained high and the recession continued.

Shuttle Columbia

PATCO strikers

Sandra Day O'Connor 07/15/1981 (NLS-WHPO-C3015(7) ) from NA

1st Cabinet 02/04/1981 (NLS-WHPO-C487(2) ) from NA

Reagan fired PATCO strikers, called baseball strike "cultural terrorism"

Senate rejected 96-0 Reagan's proposed OASDI cuts (Old Age Survivors and Disability Insurance), but passed Social Secuirty tax (SS & Medicare were 27% of total federal budget, part of the "safety net" protected by Congress since FDR)

Reagan signed largest U.S. tax cut and took David Stockman to the "woodshed" but in 1982 he would raise taxes with the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act (TEFR). of 1982.

Poland martial law, Solidarity outlawed, Welesa imprisoned

Reagan responded with pipeline sanctions

Return to Reagan 1981

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