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To review events: SSP had been put on a back burner by NASA by the time of the Reagan administration. That was because it had been joined in the �70s to the L5 idea�which was much more of a long-term proposition.
In 1984, an episode of the CBS show Simon & Simon featured your idea. That was done without naming you. The L5 encumbrance was not part of that story, which was fortunate. At that time, CBS�with another show, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, was very much a Cold War combatant. And that Simon & Simon episode, which I chanced to play an indirect role in bringing about and which intellectuals might deride as superficial, may have been important in keeping SSP viable in the Cold War. Policy makers, unfortunately, tend to get many of their scientific ideas from the mass media.
I hope I�m remembering all this correctly. I�ve seen the episode in question twice, but I haven�t seen it recently. It was called �The Wrong Stuff.�
At any rate, three years later, in 1987, the Soviets felt compelled to try to match SSP and trumpeted their Energia as the means of accomplishing that purpose. The recent death of President Reagan served as a reminder of that period. Those events of his second administration have yet to be put in proper historical perspective, because SSP was at least as important in resolving the Cold War as was Reagan�s �Star Wars.�
Thus, my plan is to give you the 2004 Gaus Science Award and try to promote both the past successes and future promise of SSP.
The fact that the Soviets were so eager to match your concept shows that they thought there was an important kernel there. That Soviet response is important to my present evaluation of your work.