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The Earth-to-Orbit (ETO) Propulsion Program was initiated in 1988 as a major element of NASA's Civil Space Technology Initiative (CSTI), a set of some ten different program elements directed to the revitalization of the U.S.'s space technology resource upon which future spaceflight missions will be able to draw. Through the ETO Program the Nation is investing $ 20-30 million/year in the development and demonstration of needed design and analysis tools and computational means, advanced materials and processes, and very advanced systems-synthesis methodologies to enable advanced, highly reliable liquid hydrogen- and hydrocarbon-fueled, pump-fed rocket engines to be acquired and operated at significantly reduced technical risk and cost (e.g., vis-a-vis the SSME).

In August of 1982, an internal NASA team was chartered by the Associate Administrators for the Office of Space Flight (OSF) and the Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology (OAST) to assess the status of the nation’s liquid chemical space propulsion test facilities and their adequacy to support current, near-term, and long-range national program requirements. This paper describes the results of that assessment, including the government and industry test capabilities in existence at that time, facility deficiencies that existed relative to what was needed to meet perceived future test requirements, an integrated facility implementation plan recommended by the team, and the state of the liquid rocket propulsion industry at the time the assessment was made.