Semper Fly: Marines in Space

In April of that year, while Marines were bogged down in bloody cave fighting during the hunt for bin Laden, Lafontant had lunch with fellow space expert Franz Gayl in the Pentagon cafeteria. Gayl, also a former Marine with significant influence in the private sector, brainstorms new technologies for the Corps´s Plans, Policies, and Operations Department. Lafontant suggested that a space transport could have allowed Marines to nab bin Laden without a major assault-and before the terrorist leader could disappear into Afghanistan´s caves. Gayl was skeptical of its feasibility-the idea of military space transport has been around for decades yet has never been deemed viable enough to enter active development-but he was impressed by the elegance of the solution and its use of military technology that he knew to be in the works.

Together, Lafontant and Gayl formally presented their concept to Gayl´s boss at the Pentagon, brigadier general Richard Zilmer, and then to lieutenant general Emil Bedard, the office´s deputy commandant, who endorsed it on July 22, 2002, adding space transport to the Marines´ official wish list. But the technology-reusable and advanced propulsion, sophisticated heat shielding-wasn´t ready. Just a year earlier, two joint NASA and Air Force programs to develop similar reusable launch vehicles, or RLVs, had been canceled because of problems with their single-stage engines. The idea was far ahead of the technological curve.

But Lafontant was patient. He continued to refine and promote the space-transport idea until it was a fixture in the collective imagination of the Marines´ space community. Soon Sustain found a home at the Corps´s Space Integration Branch in Virginia, where Wassink directs a 100-person team of satellite technicians who connect Marine commanders to operations around the world. Wassink was interested in the Sustain project, but the Marine Corps is a small force under the umbrella of the Navy and receives just 4 percent of military funding. Sustain is â€certainly not something the Marine Corps would be able to acquire on its own,†he admits.

Zilmer agreed and introduced the Sustain concept to Congress. In an address to a Senate committee in July 2003, he outlined the Marine strategy. â€We must coordinate and synthesize our technology needs with other Department of Defense and nonmilitary users,†Zilmer told the committee. He mentioned NASA as a possible partner. Lafontant also foresaw the Air Force developing the carrier aircraft and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), the Pentagon´s experimental-science arm, overseeing the design of the lander. Zilmer´s testimony was part of a broad campaign that Lafontant and the other Sustain advocates launched to sell the idea to Congress, NASA, the Air Force and Darpa, and to the industry partners that would build the hardware. â€We saw the entire gamut of reactions,†Wassink recalls. â€Some people didn´t get past the giggle factor.â€

Marines into Space

The Marines have a history of selling risky but revolutionary concepts. They embraced amphibious assault before it became a deciding factor in World War II. They guarded the versatile
V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor plane during its troubled development. And they have championed their share of flops. Their vertical-takeoff AV-8B Harrier crashes more than any other contemporary fighter, and it was the Marine Corps, after all, that seriously investigated attaching incendiary bombs to thousands of bats during World War II.

Sustain is part of the latest in a long legacy of tough sells. But, as the world stage grows more hostile and the need for rapid, flexible deployment grows more intense, Lafontant insists that â€the giggle factor is gone now.â€