Influential senator
I'm currently reading "New Moon Rising" and several times, senator Sam Brownback seems to have a good influence on the space community.
Here he is with the STS 109 crew:
What's interesting is how a group of space buffs who had connections at Washington managed to get attention from Cheney and Bush.
It took an accident to change NASA's orientation. We also know there wee no plans to build a new orbiter anyway.
Things would have been very different if NASA had permitted Mir to last much longer, adding modules, rather than start anew with a space station.