page_title: James A. Abrahamson
section_title: Strategic Defense Initiative
hierarchical_section_title: James A. Abrahamson / Military career / Strategic Defense Initiative
caption_attribution_description: English: Lt. Gen. Abrahamson &amp; President Ronald Reagan at SDI Labs
context_page_description: James Alan Abrahamson is a retired U.S. Air Force general who served as a designated astronaut, Associate Director of NASA and former director of President Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative from 1984 until 1989. He is a successful businessman who served as chairman of the board of GeoEye, a company he helped to transform into the world's largest space imaging corporation and that merged with DigitalGlobe Inc in January 2013. Previously, he served as chairman of Oracle Corporation's board of directors from 1992 until 1995.
context_section_description: Abrahamson was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to be the first director of the Strategic Defense Initiative ("SDI") in April 1984. The "Star Wars" program, as SDI's detractors dubbed it, was initiated to develop a sophisticated anti-ballistic missile system that would prevent missile attacks from other countries, particularly the Soviet Union. Some countries opposed to U.S. missile defense efforts raised concerns about the program "contravening" the anti-ballistic missile (ABM) of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks in years before the program was enacted.
  Ultimately, concerns about the objectives of SDI and fiscal budgetary constraints forced the Reagan administration to announce the program would cease.
  Abrahamson accompanied President Reagan to Reykjavik, Iceland, for the Reykjavik Summit on October 11, 1986, to meet the Soviet leader, Secretary General Mikhail Gorbachev. The subject of the Strategic Defense Initiative's technological advances and their effects on the strategic nuclear balance between the United States and the Soviet Union during the last years of the Cold War was raised by the Soviets at the meeting.
  During the post-summit press conference, Gorbachev said Reagan's insistence on deploying SDI had "frustrated and scuttled" the opportunity for an agreement.
  Abrahamson was promoted to lieutenant general on July 21, 1982. He retired from the U.S. Air Force on March 1, 1989, and entered professional life.
caption: Lt. Gen. James Abrahamson & President Ronald Reagan at Strategic Defense Initiative Labs
exif: {}