IIRC, under the reign of Bush41, DuPont’s patent for Freon was expiring, and NASA just happened to need an excuse to justify more funding, or maintain existing levels, so the three colluding on this aspect.
Bush gets to look like an environmentalist (not that it did him any good), DuPont gets to shut out the generic freon competition, with its new coolant, and NASA (and its contractors) keep the money train rolling on yet another questionable project. (And the Algorsat project wasn’t yet on the boards...).
Thanks for the history lesson. Amazing, this resource FR.