[238] Saturday, October 1: Down to the office at 9:30 for a meeting with Bill Hines of the Washington Star. He wanted a round-up on the [initial] two years of NASA's operations. I had Bob Jastrow come in and we managed to get through it without too much difficulty. Jimmy Doolittle came in for a few minutes; he had very little to say but we did talk about the possibility of Si Ramo as a candidate to follow me in this particular job after 20 January next. At 11 o'clock, I listened to a briefing on the problems of the Centaur program and agreed that we ought to increase the spending rate by $10 million in the current fiscal year. Where do we get the money?1 I don't know - we simply have to get it. Finally, I got home about 3 o'clock and set out for a long walk with Ruth. After a dinner of Metrecal, I got into bed and I believe that almost thirteen hours passed before I arose again.
Sunday, October 2: Work occupied the entire day until 5:30 - I am now dictating the finish of this day's effort - as we prepare for dinner for the Seamanses and the Harknesses. I may add something to this later on.
It was a good evening with most of the conversation carried by the Harknesses and ourselves. Bob and Jean Seamans are really quite delightful people and have all of the attributes necessary to make them a relied[-upon] part of the Washington community. Apparently, her father was an official in the State Department for a number of years. She seems gracious and at ease. He has made a very excellent impression at the office. He seems to know how to ask significant questions and does not back away from requiring a good performance or from making decisions.
Before going on with this chronicle, I think it might be good to recall that we are in the midst of one of the most significant and, at the same time, peculiar meetings of the United Nations. Khrushchev has been alternately beating the Western powers over the head and seeming to be somewhat conciliatory. At all times, he has been wooing the neutrals and the nations that have just been granted membership in the U.N. I am reminded of the comments of a British psychologist, [William Ewart?] Sargent, who believes that Khrushchev is following Pavlovian theories in his handling of international affairs. Pavlov was the great Russian psychologist who [239] was able to create interesting behavior patterns in dogs by alternately tormenting them and treating them with great kindness. He was able to get conditioned reactions with consistency. Sargent believes that Khrushchev is applying this psychology to the large issues presently facing the Western world. For our part, we have been waiting with some anxiety for the announcement of a new Soviet success in the space business. As a matter of fact, we entered upon a positive campaign four or five weeks ago to anticipate such announcements - particularly in the field of manned space flight. I believe we have achieved our goal but we are left at the church by the fact that the Russians have not, as yet, undertaken any startling space experiment. Why? I just wish we knew.
I have been saying that there are several reasons for anticipation of a Russian effort. First, we all concede that the Soviets must have the means to do very nearly what they want to do in space. I say this in spite of the fact that I am not at all sure that they have any better understanding of the hazards in human space flight than we have. I am not one of those who believes that the Soviets will recklessly put a man into space - I don't think they could stand the horrified criticism of the rest of the world were they to do this. On the other hand, there is no guarantee that they have not already put a man into space and left him there. There seems to be some evidence that the May 15 shot was just such a shot.2 In addition, the Soviets have quite frequently chosen anniversary dates or significant public occasions for the launching of one of their space shots. We convinced ourselves that Khrushchev's arrival at the U.N. would be one such occasion, that the third anniversary of the 4 October 1957 launching of Sputnik I would be another, and that the early part of October - being a favorable time for a minimum energy trajectory to Mars - would be still another. There is yet time for that last effort - the Mars shot.3 On October 4, by coincidence, the Army's Courier satellite was placed in orbit and seems to be operating satisfactorily.4 On that same day, after having tried for two weeks to launch our first complete Scout launch vehicle, we made a successful shot carrying a small payload package for the Air Force in a "piggy-back" fashion.5 Thus we celebrated the third anniversary of the real beginning of the space age.
[240] On another note, I spent $5.00 to buy General Medaris' book the other day. I have not read the entire book but I did go over the last three or four chapters, which deal with the fight between the Army and the rest of the Pentagon and the discussions with NASA over the Army's position in the space business. Medaris makes a hero out of Roy Johnson and says that Brucker is the best secretary the Army has ever had. These two characterizations are enough in themselves to damn the rest of the book. This was not enough, however; Medaris went on to characterize Herb York as a second-rate scientist. Nothing could be further from the truth. I think my statement would be joined in by all responsible people active in the fields of science and technology.6
It is interesting to reflect on the impact made on the nation by books such as this written by generals who became so obsessed with their own viewpoints that they lost perspective and finally left the army. Clearly, there is room for argument on matters such as these, and public debate ought to be encouraged. Character assassination is quite another thing, however. In this particular instance, it appears that everyone is out of step except Medaris and those who agree with him.
Monday, October 3: We started the day with a dry run on the Rover program in preparation for a meeting with the commissioners of the AEC on Tuesday, 11 October. I think the boys have done a good job in bringing this program into focus and in laying out the activities for the next five to seven years. It does appear that we have a bear by the tail. Above all, I intend that we not be caught in the same situation as the boys who have been spending hundreds of millions over the past ten years on the problems of nuclear propulsion for aircraft. As of the present, under the determined pounding of Clinton Anderson and the Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy, we are headed full tilt for that path. The meeting with the commissioners will be an interesting one.
Later in the morning, Bill Littlewood, chairman of our committee on aircraft operating problems and a vice president of American Airlines, came in to pay his respects and talk about the work of his committee. Much to my surprise, having belabored the NASA for doing too little research in support of aeronautics, Littlewood wanted to have his committee authorized to deal with operating problems in spacecraft. I pointed out this seeming inconsistency, but he blandly asserted that there was no real relationship between the two.
Lunch at the Carlton with Nat Finney of the Buffalo Courier-Journal. Nat is a responsible newspaperman and was attempting to put together a piece for the 80th anniversary of his newspaper. I find it easy to talk with him and hope that his piece will be worthwhile. This was an instance in which Walter Bonney had let me down since he had agreed to prepare a statement for Finney some days earlier.
At 2:30, we gathered in the USO auditorium for the second annual NASA service award ceremony. The lady civil service commissioner, Mrs. [Barbara [241] Bates] Gunderson, spoke briefly and well.7 She is an attractive and bright person who must bring to the deliberations of that body many new points of view. These awards ceremonies seem to mean a good bit to the participants. At 4:30, I left for Cleveland via Capital Airlines. After dinner at Stouffers with Sally and Ruth, I found myself sufficiently tired to retire without any further delay.
Tuesday, October 4: This is a day to remember. [Relates the events in connection with a $1.6 million grant to Case by the Olin Foundation for a center devoted to the materials sciences and his flight back to Washington, D.C.]
Wednesday, October 5: I am resuming dictation on this journal today, 22 October, after having been so completely busy and so much occupied with traveling that I have had to forego my daily dictation. For some unknown reason, I had thought that I would have more free time after Congress had adjourned. This has not turned out to be the case. In fact, I seem to be busier than ever and it does not seem to me that I am getting as much done as I must accomplish before leaving this job. However that may be, I will just have to keep at it. After yesterday's exciting event, this day seems a bit of a letdown - not because it wasn't a busy one. At 8:45, Dryden, Seamans, and several others came to talk about trajectory problems on some of our shots. The Atlas Able appears to have dropped a piece of metal somewhere in south Africa, probably near Pretoria. This will be an increasingly difficult problem since it is almost impossible to avoid overflying the territory of another country in these shots. I have determined that we must discuss this with the State Department and convince it that we are taking every possible care to avoid this sort of difficulty but that we must be prepared for a problem of this sort from time to time.
Abe Silverstein brought in the new assistant director of the Goddard Space Flight Center - Eugene Wasielewski. He seems very much of an extrovert and comes well recommended. Apparently his most recent job has been with Curtiss-Wright although he has worked for NACA in the past. At 9:30, a presentation by the source evaluation board on the orbiting astronomical laboratory. The competition has been tough and almost all of the companies that proposed on this project have sent their presidents or vice presidents in to see me. Grumman won the competition and, from all present indications, will do a good job. I think the contract is in the neighborhood of $23 million.8 We then had a briefing on the proposed changes in the construction budget for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It has developed a fine master plan and it would appear that over a period of several years we can really improve working conditions there. I approved this $5-million project and complimented all concerned.
During the noon hour I had the first of two flu shots and then we gathered at the control center for a briefing by the Central Intelligence Agency on all activities [242] that have taken place in the last year. Dryden and I then gathered for some discussions of organizational changes and came into reasonable agreement as to what ought to be done. A skull session was then held with Silverstein and Tepper to prepare for the discussions we are going to have early next week with other agencies relating to the program for meteorological satellite. Finally, I wound up the day with Elmer Staats telling him of the probability of a supplemental budget for Centaur and for the communications satellite business and informing him of the large sums of money that must be spent if we are to carry on with man in space beyond the present Mercury project. Elmer did not seem surprised or concerned; I don't know what this means.
During the course of the day, I was approached by a member of the McKinsey organization who asked whether or not I would be willing to talk about accepting the post of vice president of General Aniline and Film Corporation and general manager of its Ansco Division with the probability that within a year or two I would be president of the parent organization. I quickly said, "No!" This is a bit of irony for it was from Ansco that I moved to Case back in 1947. We wound up the day with dinner at the Cosmos Club with Dr. Clark Goodman [a nuclear physicist who formerly worked for the AEC] and his wife. I left early so I could get home to do a little bit more work.
Thursday, October 6: Staff meeting this morning was not unusual but I rushed it through so I could attend the meeting of the National Security Council at 10 o'clock. As is often the case these days, the part of the meeting in which I was interested was deferred. Immediately after lunch I flew to Hartford. Congressman Daddario and my host, Frank Williams of the Connecticut General Insurance Company and the general chairman of the Yale fund drive, met me at the airport. The usual press conference was held - not a bad one this time - and then I had dinner at Frank Williams' house with several of the top people from United Aircraft and from the life insurance company. At 8 o'clock, I spoke to about 400 members of the staff of Connecticut General and had a really good audience. After I spoke for 45 minutes, they kept me for another similar period of questioning. All in all, it was a very good evening.
Friday, October 7: Up at 7 o'clock and off to a breakfast with Congressman Daddario, hosted by [Raymond A.] Gibson of the Hartford Electric Light and Power Company. About thirty of the top business leaders and professional men in the community were present. It was a good session with lots of interesting questions and I hope some reasonable answers. Daddario then drove me to New Haven where I met with Charlie O'Hearn, assistant to President [Alfred Whitney] Griswold. An hour's discussion with Bill Hinkley and members of the survey committee of the engineering school, appointed by President Griswold, revealed just how inadequate the engineering program at Yale seems to be. The school has had very little in the way of aggressive leadership for twenty years and is in need of this examination. I invited them to visit Case and they said they would. Griswold is said to be anxious to drop engineering from the Yale curriculum. Nothing could be further from the truth, but he does want a good school - one that is as modern in its concepts as is the rest of Yale. He needs help.
After lunch at Mory's, I took part in a panel discussion before the alumni group that had come together to be told the aims and campaign plans for the [243] $69 million fund-raising effort. Bill Bundy led off and moderated the panel. Alan Waterman then spoke about the significance of science in the national scene, and I followed with a thoughtful discussion of the NASA program and the problem we have in convincing Congress and the executive branch of the importance of going ahead on a broad and costly space exploration program. All of this was intended to indicate the need for really well-prepared men and women who can deal effectively with problems of this kind on the national scene. Leadership - that is the word. The panel was completed by Archibald MacLeish. I had never heard him speak before but was so much impressed by the beauty of his language that I missed pretty much what he had to say. He received a great ovation. A question and answer period gave me an opportunity to give Whit Griswold some backing on his engineering study. My plane had come to New Haven to pick me up, and Alan and I flew back to Washington reaching home just in time to turn on the television for the second of the "Great Debates." On this occasion, it seemed that Nixon had regained his confidence and was on the attack. It is so difficult to be objective in these matters that one hesitates to designate a winner. It did seem to me that Kennedy was as glib as ever and that Nixon appeared the more mature, a person who recognized the awful burdens of the office.
Saturday, October 8: The entire day was given over to a review of all of our projects. Mercury has slipped some more and some of the other projects have had to be delayed a bit. We are bunching a number of shots in December - so many that I authorized delaying one into the early part of January. Ruth returned from Cleveland and things began to be a little more normal again.
Sunday, October 9: The day was given over to work as I completed the script for my speech in Portland, Oregon, next Wednesday.
Monday, October 10: At 9:30, we had a meeting with representatives of the Federal Aviation Agency, the Department of Commerce and the Weather Bureau, the Department of Defense and our own meteorological people for the purpose of looking at the problems that face us in developing a meteorological satellite system that will be operational within the next four or five years. It is so obvious that the Weather Bureau is poorly prepared to take on the research necessary to deal with this very difficult problem, one wants to step in and help. Unfortunately, it doesn't appear as though we'll be able to do very much because we don't have too much of the necessary experience. The Defense Department will move very solidly in this area, I am sure. At 2:30, a group of the boys came together to discuss policy matters with respect to the meteorological satellite program and the communications satellite program. We reviewed my speech for Portland very carefully because it contains the first policy statement in the communications field. It is apt to cause a good bit of discussion in Congress and perhaps in the executive branch.
Ruth and I went to a white tie dinner with Admiral Burke and then to the Navy Ball. All of the Joint Chiefs of Staff were present as were the ambassador from Sweden and his wife. The ball was a big and noisy affair, and we stayed only long enough to be polite. I asked Mrs. Burke whether she ever had an evening to herself. She said they came so seldom she couldn't remember them. This is typical of the load placed on the leaders of our military departments. Admiral Burke has held his job now for five years.
[244] Tuesday, October 11: John McCone of the AEC came over for a meeting on the nuclear rocket and nuclear power programs. He and the commissioners had already had a briefing prepared by Harold Finger indicating the very great cost of the Rover program and the high probability that we would not be able to make a test flight in 1965. I asked that we all listen to the same briefing again so we would be talking from the same script. I think the facts as presented are straightforward and that they cannot be brushed aside. John McCone, under the prodding of the Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy, has been attempting to push this program forward, although he is concerned over the use to be made of such a rocket system. I am concerned about whether or not anyone will ever let us use the rocket with the possibility of radioactive hazards that undoubtedly will be present. In any event, we agreed that we should pursue an aggressive research program but should not launch into an all-out hardware program until some of these uncertainties have been dealt with. Louis Schreiber of DuPont came in to see me. He had been a graduate student during the time I was at Yale and had served as assistant to Ruth's father. Thus, it has been more than 30 year since I had seen him. He wanted me to deliver a speech in Wilmington, which I was unfortunately unable to accept.
At 3:45, I left Baltimore for Portland, Oregon, traveling with Admiral Bennett. Lately we have been admonished by the Bureau of the Budget to travel tourist class in the jets. I had succumbed to this order to the extent of taking the short flights tourist class, but I ride first class on the longer flights. Thus, I found myself riding from Baltimore to Chicago tourist while Bennett rode first class. We did get together on the Chicago-Portland leg of the trip.
Wednesday, October 12: Governor Mark Hatfield of Oregon had asked me to be the principal speaker at a luncheon on this day. It turns out that he is a young and very attractive man with a great deal of energy and evidence of leadership capabilities. Oregon has not been an industrial state, and he is determined that a broader industrial base be developed. This was a meeting of the development committee for the state and he had asked the Army, Navy and Air Force to tell a group of 200 businessmen of the requirements those services would have for research and development activities in the future. While the morning session was on, I met with the governor and listened to a briefing by some of his state development people. They have set aside a very large tract of land in north-central Oregon along the Columbia River for an industrial development. This has been done with the thought that it would make an excellent site for missile or space vehicle testing. The whole pitch is at the so-called space age industries. Unfortunately, they are about ten or twelve years late and it isn't at all clear that the remote site in a remote part of the nation is a useful one. Nevertheless, it may be possible to encourage industry to develop subsidiary plants in that general area. Certainly, if enthusiasm means anything, they will improve their situation substantially.
The luncheon speech went well and was widely reported throughout the nation. I was talking about policy matters with respect to the communications satellite business. I pointed out that communications had always been an operation [245] for private industry in this country and I saw no reason for changing that in the event satellites became part of the system. I proposed that the government provide launch vehicles and launching services at cost to those companies, such as AT&T, willing to pursue their own development and pay the costs. On the other hand, I pointed out that we had an obligation to keep the United States moving ahead in all fields of space research and that we must therefore support technically attractive proposals made by industry at our request or voluntarily. Now we will wait for the congressional investigation!
A visit to a couple of local plants finished out the day and brought me back to Portland for dinner with a group of bankers and businessmen. I then flew to Seattle where I expected to take off at 10 o'clock on a Northwest Airlines jet for New York. Unfortunately, the flight engineers had gone on strike and I found myself taking a United Airlines jet at 11:45 p.m. with only three hours of sleep before I had to change planes in Chicago. I did arrive in Washington at 9:45 a.m. on schedule.
Thursday, October 13: Arriving at Friendship Airport without much sleep, I made tracks immediately for the White House where I was to attend another meeting of the National Security Council. For the first time, my car telephone came in handy as I kept in touch with developments between the airport and the White House. As luck would have it, after I waited thirty minutes, the item on the National Security Council agenda in which I was interested was canceled. Immediately after lunch, I reviewed the Portland situation with Bob Nunn and Homer Joe Stewart. We must move rapidly on this communications business before it gets out of hand. At 3 o'clock, I met with the president. I had called in from Portland the day before in order to get this date because of the probability that the president was going to be away from Washington for two weeks. I found him tired and preoccupied. I simply brought him up-to-date on our activities, told him of my speech in Portland and what meaning it had for the executive branch and then indicated that we were going to require additional money in the way of a supplemental. He had no comment to make on this matter. I told him something of the costs that appear to be involved in Project Apollo, the follow on to Project Mercury. He expressed himself once more as having little interest in the manned aspects of space research. He was cordial enough but it was obvious that he was not at his best today.
I went directly home and went to bed since I appear to be coming down with a cold. This would not be strange after the night I had spent returning from Portland. Several pills helped me to get through the night and seemed to arrest the cold.
Friday, October 14: At 9:30, we had a presentation by Bruce Lundin and his study committee giving the results of the investigation of the proposed location for Project Apollo. They have done a thorough and objective job but find themselves as a committee of four split right down the middle. Thus, I have the task of making the decision myself, although I now have much better information on which to base such a choice.
I did decide, at Bob Seamans' urging, that the life sciences center should be located at Ames Research Center in California. This decision has been delayed [246] in the hopes that we could make a sensible decision with respect to the location for Project Apollo. It does appear, however, that to locate our life sciences group in the Washington area is to locate it within a disease-oriented medical group. In the San Francisco Bay area we find a number of medical schools and research institutes where forward-looking basic research is being carried out. It, therefore, seems very desirable to have our life sciences group situated in that kind of an intellectual climate. I know that Clark Randt will be happy to have this decision made.
Saturday, October 15: Up early and off to the airport where Ruth and I took a TWA ship to Cincinnati. Actually, the field was fog-bound and we were about an hour late in departing. We were met in Cincinnati by Neil McElroy, former secretary of defense and now chairman of the board of Procter and Gamble. He took us to his home in the Hyde Park section of Cincinnati. This seems to be the older section of the city. The home is a large, rambling but comfortable house. Camilla [his wife] seemed glad to see us and we had a pleasant luncheon before taking off for the football game between Wichita and the University of Cincinnati. Unfortunately, it began to rain soon after the game started and we did not bother to stay through more than five or ten minutes of it.
A relaxing afternoon ensued and then we dressed for dinner. I was to speak to the Commercial Club of Cincinnati and Mrs. McElroy had several ladies in for dinner with Ruth. The speech went well - a summary of the space program and some indication of the direction we will take in the future. It was the same general talk that I've given to several groups in places like Cleveland and New York. After the dinner, we returned to the house and spent another hour and a half with the ladies.
Sunday, October 16: Up at a leisurely hour and breakfast with the McElroy family, which by this time included Malcolm, the youngest son, and Barbara and her husband Dave. This latter couple has a cute little baby who seems to be deficient in heart development. They have practically despaired of her life. A trip to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, is in prospect. Packing for the trip to Williamsburg, we then drove out to the home of [Bayard Livingston] Kilgour, president of the Cincinnati and Suburban Telephone Company, where we had a quick drink before driving on to the country home of the Harrisons, friends of the McElroys. This was sort of a day in the country with an interesting group of people but we were able to stay only a short time. Back to the airport where we took one of the Procter and Gamble Grumman Gulfstreams for a two hour flight to Williamsburg, Virginia. Arriving at Williamsburg about 4:30, we found we had preceded the balance of the group from Washington - most of our top staff - by only a few minutes.
This is to be the beginning of a three-day conference with representatives from headquarters and from all of the field centers. The agenda concerns itself principally with reports of activities undertaken in the last six months and a look at the future from both a programming and policy standpoint. Ruth joined us for a reception and dinner, after which [Maurice] Stans spoke to the group. I had asked him to come down principally to let him be seen by our people and to provide an [247] opportunity for him to know some of our top staff. I think it was a very successful move - both sides seemed genuinely grateful for the opportunity to meet each other.
Monday, October 17: The conference got underway at 9 o'clock with Bob Seamans taking over in good fashion. A series of reports by various elements of the headquarters organization took up the morning. Larry Kimpton and John Corson had flown in to give us a report on the management advisory committee study. This turned out to be interesting and a little controversial. Since the report is not as yet completed, I kept cautioning the staff that it must not expect to accept the report as given or even as written. It is a series of recommendations to us and we will accept or reject these recommendations as seems best for all concerned.
In the middle of the afternoon, immediately following the completion of Kimpton's report, I succumbed to a feeling of extreme nausea. Having set up a cocktail party for part of the staff, I was concerned about keeping that engagement. I lay down for awhile and was able to be up just long enough to greet the guests when I made it back to the bed. Ruth took good care of the party. I found myself with a temperature slightly in excess of 100°, and the usual stomach evacuation process followed. Fortunately, we had scheduled nothing for this particular evening.
Tuesday, October 18: I seemed to be reasonably recovered by breakfast time and went back to the conference at 9 o'clock. The first order of the day was a panel discussion on the subject, "Where should NASA be headed?" This was an exceedingly useful discussion and might well have taken up the time of the entire conference. All elements of the program were discussed briefly by a panel of five men, followed by comments from the floor. Emphasis seemed to be on taking the bold approach, but there was more conservatism displayed than I had expected. There were some useful suggestions, particularly by General Ostrander, about improved relationships with the military. During the morning coffee break, I spoke rather casually to Clark Randt about the decision to establish the life sciences center at Ames on the West Coast. Much to my amazement, he expressed himself as being exceedingly unhappy about everything he had heard and stated that he could not continue longer. I'm afraid that I was not very cordial in my reply for I felt that he was acting rather like a petulant youngster. I simply said that if he couldn't make up his mind to carry the ball, perhaps he had better leave. Immediately after our reconvening, I put Bob Seamans to work to gather Randt in for a conference in my room after the evening session.
The afternoon session produced nothing startling, and we were off to the King's Arms for dinner after picking up [Major] General and Mrs. [William B.] Keese of the Air Force. He is to talk to us tomorrow. My paper on "The Transition to a New Administration" took about an hour of discussion. It seemed to go rather well with some considerable expression of regret that I seemed to make it so positive that I was leaving the organization after the inauguration on 20 January. There was a rather spirited debate over the desirability of undertaking the preparation of a second budget on the odd chance that a new administration would want to spend more money than we will be able to get from the current administration. This was [248] decided in the negative since a great many people would have to be involved and it seemed wholly impossible to keep such an exercise away from Congress. Political dynamite is contained in any operation of this kind, and it is tremendously important that we avoid providing anyone with material for a congressional attack. The discussion gave me an opportunity to remind everyone that a key characteristic of our operation had been the integrity with which we approached all of our planning and operations, both internally and externally. I stated that we were not going to change that policy as long as I was the head of the organization.
After the evening session, Randt came in with Dryden and Seamans, and we debated for about an hour without getting much of anywhere in satisfying Randt's concerns. He offered to resign immediately or at least by 1 December. I pointed out the extent to which we had been delayed in giving him the support he wants and the reasons for those delays. Obviously, Randt has attempted to go about his activities without understanding as clearly as he might the business of developing relationships that would be productive for him. The fact that none of us are medical doctors or have had any experience in the life sciences makes it most difficult to achieve the degree of understanding necessary in this situation. I finally broke up the meeting by saying that we had better sleep on it.
Wednesday, October 19: The session this morning was given over to a discussion of management problems - particularly the development of better project managers and project management techniques. A good discussion ensued, although it is quite clear that we have a long way to go before we get complete understanding and enthusiastic cooperation from all concerned. At 11:30, we turned the meeting over to the Air Force people, who described their study project program. They spend about $5 million a year but are able to acquire projects costing another $10 to $15 million by playing on the eagerness of the contracting fraternity to get into the business. Part of this is legitimate, since all production contracts carry some money to be expended by the contractor on advanced research activities, including studies of this kind. I thought the subject well presented and it did demonstrate the need for close association between planning groups and long-range study groups of this kind.
I summarized the conference immediately after lunch and we then took off for Washington where we arrived about 7 o'clock in the evening. All-in-all, it has been a good three days, and the feeling of good fellowship and better understanding that seems to pervade a meeting of this kind must surely pay off in the long run.
Thursday, October 20: We started off the day with a review of the briefing we are going to give the State Department on the "over-flight" problem. It is a good briefing and I agreed that it ought to be given at the working level so we could determine the best approach to the higher levels of the State Department in our search for a solution to this knotty policy problem. I had lunch with Lieutenant John Davey of the Naval War College at Newport, Rhode Island, as I discussed with [249] him the possibility of his interest in becoming the director of our office of public information. Actually, he is a little too young and inexperienced for the job, but he is an attractive and hard-driving man. I did have him meet most of the rest of the top staff so that we might be able to counsel together on his candidacy.9
Late in the afternoon Wernher von Braun and others gave me a briefing on their five-year funding plan for the Saturn vehicle. It turns out that it will cost about $1.8 billion. I am determined that these figures be known to all who may have anything to do with our budgetary operations. The briefing was a good one and I think these sessions incline the staff to recognize the deep concern it must have, along with me, for the validity of our planning.
Friday, October 21: Yesterday was the 351st monthly anniversary of our wedding and I brought home some Sweetheart roses for the queen of the household. How long I will be able to keep this up, I don't know. We started out the day with an 8:30 meeting with Jim Freeman of AT&T. He was delivering to me a memorandum from Jim Fisk detailing the plans for a communications satellite experiment by the Bell Laboratories. They seemed determined to get into this business and to pay their own way. This I applaud but I do find it a little difficult to deal with them on a piecemeal basis. I have asked Jim Fisk to give me the complete program plan by the laboratory so that we can do our planning in a sensible fashion.
At 9 o'clock, John Corson sat down with members of our business administration staff to review the first draft of the report on contracting. This will be a useful document. At 11, Clark Randt came in to express his regret at having blown up. Apparently, he will stay on with us - at least, he told Seamans that he would stay on for some period of time to see that the life sciences center at Ames is well-started. I gathered that he would continue to stay with us if the support he needs is forthcoming.10 At 11:30, Peter Murray of the Wright Air Development Division came in to have a visit and lunch. We had asked him to consider seriously [250] joining us as deputy to General Ostrander in the launch vehicle division. It is probable that Ostrander will stay with us somewhat less than a year, and thus we are looking for a good man to replace him. Murray seems to be such a man.11
At 1 o'clock, we started out on a rehearsal of the briefing to be given the President's Science Advisory Committee next week. This is intended to be a full disclosure of all of the programs that will use the Saturn and other high-thrust vehicles. It's the program that will run to $6 billion and maybe much more. I broke out of the meeting for a few minutes with Gil[bert Harrison] Clee [director] of the McKinsey Company. Gil had been active in the McKinsey study for Metro in Cleveland under my direction. The talk was an interesting one although I am not completely certain of its ultimate implications. Clee is a political scientist interested in management problems and economics problems in governmental areas of all kinds and sizes. Presently, he states that McKinsey has more business than it needs and is financially well-off. He and others in the McKinsey organization are now of the belief that their major clients are going to find the foreign field an increasingly difficult one within which to work. At the same time, he believes that our future is inextricably tied up with the development of less fortunate nations as effective economic and social units. He was offering me the opportunity to join McKinsey in any manner that I saw fit - no mention of money except to say that there would be no difficulty over that - to work at this sort of a problem at my own pace and in my own way. I told Clee about the discussions Ruth and I have been having with Jim Perkins of the Carnegie Corporation. All of this seemed to fit together rather well and it was agreed that we should have further discussions as my mind became more clear on these matters. Perhaps something will come of this interest in the foreign operations of the government before too many years have passed.
I waited around until 5:30 for John Rubel of the Defense Department so we might talk about the communications satellite problem. He is deputy to Herb York, who is not yet back on the job. Rubel is a good man although somewhat inexperienced in the in-fighting that must take place in government. We agreed on the need for meshing the DOD program with our own so that a clear delineation of fields of responsibilities would be evident to all concerned.
It has turned quite cold and Ruth and I found it chilly as we walked out a bit after dinner. Returning to the apartment, we listened to the fourth of the "Great Debates." Both of us felt that Kennedy was less self-assured than in the earlier debates. (This seems to be a subject on which one believes what he wants to believe for neither of us has been able to talk with anyone since the debate who would agree with us on this particular matter). Whatever may be said about the winner of each [251] of the debates, it seems clear that Kennedy has made an over-all gain out of this exercise. No longer is it possible for anyone to say that he is too young and immature for the task he will face as compared with Nixon. They stack up together as very able, well-informed and determined young men. I continue to believe that Kennedy does not recognize the difficulties of carrying out the kind of a program he is promising, nor does he seem to give evidence of understanding the economic problems into which he will drive the nation if he is able to carry out the liberal programs he has been discussing. I still expect to vote for Nixon.
Saturday, October 22: This was a relatively lazy day. I have been feeling a bit numb in the head these past several days so decided to give up any work for this day. The snow tires were put on the car, anti-freeze installed in the radiator, and then I watched the Notre Dame-Northwestern football game. At 7, Ruth and I joined John and Mrs. Corson for dinner. Among the guests were Larry Henderson, vice president of the Rand Corporation; Jim Webb, former director of the Bureau of the Budget under Truman; Bob Caulkins, director of the Brookings Institution; and Elmer Staats, deputy director of the Bureau of the Budget. Each was accompanied by his wife, of course. It was a good evening with some useful and pleasant discussion. A couple of the ladies seemed very much upset about the work of Albert Schweitzer. Just why they had this feeling is not clear but it soon became evident that the only one in the room who knew very much about Mr. Schweitzer was Ruth. I think we won the argument but I think the opposition remained unconvinced.12
Sunday, October 23: Up at 9:30 for a leisurely breakfast and then down to the office for two and a half hours with Homer Joe Stewart. He has been attempting to complete a revision of the ten-year plan. I found little with which to quarrel and so we agreed to reproduce this draft for discussion purposes. The budget for FY 1965 looks to be $350 million higher than it was in last year's version. Most of this is occasioned by the Saturn speed-up and because costs just seem to climb. The rest of the day was lazy and hopefully refreshing. Believe me, I am going to need a long rest when I finish this job.
Monday, October 24: Before entering anything more in this chronicle today, let me say something about some of the events of the past two or three weeks. It will be remembered that I made a speech in Portland setting forth my ideas on the policies government ought to follow in connection with the development of communications satellites for peaceful and commercial purposes. This was well received by the bulk of the press and I had no questions raised by anyone in the administration although I was reminded that the cabinet would want a briefing on [252] this particular problem. During the course of the past week, a letter came down from Lyndon Johnson on behalf of the Senate Space Committee asking a great many questions about this matter. These included a request for delineation of areas of responsibility in the active-repeater communications satellite field as between NASA and the Department of Defense. Further explanation of some of the phraseology used by me in the speech was requested. Questions were raised as to the nature of the decisions to be made with respect to support of privately-proposed satellite projects and the source of funding for these projects. Included was a question on the nature and means to be employed for international regulation in this field.
All of these are reasonable and good questions and I can just hope that they are meant to be helpful in clarifying for Congress this rather complex field of public policy. More likely than not, however, there will be an attempt to embarrass the administration in this matter. As an example, the question is asked, "To what extent does the proposal to make vehicles, launching and tracking facilities and technical services available to industry on a cost-reimbursable basis represent official executive branch policy? Has this been approved by higher authority?" We must do our best to answer these questions responsibly and effectively. It is the old story - no one makes progress without sticking out his neck. I don't expect that we have much to worry about in this situation, but I am reminded again of the effectiveness of the congressional committee staff operation in matters of this kind.
On Friday night, a letter came down from Lyndon Johnson asking for a summary report on Project Mercury with a discussion of any noteworthy problems that have arisen in the past few months and the steps being taken to meet them. Further, Lyndon wants a detailed schedule of all launching planned by NASA between now and the end of the calendar year with a clear indication as to whether any of these launchings will involve live passengers - animal or human. Surely he cannot want this information for anything other than political purposes - perhaps to reassure himself that the administration is not going to pull a fast one on him and make a significant launching just before the election. As it stands, we will make one launching before the election - unless it is delayed - but it is a relatively routine scientific satellite on an old-style launch vehicle.13 Thus is the political field being served in this political year.
Now, back to the work of the day. This was a rather full day with a meeting starting out at 9 o'clock with Hjornevik and Rosenthal on the budget. The boys have let this business get out of hand this year and we are in somewhat of a mess with the Budget Bureau. I hope we can retrieve our position before it becomes time for the final session with the director of the Bureau of the Budget but that remains to be [253] seen. At 10:30, a group came in to discuss policy matters in advance of a session I am to have with a writer for the Saturday Evening Post on Wednesday next. Mr. Spencer has seized this opportunity to write a think piece on the communications satellite business and wants information on policy formulation and operating aspects of this particular project. We spent an hour and a half on the subject. This would seem to indicate the rather complete and significant concern we have in attempting to unravel these particular policy issues.
I stayed at my desk for lunch in order that I could get on with some of the reading that I have not been able to do. A variety of people came in to see me but it wasn't until 2 o'clock that I was able to visit with John McKnight of the USIA. I have been trying to interest him in becoming the director of our office of public information but without success. At the same stand but one hour later, I visited with a Mr. Constantine who might be induced to come with us to handle our executive development problems. He seems a very sincere fellow and I think we must make every effort to get him to accept our offer.14 About 4 o'clock, I became a little bit concerned about the fact that the White House knows less about this communications satellite business than it should. I was able to reach Jerry Person and spent the better part of an hour bringing him up-to-date on my activities. There was no criticism made of our posture in this business and it was agreed that I should have a paper prepared for the cabinet by 11 November. I guess the important thing is to get on with the job - at least that's the way I'm going to play it.
At 6:30, I went to the British Embassy for a cocktail party in honor of the groups of Britishers who have come to this country to talk over communications satellite problems. It was not a particularly pleasant operation - I don't seem to enjoy these parties for I really have very little interest in getting to know the people concerned. It isn't like being part of an organization where you feel that your life is going to be inextricably involved with a particular group of people for a long time. Back home and a quick supper followed by an attempt to understand some of the budgetary materials I had brought home with me. Not being too successful, I turned to other reading material before going to bed.
Tuesday, October 25: The day started with a visit from Finlay Carter, president of the Stanford Research Institute. He was bringing to me a proposal given him some days ago by a man who suggests that the first use of communications satellites should be to link all of the U.N. capitols together in one great communications network. The suggestion is a naive one but does give an indication of the international value of some of these activities. I settled with Finlay the nature of the speech I will give in San Francisco next week. It shouldn't be too bad. [A while back] I asked John Rubel, deputy director of defense research and engineering, to accompany our top staff to the west coast where we will meet on Friday with the top people in the Ballistic Missile Division of the Air Force. Apparently, Rubel's being [254] in the office of the secretary of defense makes him suspect among his military colleagues. After much cogitation, I called him and rescinded my invitation telling him simply that it was the belief of members of the staff that Air Force personnel would not speak as freely to us about their plans and problems were he to be present. This is one hell of a way to run a railroad!
A visit from a Bureau of the Budget management review team at 11:30 occupied about 45 minutes of discussion. Periodically, these reviews attempt to make certain that agencies are using modern management methods and are working on programs to improve their management. In some ways, this is a thankless task but I do believe the present effort might produce some useful results. Today's meeting of the Federal Council on Science and Technology was interesting enough. Most of the time was given over to a discussion of the report we have all been putting together for the National Security Council. The first draft, which is an attempt to condense into 31 pages the material contained in 350 draft pages, is less than satisfactory for any purpose. More importantly, should this paper fall into the hands of a new Democratic administration, it would really cause a sensation. Actually, it is an attempt to identify areas of importance for study in the years ahead, but it could be shown to be a statement of the failure of this administration in most of the areas identified. Since there was considerable disagreement as to the present format, it was suggested that a revision be made. I countered by suggesting strongly that Gordon Gray of the National Security Council be asked to read it and indicate whether he wanted it revised. My best estimate on this one is that it ought to be put in the furnace. We will see what happens.
Back to the office to clean up the desk and get ready for the dinner in honor of Walt Whitman. During this interval, we settled on the complement of people to make the trip to the West Coast on Friday and on the agenda for that meeting. The dinner for Walt Whitman given in his honor by Det Bronk, president of the National Academy of Sciences, was indeed a delightful affair. The "Great Hall" of the National Academy's building is a very high-ceilinged and domed room about 50 feet on a side. A square table - that is, tables formed so as to make a hollow square, seemed quite festive. The food was excellent and beautifully served, and the wines were very good. The program was limited to several very short and amusing talks given as a sort of welcoming ceremony for Whitman, who is the new science advisor to the secretary of state. All-in-all, it was one of the best such affairs that I have ever attended. Back home at 11:15 and off to bed with a sleeping pill.
Wednesday, October 26: It was a little hard to get up this morning. Probably a combination of sleeping pill and just being tired out, but I finally made it. A British commission of some twelve people came in to spend the day with us to talk over the commercial satellite research development field. Obviously, they are somewhat bewildered by the present turn of events and are not quite sure of whether the AT&T or NASA is really running this program. I hope I cleared [up] their minds on this matter. They are to make a visit to a good many places in the country, and then will come back to us early in November for a final discussion. We [255] need very much to have them work with us since we need a terminal on that side of the ocean. At 10 o'clock, we started a full day's meeting with the space panel of the President's Science Advisory Committee. This was an exceedingly good session and the briefings had been very well prepared. Actually, Pat Hyland, president of Hughes Aircraft, said that this was the best organized [session] and best example of planning that he had seen in 15 years in the government. While this is probably an overstatement, it was satisfying to think that our efforts had been appreciated.
The briefing attempted to set forth all the programs that will use very large boosters, beginning with the Saturn class. It turns out that within the next ten years, we will spend at least $7 billion on vehicle development and on payloads and flight operations using this class of vehicles. There is really not much use doing this unless we are aiming at placing a man on the moon - a feat that everyone agrees will one day be accomplished. If we are to accomplish it, it appears that it will not be until some time in the mid-1970s, and our very wild estimates today would indicate a total cost for that particular exploit ranging from $14 to $35 billion. These are not decisions to be taken lightly.15 During the course of the morning, Bob McKinney came in to visit with me briefly. He has just completed a report on atomic energy matters in Western Europe for the Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy. He is an out-and-out Democrat and manages to know where some few of the bodies are buried. It is not clear to me, however, just how much weight he does pull within party circles. I worked with him on the McKinney panel on peaceful use of atomic energy back in 1955 and came to like him very much. He told me today that John McCone was complaining we were pricing the Rover program so high that it would naturally be killed. If this is a true report, it is about time that I had another argument with John McCone. I guess I really don't understand this man.
At 12:30, we entertained the British group for lunch at the Mayflower - a pleasant affair. I left the space panel briefing a little bit early to visit with Donald Douglas, president of Douglas Aircraft. He brought me a gold-plated model of the Thor-Agena launch vehicle. This is a replica of the vehicle that was used for the 100th launching of a Thor rocket - the one that carried Discoverer XV into orbit a few weeks ago.16 Douglas also wanted to know how his firm could get more business. At 5:15, Louis Dunn came in to ask about the same problem. His firm [Ramo-Wooldridge's Space Technology Laboratories] has been identified with systems management for so long that it wants very badly to have a "hardware" [256] contract. I told him if Atlas-Able V was a success, I doubted he would have to worry much about additional business.17 Off to the Washington Hotel to look in briefly at a cocktail party for Walt Bonney given by the Air Force Association.
Thursday, October 27: In yesterday's chronicle, I should have said that we have been "stewing" for the last two or three days over the proper kind of response to make to Lyndon Johnson on his request for information about our flight program and about the Mercury Project. We have decided to play this in a low key, offering to give him a much more complete study of the Mercury Project within the next two or three weeks. This will place the report in his hands after the election and thus prevent him from doing anything with it as a piece of campaign material. The schedules we are giving him will relieve his mind as to any possibility that the administration is planning some startling space shot as a clincher on the campaign arguments over the character and quality of the nation's space program. As I said to George Kistiakowsky today, "I'm not sure whether we are political scientists or scientific politicians."
The staff meeting today was a rather good one. Ray Einhorn, head of our audit division, gave a 30-minute discussion of the activities of his relatively small group of 17 people. It is an internal auditing organization - that is, it takes various aspects of our work and audits the methods, procedures, accuracy and validity of any particular area. The General Accounting Office, the watchdog over the executive branch that is responsible to Congress, probably has three or four times that number of auditors constantly working in our various offices and field centers. The discussion ran on so long that I had only a few minutes to visit with Henry Herzig of Dresser Industries in Dallas. He wanted the usual information about contracting, but I am afraid I was not as cordial as I might have been.
At 11 o'clock, Jim Fisk, president of Bell Laboratories and George Best, vice president of AT&T, came in to talk about the interests of the laboratories and the telephone company in communications satellites. This is the third or fourth such meeting, but this time I had asked Jim to set out in writing a program the telephone company would propose to undertake. This came to us on Monday and we were able to get it priced so that we could discuss rather frankly and factually the costs and probable schedules if the program were to be undertaken. Assisting me were Bob Nunn, Leonard Jaffe, Hugh Dryden, Bob Seamans and one or two others. It continues to be clear that the telephone company wants to go ahead with a program of this kind, but it is just as clear that it really doesn't understand the complexity, the costs, and the long lead time necessary to acquire a place on one of the firing [257] schedules and on the launch vehicle required. We continued our discussion through lunch and agreed to set up working groups in each organization that might meet together on occasion to be helpful to one another as the telephone company attempts to revise its thinking. We made it very clear to them that others were involved in this program and we proposed to move forward without further delay. This does not mean that their shots will be delayed themselves - rather, they will fit into the ongoing program at some proper point in the future.
Back at 1:30 for a presentation on the need for another Atlas launch pad at the Atlantic Missile Range. This is a critical situation. We have no back-up pad for Mercury or Centaur. The Air Force and NASA will use these pads jointly, and we agreed, therefore, to split the cost and to modify existing facilities so that we would have emergency capabilities available for each program. At 2 o'clock, Steven Spencer of the Saturday Evening Post came in to talk with me. Apparently, he has been writing an article on the communications satellite and had already talked to a great many of our people and some of the contractors such as telephone company people. I chatted with him for a time and found him a reasonable person although every once in a while he would strike out on some tack that gave evidence of a background of newspaper reporting. It will be interesting to see how his article comes out.
At 2:30, Siepert and Hjornevik came in to review the headquarters budget for FY 1962 as well as some of the allocations yet to be made in the FY 1961 budget. This was not too bad and I think we did a reasonable job for all concerned. Of course, no one will be satisfied. Immediately following this discussion, the group going to the coast tomorrow came in and we reviewed the agenda we will follow in our discussions with the Air Force people at the Ballistic Missile Division in Los Angeles. I got away as quickly as I could to prepare for the white tie dinner being given by the premier of Malaya for Secretary of State Christian Herter. This was not a particularly large party and Ruth and I found ourselves knowing only a relatively few people who were present. I took the wife of George Allen, head of the USIA, as my dinner partner. I doubt that the conversation could have been characterized as scintillating. Ruth was squired by General Lemnitzer, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a really fine person. Fortunately, Jim Douglas, deputy secretary of defense and Mrs. Lemnitzer were seated across the table from me and thus I had a pretty good evening. After dinner, the premier read a short tribute to the United States in relatively good English and toasted the president. A response by Chris Herter and a toast to the Supreme Being in Malaya ended the formal part of the festivities. We stood around for a time having coffee and a liqueur and I had a chance to talk very briefly with Chris Herter.
Our Atlas-Able V, it will be remembered, failed to go into orbit.18 The second stage actually broke up over Africa and some pieces apparently landed in or near Pretoria, the capitol of the Union of South Africa. It appears that these are pieces of the second stage and it would appear, also, that they did not burn up [258] because the stage had not achieved a sufficiently high velocity to cause vaporization of the material. We have been somewhat apprehensive of international incidents of this kind, and I spoke to Chris in an apologetic way. He said very promptly, "Go right ahead with your program. We will take care of any of the problems that arise. Don't worry about it at all." I was very much pleased at this statement but must admit to being somewhat startled by hearing Chris speak so positively.
Friday, October 28: Up at 6:15 in order to be on my way by 6:45 for a date at Andrews Air Force Base at 7:30. Eight or nine of us came together with General Schriever, commander of the Air Research and Development Command, and four or five of his people for a trip to Los Angeles where we planned a one-day conference. A lot of additional Air Force people went along for the ride - at least, they were not involved in our activities. We were in an Air Force 707 and took off promptly at 8 o'clock, arriving in Los Angeles at 9:15 Pacific Coast time - there is a four hour time change because we are still on daylight saving time in the east. We went right into conference and stayed with it throughout the day. I had wanted a briefing on the Discoverer series so that we might learn something of the problems they had encountered and the solutions they had found for these problems. Further there were other programs about which our top people have little or no knowledge and I wanted to get as much of this information as we might be able to get from the Air Force. Then there were several "interface" problems between NASA and the Air Force that I think must be talked out at the highest level. Actually, two or three of these evaporated almost immediately when they were brought up, by reason of the fact that both General Schriever and I could speak with finality in suggesting solutions. There just is no question but that these two organizations must learn to live with each other and to exchange information and cooperate effectively if we are to have any peace from the congressional committees. Even though we are able to work together, it is not clear that we will have that kind of peace, but at least we can try.
At 4:15, we gave up and headed back for the aircraft. We were airborne at 5:05 and touched down at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington at 1:45 on Saturday morning. Thus we had flown almost 6,000 miles, worked for four hours on the aircraft on the way out and somewhat more than eight hours in Los Angeles - all in one day. It is a crazy world!
Saturday, October 29: Polly had come down from Swarthmore yesterday afternoon so that I was pleased to see her this morning. She helped to make breakfast and we have been very leisurely in our activities today. I am still recovering from the lack of sleep and the pace of yesterday. We did go to Sunrise at Campobello, which I thought was quite good but for which I was not quite in the mood.19 Tonight, [259] I am taking Polly to Costin's for roast beef. Then I hope to get into bed and get some more sleep.
Sunday, October 30: It was a good dinner and I think Polly enjoyed it. This day started out as a pleasant one - a day of rest - but it wound up as a day of work. Polly was studying a good bit and seemed anxious to convince us that this was a necessary part of her life on the weekends. I worked some in the morning and then helped Ruth prepare for a brunch at which we had Mr. and Mrs. Richard Scammon as our guests. Dick is a member of the staff of the Governmental Affairs Institute, a non-profit institution dealing in the matters its name would indicate.20 Dick's particular specialty is election research. He has been an observer at elections in Israel, West Germany, Russia, etc. He is a Democrat - through and through - always on the attack. It was a right pleasant luncheon - one of Ruth's best - and the conversation was brisk and interesting. He was convinced that Kennedy would win although not by a very large margin.21
They left at 2:30 and Bonney came in at 3 o'clock to tell me that Astronaut Donald ["Deke"] Slayton was to have a gall bladder taken out within the week. We agreed on a very casual press release in order to play down the incident. At 4:30, Dr. Mesthene came in to have a drink and to talk over the report he has been preparing for the National Security Council. This is a compendium made up of ten or twelve reports prepared by agencies such as our own. I think ours has been judged the best of the lot but that is scant praise, in my opinion. Mesthene is a discouraged social scientist, a member of the staff of Rand and seemingly a good man.
Thus it goes - a day of rest becomes a day of relatively frenzied activity!
Monday, October 31: At 8:15, I received a quick briefing on the new things that have been happening at Huntsville and Cape Canaveral in anticipation of my trip to those locations tomorrow and Wednesday. Immediately thereafter, we started in on a program review of Project Mercury. This took all day and turned up lots of problems, but it is quite apparent that we have a good crew on this project and they are on top of those problems. Some of them may not respond to the kind of treatment we are able to give them but it will not be for want of trying. It appears that we may be able to fire two shots on 7 November - the day before election.22 One of these will be a test shot from Wallops Island and the other a Mercury-Redstone [260] shot from Cape Canaveral.23 Already, we are being accused of scheduling these two shots in order to influence the election - how silly can they be!
I had lunch with General Ostrander to settle my plans about Abe Hyatt. We then went back to the Mercury Project briefing which continued until 4:45 when Dryden, Seamans, Silverstein and I decided that we had better get going on the communications satellite program. Getting going, in this case, means determining that the Space Technology Laboratories will serve as our systems contractor and will manage the spacecraft contractor to be selected after a competition. At 5:30, Dr. J. M. English of UCLA came in to tell me about the course his university is preparing for engineering executives. Really what he wanted to do was to find out whether or not NASA would be interested in providing funds for UCLA. The weather has turned bad. We may have difficulty in making our schedule for tomorrow's trip. After much telephoning, it developed that the IBM plane would take off from New York at 7 o'clock in the morning, thus delaying us on the departure from Washington, but it is the best that can be done. I reached Fred Crawford and Ward Canaday and arranged to have breakfast with them.24
1. According to the NASA Pocket Statistics for December 1961, research and development (R&D) funding for the Centaur increased from $4 million in FY 1959 to $36.64 million in FY 1960 and $62.58 million in FY 1961. Direct R&D obligations for the Centaur reached their high point in 1964 with $108.3 million and totalled $543.3 million by 1968, when the annual R&D obligations had fallen to $100,000. (NASA Historical Data Book, Vol. I, p. 152.)
2. On 15 May 1960 the U.S.S.R. had launched Spacecraft I into orbit. It weighed 10,000 pounds and marked the first successful effort to orbit a vehicle large enough to contain a human passenger, although efforts to recover the space capsule were not successful. The cabin contained a "dummy space man" and tested life support systems. (Emme, Aeronautics and Astronautics . . . 1915-1960, pp. 123, 147.) Of course, on 12 April 1961 the Soviets succeeded in placing Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin in orbit on Vostok I and returning him safely to earth. (Roger Bilstein, Orders of Magnitude: A History of the NACA and NASA, 1915-1990 [Washington, DC: NASA SP-4406, 1989], p. 57.)
3. In fact, the Soviets seem not to have launched any satellites in October 1960.
4. This was a 500-pound communications satellite to test the feasibility of global communications using delayed repeater transmitters. The satellite successfully transmitted and received signals. (Emme, Aeronautics and Astronautics . . . 1915-1960, p. 150.)
5. This was the second complete Scout launch and the first to reach its predicted 3,500-mile altitude and 5,800-mile impact range. The launch occurred at Wallops. The first complete launch from Wallops on 1 July 1960 was marred by failure of the fourth stage to operate properly. (Ibid., pp. 124, 128.)
6. The book in question was entitled Countdown for Decision (New York: Putnam, 1960).
7. She was the vice chair of the U.S. Civil Service Commission, which was chaired by Roger W. Jones.
8. This figure was, in fact, the contract estimate.
9. Davey apparently never came to work for NASA. On 15 November 1960 Shelby Thompson assumed the acting directorship of NASA's office of public information in addition to his job as director of the office of technical information and educational programs. O. B. Lloyd became director of public information on 10 February 1961 after having worked for United Press International from 1946-1959 and then joined the Washington staff of Senator Lyndon B. Johnson, who of course became vice president in January 1961. (See the biographical files of both Thompson and Lloyd in the NASA Historical Reference Collection.) For an interesting perspective on the history of public relations in NASA from its beginnings through 1986, see Bruce V. Lewenstein, "NASA and the Public Understanding of Space Science," Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, Vol. 46 (1993): 251-254.
10. NASA did establish a small research facility for life sciences at Ames in February 1961, but plans for a larger facility never materialized. Randt resigned from NASA effective 1 April 1961, and the headquarters office was realigned in a reorganization on 1 November 1961, becoming a subordinate organization called bioscience programs within the office of space sciences when it had been an independent office with its director reporting to the associate administrator. (Rosholt, Administrative History of NASA, pp. 127, 344ff.)
11. Murray apparently never came to work for NASA. General Ostrander left NASA in August 1961 to become vice commander of the Ballistic Systems Division within Air Force Systems Command. His replacement was Thomas F. Dixon, who became director of launch vehicle programs on 18 September 1961. ("Thomas F. Dixon," biographical file, NASA Historical Reference Collection.) Two months later, the office of launch vehicle programs was abolished in a reorganization and scattered among four new program offices. See Rosholt, Administrative History of NASA, pp. 221, 224.
12. Webb, of course, became Glennan's successor as NASA administrator. As is well-known, Schweitzer (1875-1965) was a physician of humanitarian sentiment from Alsace as well as a theologian, philosopher, and musical scholar. He had set up a medical mission in Lambaréné, French Equatorial Africa (later Gabon) and preached a reverence for life that formed the basis for his humanitarian efforts. He received the Nobel Peace Prize for 1952, and his address on the occasion, published in English translation (from the German) as The Problem of Peace in the World Today (1954) had a worldwide circulation.
13. This, presumably, refers to the launch of Explorer VIII by a four-stage Juno II launch vehicle on 3 November 1960. The satellite contained instrumentation for detailed measurements of the ionosphere, which it provided until 27 December 1960, when the transmitter ceased functioning. (Emme, Aeronautics and Astronautics . . . 1915-1960, pp. 130, 150.) On Juno II, see note 2 of Chapter Nine.
14. No one by the name of Constantine appears in the NASA Headquarters telephone directories for the end of 1960 and the beginning of 1961. On the public information position, see note 9.
15. As everyone knows, Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr. landed on the moon on 20 July 1969 as part of the Apollo 11 mission, but this feat would not have been achieved so soon without President Kennedy's decision in May 1961 to land a man on the moon within a decade.
16 A Thor-Agena launch vehicle delivered Discoverer XV - a DOD satellite - into polar orbit on 13 September 1960. Its purpose was stated at the time as being to gather data on propulsion, communications, orbital performance, stabilization, and recovery techniques. Rough seas precluded recovery of the capsule from the ocean south of Hawaii on 15 September 1960. (Emme, Aeronautics and Astronautics . . . 1915-1960, pp. 127, 149.) For the then-classified goals of the Discoverer program, see note 9, Chapter Nine.
17. The Able designation referred to a series of upper stages built by Space Technology Laboratories and derived from the Vanguard launch vehicle. There were four launches of the Able upper stages used in conjunction with the Atlas first stage, the last two of which bore the Able V designation. All four were unsuccessful, with the last one occurring on 15 December 1960. As a result, the Atlas-Able vehicle was retired without a successful launch. There had also been three earlier failures of the Thor-Able combination, but this vehicle also enjoyed some successes, including the launches of Pioneer 5 and Tiros I. See NASA Historical Data Book, Vol. II, pp. 34-35, 72-73; U.S. Congress, House Committee on Science and Astronautics, A Chronology of Missile and Astronautic Events, prepared by Dr. Charles S. Sheldon, II (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1961), pp. 137, 164.
18. This was the intended launch of a Pioneer lunar probe on 25 September 1960.
19. Presumably this was the Warner Brothers movie written and produced by Dore Schary but possibly his play, upon which the movie was based. Both covered the story of Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his family during 1921-1924.
20. Presumably this was Richard Montgomery Scammon.
21. This prediction, of course, was accurate. Although Kennedy won handily in the electoral college by 303 to 219 electoral votes, the popular vote gave him only a very narrow victory over Vice President Nixon, 34,221,531 to 34,108,474, by one tally.
22. There apparently were no launches on 7 November, but on 8 November a Little Joe 5, the first of a series carrying McDonnell production spacecraft for Project Mercury, launched from Wallops to check out the spacecraft in an abort that simulated the most severe anticipated launch conditions. Following a normal initial launch, the escape rocket motor ignited prematurely and the spacecraft failed to detach from the launch vehicle. It was destroyed upon impact. (James M. Grimwood, Project Mercury: A Chronology [Washington, D.C.: NASA SP-4001, 1963], p. 117.)
23. The Mercury-Redstone flight test at the Atlantic Missile Range was attempted on 21 November but had to be terminated before liftoff because of faulty ground-support circuitry. The launch occurred on 19 December 1960, when a modified Redstone booster launched an unmanned spacecraft in a suborbital trajectory. It impacted 235 miles downrange, having reached an altitude of 165 miles and a speed of almost 4,200 miles per hour. (Emme, Aeronautics and Astronautics . . . 1915-1960, pp. 131, 134.)