[60] Monday, February 1: The day started off at 8:45 with a meeting at the White House in which Dryden, Horner and I participated with General Persons, General Goodpaster and Staats. We came to an immediate agreement on the $113 million as an added amount for our budget for FY 1961. This amount is to be spent on the super booster program. In order to make the most of this before von Braun testifies on the morrow, I suggested that we get a press release out immediately. The president being at Palm Springs about to take off for Denver, General Persons called him at 6:15 California time and secured his approval to the amount requested and made arrangements for Jim Haggerty to release the information at Denver. This was done.
Hurrying to the Capitol, we appeared before the House subcommittee on deficiency appropriations chaired by Albert Thomas. A 2-hour hearing on our $23 million supplemental appropriation for FY 1960 went fairly well. Thomas questioned us very closely on personnel and listened to the rest of the presentation. I doubt we will have very much trouble although he may try to do something with the personnel ceilings.
Back to the office and a hurried lunch at the White House mess with Dryden. Then a meeting with Wernher von Braun and Dr. Ernst Stuhlinger of the Huntsville Center. General Ostrander, von Braun's superior, was in attendance. I hope we answered their questions about additional money for the support of research in a satisfactory manner. It is truly amazing how easily one can throw millions and millions of dollars around in this business.
A visit with Julian Bartolini of the "American Forum of the Air" resulted in my agreement to go on that medium with one of the members of Congress on 11 March.1 A little later, Mr. Strong of the CIA briefed Dryden and myself on some of the recent Russian shots. The rest of the day was taken up with visits to Congressmen Tiger Teague of Texas and Bernard Sisk of California. Both had given me a going over in the "executive privilege" discussions and I wanted to check out with them the seriousness of their views in this matter. Both had been most helpful to me in the past. Teague stated that I was wrong in continuing to withhold the statements of opinion by my subordinates. On the other hand, Sisk, who had started the whole darned thing, stated that he was a little sorry he had started it. He [61] pledged his undying support for me and the program but hoped that we could find a way around the "executive privilege" problem. Such is life!
A black tie dinner at the Norwegian Embassy with Ambassador Koht and his wife at eight o'clock in honor of Senator and Mrs. Fulbright turned out to be a very pleasant affair. Walter Lippmann and his wife were there as were a few others I had known. The only other congressman was Senator Karl Mundt and his wife. It turned out to be a very pleasant evening; I would like to know the ambassador better.
Tuesday, February 2: The day started with an hour and a half in the dentist's chair. The two inlays are now prepared and the bridge is about to be made. Otherwise, this was one of the better days. I saw Senator Sparkman and Congressman Jim Quigley - the former about his attitude on the transfer of ABMA, which I found to be favorable, and the latter about the executive privilege matter on which we had an interesting conversation. Quigley proposes that I offer to give these two reports to the committee without admitting that they should have them and without admitting that they will get any more of them. The idea is simply to clear the record for the present. An interesting idea; I wonder who put it in his mind?
I had a lunch brought into the office for John Johnson, Dryden, Horner, Siepert and myself. We discussed the desirability of two studies, of our contracting procedures in an attempt to develop a really useful improvement in the government's contracting procedures with industry and of our organizational structure. All concerned contributed well to the discussion and we agreed to go ahead with the studies. Later in the day, I talked with John Corson of McKinsey and Company to get these projects underway.
Wednesday, February 3: This was another of those days. Dryden, Gleason, Horner and I gathered together at 8:15 to discuss the order of battle for the hearings, now being held by the Senate Preparedness Committee combined with the Senate Committee on Aeronautics and Science. The upshot was that Glennan would "be on the pan" for both the Senate Preparedness Committee and for the Senate subcommittee on space when we present our 1961 budget request. Gleason suggested an executive session for briefing the appropriations committees of both the House and the Senate on the Kisti Report on U.S.-U.S.S.R. standings.2 Believe me, the long shadow of the Pope is cast in each of these sessions.
At 10:00, a large group gathered in my office to discuss the executive privilege matter. I was to see the comptroller general, Joe Campbell, at 11:00. The discussion makes one wonder how long a government of this sort can keep its head above water. I have followed the recommendations of my advisors throughout in this case until, indeed, 10 days ago when they wanted to throw in the sponge. If we were going to do that we should have started that way - not carried out a gambit that must ultimately lose for us. I have stated that I am going to fight this out or give in completely - not adopt any halfway measures.
[62] The visit with Joe Campbell and his general counsel, Mr. Keller, was indecisive. Campbell wants to think the matter over - he seemed to be cognizant of the problems that face anybody in an organizational sense but, of course, his own problems of serving the Congress in an auditing sense must come first. I showed him all of the documents, which he, through his organization, had stated he must have in order to assure Congress that our contracting efforts were sound and reasonable. He showed some understanding of our problem regarding possible injury to companies if frank comments were allowed to be published without good reason. We discussed methods of evasion of the GAO regulations or audits and all agreed that these could be devised. None of this appeals to me however. At the end of an hour, Joe asked for a further discussion of the matter. I had a lunch engagement with Senator Clinton Anderson of New Mexico. A mixup found me waiting in the lunchroom for an hour while he waited in his office for an hour. We managed to get together for a few minutes and I was able to tell him a little bit about our proposed changes in the statute. On the other hand, and before I could get my oar in, he had told me about his concern over Project Rover.3 He asked that I get together with John McCone to see if we couldn't get the money back into the project.
I then made a beeline for the old House office building to see Representative Ben Jensen of Iowa. I got there just in time to flag down his administrative assistant and return to the Capitol where I had 10 minutes with Jensen. My purpose was to try and get him to understand why we needed additional personnel to manage this larger responsibility we have taken on in the last several months. As the author of the Jensen rider, which is intended to prevent undue enlargement of the federal payroll, he saw this as "carrying coals to Newcastle." However, because I had taken the trouble to come up and see him, he promised to look with favor upon our request. Inevitably, he asked for my consideration in providing a job for the son of one of his constituents who wanted to take a law degree at George Washington. It seems almost to be a quid pro quo.
Back to the White House for a meeting with the attorney general, representatives of the Department of Defense, the president's staff, the Budget Bureau and NASA on this matter of executive privilege. I was the only nonlawyer among a group of 11 people. Everybody applauded my stalwart stand and said "keep it up." This sounds a lot easier than it really is. However, there is a real principle involved and I think I will play out the string. When I returned to the office I found that Joe Campbell had called me back and was attempting to find a way to forestall further unpleasantry. He had suggested that his organization did not want to keep our papers but simply to see them. Maybe there is a way out of this thing yet.
[63] Back up to the Capitol again to see Senator Clifford Case and Senator Cannon. I waited for half an hour to see Senator Case, who is really a fine person. He is a Republican who must run for office this fall again. He is most sympathetic to our problems and has always been willing to help. He is not really a leader, however. Senator Cannon was still in an executive session of the Senate Committee on Astronomics and Science, so I did not get a chance to see him. I left about 6:15 with the understanding that I would get back to him another day.
Thursday, February 4: The staff meeting this morning went well. There were many items to be discussed and the participation was exceptionally good. At 10:00 we started in on a discussion of the planning of spacecraft or payloads for the very large boosters we are undertaking to develop. The addition of $113 million to our FY 1961 budget request means that we must take a look at the requirements for additional monies for FY 1962 and later so we will have adequate payloads ready. The lead time on these payloads is anywhere from 2.5 to 3.5 years. This means that money must be available a long time in advance.
We stayed in for lunch with Dryden, Horner, Johnson and Frutkin. We were discussing proposed disarmament maneuvers in which the space business might well be involved. Again, it was a useful discussion. At 2:00, Dr. Kety, Dr. Morison, Dryden, Horner and Phillips sat with me to discuss the recommendations of our bio-science committee on the selection of a director for the proposed bio-science division. It was a frank, dispassionate discussion and I think a very helpful one. We decided to move forward immediately with the letting of certain research grants and move as fast as possible in the search for the director of the proposed division.4
Friday, February 5: This was not one of the better days. I didn't seem to be able to get up much steam. A 10:30 meeting with Joe Campbell, comptroller general and his general counsel, Keller, found John Johnson and myself repeating for an hour the absurdity of the report the GAO had rendered to the House Committee on Science and Astronomics. Unfortunately, the report has been in the hands of the House committee for a long time and it is very hard for the GAO to retract or to say that it really didn't mean what it said. In the meantime, NASA suffers a blot on its escutcheon that it really doesn't deserve. The matter was left for Campbell to worry about and I don't know what he will do about it.
Tom Morrow of Chrysler Corporation came in to say how much his company wanted to win the competition for the S-4 stage for Saturn.5 He is a very smooth article. He did report that the ABMA team in Huntsville seems much more [64] relaxed than it has been during the past seven years when he has had knowledge of them. If this is true, it is good news, indeed.
Saturday, February 6: The entire day was spent in attempting to prepare a statement for the hearings before the Senate committee. I have not been notified of the time of my interrogation but I suspect it must be within the next few days.
Sunday, February 7: Again, the entire day at home working on the statement. It has finally turned out to be 22 pages, handwritten and covering the gamut of our activities and plans. I hope the staff feels it a good statement; I find I lose my critical powers as I keep working on these papers.
Monday, February 8: The staff session at 8:30 had nothing unusual to offer. Peter Chew came in at 11:00 to talk over the statement I wrote over the weekend. I had read the statement to Dryden and Horner and had received general approbation on the tone and content. Chew will put it into final shape and check out the technical and statistical details with the proper people. More discussion of the ABMA situation by General Ostrander resulted in the report that they really needed more manpower in Huntsville. It is quite a task to stick to one's guns on matters of this kind. I don't believe that the von Braun group has ever had to face up to top-quality management. I am going to stick to my guns until I am proven wrong.
Up to the Hill at 4:30 to see Congressman Karth. He could not say enough in praise of my activities and NASA's program. He regretted exceedingly the inquisition on Friday last but said he guessed these things had to happen. No question about his support. Over to the office of Congressman Daddario, another Democrat. This was a more profound discussion. Daddario feels that NASA should have the entire responsibility for both military and civilian space. I hope I convinced him that we had all we could handle at the present time and that it was unlikely the military would agree to such a drastic change. I pointed out that one moved slowly in these matters if one wanted to move with assurance. It wound up with a protestation on the part of the congressman indicating his approval of our activities.
Tuesday, February 9: This was the morning! Dr. Brushart finally installed the new bridge. It is really a work of art, a true engineering masterpiece. I must say that I was nervous and fidgety before the two hours had passed. Today marks a high-water mark in the matter of supporting the congressmen in their home districts. I recorded three 15-minute television interviews - one with Congressman Westland of Washington State, a second with Congressman Osmers of New Jersey and the third with Congressman Belcher of Oklahoma. The same old questions deserved and got the same old answers.
Lunch with Senator Stephen Young of Ohio was a rather strange experience. Senator Young is a dedicated and restless man of 69 years. He seems ill at ease and a bit flighty to me. It is plain that he knows his own mind although I think he has difficulty expressing himself sensibly at times. He expressed great interest in our program - he is on the Senate committee - and I feel rather certain that we can count on him for further support. This might be called the day of "politicking" by the administrator.
Back to the office for a discussion with Frank Phillips. I am asking him to come into the office with me as my assistant. He is an able fellow and I am sure will do an even better job than did Hjornevik.
[65] A meeting at 3:00 on the nuclear rocket - Rover - program was attended by Dryden, Horner, Ostrander, Finger and Rosen. The problem is one of making certain we know where we stand with respect to the Atomic Energy Commission. The AEC is developing the reactor while NASA is responsible for the engine, pump and other flight articles. We decided we must meet with the Commission to clarify our position before we appear before the Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy on Monday next.
Wednesday, February 10: At 9:00, Dr. Clark Randt came in for an hour's discussion of his interest in heading the proposed NASA program in biosciences. Randt is a rather attractive and very positive young man who seems to know what he wants and how to go about getting it. I am of the opinion that he would make a good head for this activity, and it is clear that he wants to have the opportunity. He has had a year of exposure to the space business and, if he wants to stay with it as he says he does, I am going to recommend that he get the job.
Lunch with Admiral Rawson Bennett, which is always a pleasant affair. We discussed the report on the biosciences - I guess I should call it the life sciences. Rawson advised care in breaking the news to the service laboratories concerned with biomedical work. The rest of the afternoon was spent in the usual discussions and wound up at 4:00 with a visit to the AEC for a discussion with Commissioner John Floberg and the general manager, General Luedecke. We came to an agreement that we could indicate our support of a technologically sound program that matched up fairly well with the one originally proposed to the Bureau of the Budget. The Bureau of the Budget had cut the request and the AEC is now attempting to have the cut restored. This promises to be an interesting exercise, for Senator Clinton Anderson is calling the shots!
Thursday, February 11: A pleasant breakfast with John [Hrones, who had arrived the previous night on business for Case] and Ruth and much useful discussion. The staff meeting brought nothing exceptionally new and no real problems. I had a discussion with Dr. Robert Morison who is another possible candidate for the directorship of the division of life sciences. He is a rather quiet man - somewhat different from the picture given to me by Dr. Kety when he described Morison to me. We spent almost an hour together. I doubt that he has the leadership and drive to do the job. It may be that I was conditioned against him by the discussions with Kety and his committee, but Morison does not appear to me to have the quality required for this job.
A lunch with Roger Jones, chairman of the Civil Service Commission. We discussed all sorts of matters relating to the activities of the Civil Service Commission and some of the nonsensical routines and requirements that guide and guard the employees of the federal government. The highlight of the day was a visit extending over a period of an hour and a half with John McCormack of Massachusetts. John was a particularly sharp questioner in the hearings last Friday. We got off to a good start by discussing our wives and families. I described some of the activities of my children, all of which pleased him very much. We got into a discussion of the law [66] changes and clarified a few points. We moved over to a discussion of executive privilege. I told him that I had been in sessions with Joe Campbell, the comptroller general, and had come to no satisfactory conclusion. I did say that we had worked out a method I felt sure would avoid the issue in the future. McCormack, much to my surprise, said that he would have done exactly as I had. I must not, said he, worry about the sharpness of the questioning. It reminded me of the announcer on "Meet the Press," who says "the questions do not necessarily reveal the interests or convictions of the questioner - it is just their way of getting a story." I wound up the session by suggesting that this was a hell of a time to give me this advice. In any event, before I left McCormack's office I was able to get him to call Congressman Albert Thomas in an attempt to speed up consideration by the full Appropriations Committee of our $23 million, FY 1960 supplemental bill. What will come of this, I have no idea. It was an interesting and instructive afternoon.
A call from General Persons conveyed to me the concern of the White House staff over the letter I had sent to the Bureau of the Budget with a copy to the Atomic Energy Commission. This letter simply said that we believed that the Rover project should be prosecuted at a technologically sound level and that we felt the program originally submitted by the AEC to the Bureau of the Budget was such a program. We very carefully avoided saying that the Bureau of the Budget should supply the extra funds needed. It is not our business to do so and, besides, the AEC has plenty of money - it should just learn how to reprogram as we have to do. I hope to get out of this argument with a whole skin, but it is interesting that we are arrayed against the AEC, the Bureau of the Budget, the White House, and Senator Anderson at one time or another. It will be a real feat if we manage to escape some kind of injury.
Friday, February 12: This day started with an interesting discussion on NASA's activities in the atomic field. We have a test reactor - a rather powerful one - at the Plumbrook Ordnance site near Sandusky, Ohio. It was built by the NACA some years ago for research and development work in connection with the Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion Project. A good many millions of dollars have gone into this facility, and it is a good one but it is not clear that there is much point in pursuing further the aircraft nuclear propulsion research - enough of that is going on elsewhere. In any event, Dryden, Horner, Golovin, Abbott, Conlon and one or two others had debated for an hour the nature and extent of the work that should be undertaken by NASA in support of nuclear propulsion for rockets. In this situation, it is clear that we can come in conflict with the AEC, which has tended to have a monopoly on research work in the reactor field. We did not settle the question but have set up a meeting on 24 February for a full dress debate with the Atomic Energy Commission. My contribution this morning was to suggest that we form a joint steering committee to determine how to divide the work in accordance with the capabilities of each.
Lunch at 12:30 with about twenty top correspondents and columnists. I discussed principally the differences between the adequacy of our missiles when used as missiles and their effectiveness when [67] used as part of a launch vehicle system. There is the ever-present conviction on the part of a great many people that the Russians' great ability in hitting the moon, taking a picture of the back side of the moon, etc, is a measure of the effectiveness and accuracy of their missiles when used to attack a target thousands of miles away with a nuclear warhead. I think this is a reasonable extrapolation of potential effectiveness. The reverse is not true as many people would like to think it is. In other words, the fact that we have not been able to hit the moon or do some of the very spectacular stunts with our space launch vehicles is not to be taken as an indication that our missiles, when used as missiles carrying nuclear warheads, are not equally effective as the Russians' and able to do the damage we have estimated needs to be done in order to win in any serious altercation. It took me quite a while to get this point across. Actually, just before we broke up, one member of the group came back with a question that indicated he obviously had not understood. I went through it once again and was gratified to find that they were happy at having the review.
In addition, I discussed some aspects of our long-range program, the proposed changes in the law and the reasons for those changes, the transfer of von Braun and his team and the progress to be made on Saturn. As one might expect, the questioning, which was very sharp and at times difficult to handle, ran to the comparisons to be made between the Russian program and progress and ours. Obviously, 90 percent of the top correspondents and columnists in this town - and maybe the country - are solidly in the camp of spending more money, entering upon crash programs, and beating the Russians in space. They are not willing to recognize the fact that new technologies take time, which cannot be shortened merely by the application of money. I pointed out that our acceleration of Saturn by reason of the $100 million added to the budget for FY 1961 would be by about one year in four and a half. I said that the expenditure of an additional $1 billion as of the present time would probably not gain an additional four months although it obviously would provide additional assurance that the device would work at the appointed time for final test. This would come about because of the ability to make many more tests and to plan alternative methods of accomplishing tasks within certain of the sub-systems in the device.
Back to the office at 2:30 and busy for the balance of the afternoon - until 6:00 with Dryden, Horner and Frank Phillips. We discussed a variety of matters. Among these were the guidelines to be sent to our field stations in order that they may prepare their FY 1962 budgets.
Saturday, February 13: A day at home, most of it spent working on a variety of papers for both Case and NASA. We wound up the day with a visit for dinner with Senator Hartke of Indiana. He is a freshman Senator and had as guests at the dinner Senators Tom Dodd of Connecticut, Howard Cannon of Nevada, and Ted Moss of Utah. Apparently they are all freshman senators. It was not a highly spirited or enlightening evening. I managed to divert the attention for one hour for a viewing of the NBC television show - "A Missile Mess." It was a good show. [68] Back home at midnight in the first snowfall of the season. It looks like six or eight inches, and that means trouble in Washington.
Sunday, February 14: Valentine's Day. Ruth gave me half dozen very nice linen handkerchiefs, which I very much need, and I managed to find that she wanted the Victor recordings of the play "J. B."6 I was able to get these and put them under her bed for Valentine's morning, which pleased her very much indeed. As a gag, I had purchased a snow scraper for the car and as luck would have it, we needed to use it last night so I gave it to her as a Valentine's present last night. This further confused her when she found the records this morning.
The snow was coming down this morning still and a call to the weather bureau indicated that it was highly probable that the New York weather would not be particularly good in the evening and that I might have difficulty in landing, although there was no question that I would land. Under the circumstances, I decided to take the train.7 I talked with Elmer Lindseth today asking him to serve as a member of the committee that is going to oversee the making of a thoroughgoing study of our management at NASA. In his usual thorough manner, he wants to have a full background story on it and I am going to see that he has it. I'm off to New York. It is now Wednesday night and I can relate that the trip to New York was pleasant. Arriving early allowed me to get to bed early, although I did manage to read a mystery thriller before turning off my light.
Monday, February 15: Up at 7 o'clock and a haircut when the barbershop opened at 8. My first appointment was with Charlie Stauffacher, vice president of Continental Can and an old hand in Washington, although a relatively young man. I had asked him to be a member of the organizational study group we are presently putting together. Charlie agreed to serve, although he is going to be very much tied up in an antitrust suit the government has brought against his company.
I took a flight to Boston at 1:15 and was met there by the director of the development office of Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He drove me to Worcester where I arrived at 4:00 sharp. A cocktail party was scheduled for 4:30 so I had only a few minutes to get my bearings, change my shirt and shave. It was a pleasant group of Worcester businessmen and we managed some interesting conversation, although I, as usual, got into a bit of an argument with a dedicated Republican. We managed to get away from the cocktail party in time to change into dinner jackets and repair to the hotel. A very fine group of men - 500 to 600 - were assembled for dinner and they paid me the great honor of listening very attentively through a [69] discourse of over 45 minutes. I think it was one of the better speeches I have made - at least the audience made me think so. Back to the reception room of the hotel for a drink and conversation for three quarters of an hour with the guests at the head table and then on to the home of [Arthur] Bronwell [Worcester's president] for a brief discussion of his desire that NASA support the research of some of his faculty members. Thus it is that one finds a type of pay-off expected in almost every walk of life.
Tuesday, February 16: Up at 5 o'clock for a very pleasant breakfast with Mr. and Mrs. Bronwell. Then, one of the guests at the dinner last night picked me up and took me in a Continental - no less - to the Boston Airport where I was able to get an 8 o'clock plane to Washington. This was not a particularly productive day but it was marked by one significant event - I went home for lunch!
Frank Stanton, president of CBS, called on me at 2 o'clock to counsel with me about my interest in having a television series produced and televised as a means of informing the people of the nation about the reasons for our being in the space business. Stanton is a really fine person and his advice is worth having. He agreed that we had moved as far as we could without professional advice and suggested that we now invite the presidents of the three large television networks to indicate their interest or lack thereof.
At 4 o'clock, we had a review of the Scout rocket launching system program, which was altogether discouraging. It is obvious that there is not sufficient attention being paid to the project by its sponsor, Langley Research Center. As a result, dates are slipping and the job is not getting done. Corrective action must be taken without delay and I have asked Dick Horner to get on the job.
Wednesday, February 17: At 9 o'clock, Admiral Monroe, commander of the Pacific Missile Range, called on me. He simply wanted to offer again the services of his command for whatever purposes NASA might have in mind. The balance of the morning was spent in preparing for the Stennis hearings, which are to take place tomorrow. At 12:45, off to the Metropolitan Club for lunch with Donald Power, president of General Telephone. Robert Fleming of the Riggs National Bank was our host.8 Ruth was at lunch with the wife of Mr. Power at some other place in the city. At 2:00, the National Geographic came in to take a photograph of Dr. Dryden and myself and at 3:30 we moved into a discussion of the proposal for a study of our organization.
Thursday, February 18: This is the big day. If all goes well - and the weather this morning looks pretty fair - all of the children should be here by 9 o'clock tonight and we will start on our celebration of Ruth's fiftieth birthday. This is also the day on which the Naval Research Advisory Committee meets, so off to the Naval Research Laboratory at 8:45 to spend the rest of the morning listening [70] to some very interesting developments. Lunch at the Sheraton-Park in honor of one of our men, Max Faget, who had been named one of the ten outstanding young men of the year in federal government service. Unfortunately, I had to leave the luncheon before the presentations were made because of the impending Senate hearing. When I looked for my car, who was in it but my good wife, who had decided that she wanted to go up on the Hill to hear the Senate committee's interrogation of her good or not-so-good husband.
A long afternoon - my testimony didn't take very long but I had to sit through testimony by General Medaris and General Schomburg. Some day, a general is going to resign from the service and not write a book and keep his mouth shut. Medaris is not in that category. Congressman Stratton of New York spoke against the House joint resolution calling for the early approval of the transfer of von Braun's group to NASA and Senator Sparkman spoke for it. At the end of three and a half hours, it appeared that we had won our point and I took Ruth back to the office - by this time it was raining cats and dogs - where she took a bus back home. Ostensibly, I was going to the dinner for the NRAC. Actually, . . . [describes Ruth's pre-birthday celebration, which their daughter Sally missed because her flight from Cleveland was diverted for bad weather. He finally picked her up at 3:00 a.m.].
Friday, February 19: I had planned to take Friday off but was unable to keep the faith. I went in at 1:30, somewhat the worse for wear. A visit with Stans and Staats of the Bureau of the Budget brought them up to date on our plans for the organization and contracting studies. They were sympathetic and helpful. I picked up the presents Polly and Tommy had sent in and repaired to the apartment. The Richmonds arrived at 6:30 and the fun began. The children brought out a big laundry bag full of fifty odd presents, singing "Happy Birthday." Each of them had written verses to accompany the presents and it was really quite good fun. Saturday, February 20: Ruth and I made breakfast as quietly as possible so as not to disturb Polly and Sally who were sleeping on the daybed in the living room. I had an engagement at the office, which I had to keep. We were discussing budgetary matters and a variety of other problems that Dryden, Horner and I seemed to find it impossible to discuss in depth during the week.
Sunday, February 21: This is the day of departure [for Ruth's 10-day trip to the West Coast]. Ruth and I arose about 8:30 to prepare a corn pancakes and bacon breakfast for the kids. They managed to appear about 10:00 in various states of clothing, although I think all of them had washed their faces. It was decided that we should have dinner by 3:00 because of the necessity for preparing for the departure of the children, one by one.9 In any event, Frank and I had a few good games of backgammon and we managed to get Polly to the station for her train. The place was a little like a morgue as we prepared for the departure of the children. It started to [71] snow and there was doubt about the flying weather. However, we did take Kitty and Frank to the airport at 10:00 and got them aboard their plane. Later advice tells us that they sat there for an hour and a half while one engine was being repaired and then had to be taken to a hanger for the removal of the accumulation of snow. They arrived home at 3:00 on Monday morning and Kitty had to be at work at 7:30. Such is life.
Monday, February 22: Washington's Birthday! It turned out to be a day of work for me along with many of the top staff at the office. Sally was to take a 4:45 plane to Cleveland but had hoped to have an opportunity to visit the Senate during the course of the day. Some shopping had to be done and in one of those peculiar quirks of timing, I missed them throughout the day. I went up to the Senate to try to find them but was unable to do so. We finally got together at 4:00 and put Sally on the plane. These partings, although seeming to be a routine affair, always provide for me a bit of a tug at the heartstrings. Sally's brave smiles and obvious regret at leaving are compelling.
Ruth and I decided we would have a drink and so went to the Admiral's Club where we spent three quarters of an hour leisurely reading the magazines before returning home. The house seemed a bit empty, although there was plenty left to do. Thus ends the saga of Ruth's fiftieth birthday and one of the very best weekends any of us has experienced. I should say that Ruth's birthday actually falls on February 26, but Sally had an extra holiday [from school] that made it best to get together on the 18th.
Tuesday, February 23: Another bout with the dentist at 8:00. This time the torture was not so bad. He cleaned my teeth and prepared a gum line cavity for a small inlay. It appears that this will end the dental program for the present. I hope it does because it begins to look to me as though a bill of $400 is in the offing. I had a 10:00 date with the Senate Appropriations Committee to defend our request for $23 million in supplemental 1960 funds. Only three members of the committee were present, although Senator Stennis came in for a few minutes and made a strong statement in support of our bill. Senator Hayden, one of the oldest men in the Senate and the chairman of the committee, conducts these hearings with dispatch. There seemed to be no trouble on the money, although we were able to place some statements in the record that ought to support the senators when they present the bill on the floor.
There was some considerable discussion about the request we have been making for 150 additional positions in our headquarters office. It may be remembered that Thomas, chairman of the subcommittee on appropriations in the House, had reduced that 150 to 75. His statement was that we just had too many good men in the headquarters - they should be in the field and, in any event, we didn't need them. He was particularly vitriolic about lawyers and public information men. Senator Dworshak questioned me on this matter and then said, "If you can convince the Senate so readily on this matter, why haven't you been able to convince the House?" Anticipating just such a question, I had determined to say that it was [72] impossible to convince any man who didn't want to be convinced. Instead, wisdom got the better of valor and I said simply, "That fact has been troubling me a great deal these past few days." I doubt that the conference committee will change Rep. Thomas' actions.
This afternoon, I have spent some time with Walter Bonney discussing the problems I believe are present in our public information organization. It is composed largely of men trained in newspaper offices, whose normal interests are handling the news. Actually, we do a good bit of radio, television, and motion picture work, and it is very essential that long-range planning be had in each of these fields. This, Walter seems to have difficulty doing. Further, there seems to be very little in the way of organizational management on his part. He is sort of a big teddy bear who, quite sincerely, substitutes flattery of the boss for hard, driving direction of his own staff. This has got to come to an end and I am slowly bringing him to that realization. He is paid as well as anybody else in government for this activity and stands very well in the aviation and space communities. It is the old question of a person who ingratiates himself by a certain sort of subservience but who has less than the desirable best "on the ball" when the chips are down.
A last-minute meeting with Siepert on matters relating to the management studies we are proposing to undertake and on the office space situation. All of this was followed by a quiet evening at home with me toddling off to bed at an early hour.
Wednesday, February 24, 1960: Our early morning meeting resulted in a determination to go ahead with the appointment of Clark Randt, using the last of our available $21,000 spaces for this appointment. Immediately, we are behind the eight ball because we must have one of these for von Braun. Perhaps we can move the Bureau of the Budget and satisfy Congress by requesting additional spaces. Discussion of this is going on at the present time.
At 11 o'clock, Phil Farley and John McSweeney of the State Department came in to talk with me about the proposals we were drafting for possible cooperation on a space project with the USSR. We believe that such a project makes a lot of sense and are working up a proposal relating to the meteorological satellite field. We found that Farley and McSweeney were favorably inclined as I had expected. Apparently, Secretary Herter is working up the president's agenda for the proposed trip to Russia, and we laid out a program such that this matter could be brought to his attention as soon as he returned from the South American trip.10 In the meantime, we will provide Farley with draft copies so that staff work may be attempted in the State Department.
[73] Dryden, Horner and two or three others met with me at one o'clock to discuss again our posture with the Atomic Energy Commission in matters relating to cooperative work between our two agencies. We are to meet with the AEC at 2:30. As we sat down, Chairman McCone called to ask if I could come by a little bit early. Our problem here arises out of the fact that the Bureau of the Budget reduced the AEC's budget for Rover, a nuclear rocket propulsion system, by some $12.7 million. Senator Clinton Anderson of New Mexico, chairman of the Joint Atomic Energy Committee, is determined that not only will this action be reversed, but additional sums will be provided. The AEC certainly has the ability to reprogram this amount of money within an operating budget of $2.1 billion and a construction budget of $224 million. We do this frequently throughout the year and I think it is highly probably that the Bureau of the Budget is more right than wrong in this particular situation. However, one does not stick his neck out on matters of this kind and we have avoided being called to task for approving or disapproving the budgets of other agencies.
I did meet with John McCone and found that his concern was principally about the rate at which we wanted to have them fund the Rover program. I made a point of saying to John that I thought they could reprogram their monies as we had and stop all the argument. If he really believed that Rover should go ahead as fast as Anderson wants it to, this sort of action could be forced within his own organization.
We went into the commission meeting expecting to visit with four or five of the commissioners and top staff. Instead of this, we found a full commission meeting with three commissioners and several members of the staff present. Obviously, the commission had not been apprised of the work that had been going on at the staff level between our two agencies, and it was a pretty sorry meeting. We did manage to salvage out of it some important elements. For instance, I think it became plain to the commissioners for the first time that it wasn't enough to go ahead with Project Rover - someone had to decide in the very near future whether or not Rover could ever be used, and if used, under what circumstances. The commission people want to use it as a first-stage rocket vehicle. Just where one would launch such a beast with its ever-present possibility of a catastrophic explosion resulting in the spreading of radioactive materials over the landscape is not clear. The same is true to a lesser extent in connection with the use of isotopic generating units for the long-lifed satellites we expect to fly. We badly need this sort of equipment but there's no use in spending millions of dollars - and I mean millions - to develop the units if we are not going to be permitted to use them.
We had a real hassle over the Plumbrook reactor. We are trying to gain an agreement with the AEC relative to the use of this reactor for research purposes relating to aeronautics and space flight. Unfortunately, the Atomic Energy Act gives the AEC complete control over the use of reactors for research. They maintain this through their licensing powers. I say unfortunately - perhaps it is a good thing that they have these powers in an area where costs are so very great. In any event, [74] John McCone accused us of simply putting together another nuclear research facility. I offered to give him the reactor - facetiously, of course. We tried to point out the conditions under which the reactor came into being - unfortunately again, this was proposed and accepted at a time when the aircraft nuclear propulsion work was at white heat.11 The matter was left that McCone and the commission were going to re-examine the entire problem and that we would get together on it at a later date.
Dryden and I met with the public information officers for an hour. This was a mock press conference and went rather well. Expressions of approval at the fact that the two top men in the agency would take an hour to visit with these people and were so frank in their comments made the whole thing seem worthwhile.
We returned quickly to the office to meet with three of the Japanese scientists and one of the Japanese embassy people to sign a memorandum of agreement on possible space research cooperation in the future.12 They were very obviously looking for funds but our people have become quite adept at pointing out the fact that we do not propose to underwrite foreign research in this field. We are quite happy to be cooperative and to provide substantial support in the way of launching facilities and rockets but we believe that the foreign countries must provide the support for their own technical work.
Thursday, February 25: The staff meeting went rather well with a number of interesting matters under discussion. I don't recall them at the moment but I can say it was one of the better meetings. I had planned to lunch with General Persons this noon. A few minutes before noon he called to say that the vice president wanted Persons to lunch with him. A suggestion was made that I join them if my items for discussion would fit in with such a threesome. This was a ten-strike since I wanted to talk with Jerry about the problems of continuity in our top management. Dick Horner proposes to leave the agency in midsummer and both Dryden and myself, being presidential appointees, must resign at the end of the current administration. Unfortunately, the vice president had in tow Leonard Hall, the chairman of the Republican national committee. I bowed out at this point and arranged to have lunch on Monday with Jerry Persons.
I had set up a date with Secretary of Defense, Tom Gates, his deputy Jim Douglas and Dr. York for 4:00. We wanted to talk about the Kety report on the establishment of an office of life sciences at NASA and on two or three other matters. Most of the work in bio-astronautics has been carried out in service laboratories over the past many years. Their interest has arisen, of course, from the [75] fact that pilots are subjected to ever-increasing stresses as planes are designed to fly higher and faster. Some fundamental work has been done, but not very much. In addition, the service laboratories have not been well supported nor have the programs been integrated. We are anxious to avoid the appearance of stepping off in a new field with the intention of taking over and absorbing some of the service laboratories.
Clark Randt had been notified of his appointment, which he had accepted with pleasure. We were just in time - he had been appointed a full professor at Western Reserve University two weeks earlier and offered a pleasant association in research there that he most certainly would have accepted had this offer of ours not been confirmed in a timely fashion. We found a pleasant reception at the Pentagon with only a few comments relating to the necessity for making the best possible use of the service laboratories. We assured the group that this was our intention - we really wanted to have their advice as to the best method of reassuring the working-level people concerning our intentions. This was arranged in a satisfactory manner.
We followed this with a discussion of the plight of Rocketdyne, which is a division of North American and has been responsible for the largest percentage of the development of rocket engines in this country. Presently, the Atlas engine having been completed, the division faces the necessity for reducing its staff to one-quarter of its maximum size. Its principal effort at the present time is on our F-1 engine.13 York had heard of this and is attempting to find a means of supporting a sizeable staff there just to keep this team together. He made the point that a force perhaps half the size of its maximum would be sufficient to retain the skills. This is one of the interesting problems that face a governmental agency charged with maintaining a state of readiness and a reservoir of strength in a variety of fields that may be extremely important to the national welfare. The easy answer is to subsidize everyone; the tough answer is to find a rational solution for a problem of this kind.
We also talked of the Cisler report. Neil McElroy had asked Walker Cisler to look into the problems of scheduling and managing our national rocket launching complexes and the associated tracking stations throughout the world. This is a very costly business and we have had the usual pulling and hauling between the armed services. NASA has its own rather small and economically-operated launching facility at Wallops Island, Virginia, which is available to anyone and apparently represents very little in the way of a problem. Walker, a devoted public servant and a determined man, had made up his mind pretty well before he started the study that [76] the real precedent for a solution lay in the War Production Board.14 He proposes to set up an office reporting directly to the secretary of defense that will control and manage - he avoids using some of these words - the country's launch and tracking facilities. There is much to recommend his solution but it fails completely to take into account the problems of the users of these ranges. Principally, these are the research and development agencies, and it seems clear that the centralized control and scheduling should reside in the R&D director's office. In NASA, we are happy to work with the Defense Department on this matter so long as it will provide a single point of contact, and we believe that this should be in Dr. York's office. Tom Gates is saddled with a situation not of his own making and doesn't quite know how to get off the hook. Cisler has gone to the vice president and seems to be talking to a great many people, thus making a sensible solution impossible. All of us pressed for the solution of assigning it to York, and I hope this will be done in the very near future.
During the course of the day, Colonel "Red" Blaik, former famed coach of the Army football team and now a member of the staff of Avco, came in to see me. Blaik is concerned that Avco is not getting a fair deal in its attempts to get business with NASA. Part of this, he says, stems from the fact that [Arthur] Kantrowitz, a former employee of NACA, is not viewed with favor by our staff. Undoubtedly, there is something to this statement, but I have looked into the matter sufficiently to make certain that a good portion of the difficulty lies with Kantrowitz himself. He is going to do things his way or he isn't going to play. We cannot accept this kind of situation, of course. Nevertheless, Avco is a good organization and should be doing work for us. I hope we can settle this one without too much difficulty.15
[Recounts Ruth's flight that day to Los Angeles.]
Friday, February 26: Ruth's real fiftieth birthday! I did not call her or make telegrams fly that way - I thought it might be considered an anticlimax after last week's festivities. At 9:00 we took off for Langley Research Center. Chairman Roger Jones of the Civil Service Commission, one of the persons who has been most helpful to me in Washington, was to make the address at a graduation of apprentices at our Center.16 It was really a fine occasion with an Air Force band, flowers and [77] a full house. The apprentices - some thirty-five or forty of them - were fine looking young Americans. Those who spoke did so very well indeed. It is a thrill to take part in these things even though I find myself unable to comprehend the importance of an occasion of this sort before it actually happens.
I met at 1:30 with members of the city council of Hampton, Virginia, who are anxious to develop an educational center - somewhat in the nature of a museum but concerned more particularly with education - depicting the entire gamut of aeronautical and space activities. The NACA was started with its first laboratory at Langley, and the Project Mercury activities are carried on there today. There is much reason for this sort of thing and if we can find a way to do it sensibly, I hope we can support their efforts. Naturally, they want money. This is not possible in my opinion, but we can endorse what they are doing and probably provide exhibit materials. More about this at a later date.
We got away from Langley at 3:30 and I was at my desk at a little after 4:30. Again, Dick Horner returned from the Hill with much concern over the amount of time being consumed in these appropriation or authorization hearings. While sympathetic, I don't know what the answer is. We had a settlement of our office question during the day and Hugh had taken to the Budget Bureau our request for an additional 50 "excepted" positions and 10 additional positions paying between $19,000 and $21,000.17 Just before I returned, word had come back from Stans that he would agree to 20 and 3 respectively. A brief meeting between Dick [Horner], Hugh [Dryden] and myself resulted in the determination to ask for 30 excepted positions as a compromise and to accept the 3 positions although we might try to get 5. A telephone call to Stans and he agreed to the 30 and 3. Thus ends another day with some progress made.
At 8:00, I went to Admiral Arleigh Burke's home for a formal dinner in honor of Admiral Boone, who is about to retire. He has been our representative at NATO on important matters and seemed an exceedingly pleasant fellow who did not want to retire. It was a pleasant evening - one that I enjoyed more than I usually do evenings with people I do not know very well.
Saturday, February 27: At the office at 8:30 for a meeting with about 15 people on the budget. Thomas has required that our books supporting the various elements of the budget be much more completely descriptive of the items we want to develop or purchase. A real job has been done during the past week and it appears that we will about double the volume for Thomas, although I doubt that we will improve the accuracy or quality very much. It is a real task to try to outguess [78] Congress on what it is going to want. Most of our people feel that Thomas is put out because we are able to answer his questions and he does not have the answers ahead of time with which to trap us. This may be a normal reaction on the part of the supplicants. We went on after two hours of budgeting to a session on the preparation of statements for the balance of the congressional hearings we now know about. There are four or five yet to come, and I hope we can do a better job of planning for them than we have in the past. All of our people are really overly tired, and it is beginning to show in their barbed statements.
I stayed at the office until almost 2:30, having canceled a luncheon meeting with Bonney in favor of talking with him in the office. I have been waiting for his reaction on his organizational problems. Instead of bringing this to me, he came in to tell me that he was having a great deal of trouble with Modarelli whose feelings had been hurt when we did not ask him to do all of the exhibits for the proposed UN Space Symposium to be held abroad later this year. Bonney also felt that perhaps we ought to dramatize a little bit more our sense of urgency in this space business. His suggestion was that I cancel all the rest of my speeches (I would love to do this) and make something of this in the newspapers. He had one other suggestion, equally absurd, which I have already forgotten.
I then turned the discussion to his problems and found that very little progress was being made. I pointed to the need for a long-range planning in motion pictures, television, etc. He finally reacted a bit more strongly than he has by saying that other people made his job difficult. I pointed out that if this were the case he either had to fight back or come to me with the problems. I don't know just where we will get off in this situation, but I told him that I was going to speak with Herb Rosen to try and improve the morale of that gentleman.
Dick [Horner] and some of his staff came in to discuss the organization of the NASA office at Cape Canaveral. It is really going to be quite an operation and will be centered under von Braun.18 We had had a representative there in the person of Mel Gough, who has very limited capabilities but was chosen at a time when we felt that only two or three people were going to be involved in the operation. It was a bad choice, and I think the only answer today is to remove him from the scene in as thoughtful and considerate a manner as possible. These are never easy decisions, but an entire organization should not be made to suffer when one man is found to be out of place. Rather, the one man should be thoughtfully cared for and the concerns of the total organization given adequate attention.
[79] Back home about 4 o'clock. I spent a good portion of the next two hours shining my shoes and doing a bit of thinking. At 6:20, I went to the roof and witnessed the successful launching of another 100-foot balloon.19 This is part of our communication satellite program. This seemed to be a completely satisfactory launch and was clearly visible in the sky to the southeast. I don't know what height was reached, but I would guess that it was a 250 mile shot that had gone down range about 450 miles before it returned to the surface of the ocean. At 7 o'clock, I went to dinner with Commander George Hoover (retired), who now lives in Los Angeles and is very much concerned over the proper display of information for our astronauts. Accompanying him was the top Navy bioastronautics doctor, Captain Phoebus. I was very blunt in my comments relating to the lack of enthusiasm I had for persons who, at this late date, cast doubts as to the reliability of the Mercury system. I pointed out that we had had the advice of medical people and all of the services, and the bioastronauts themselves had agreed on the configuration to be used in their capsule.
Hoover backed away from this sort of thing and discussed more particularly the future. I agreed to have a meeting with him and others in late March to give him a chance to explain what was on his mind. Obviously, this was a gambit to get a contract. This is a natural process but it needs to be watched carefully since we can easily find ourselves buying peace from persons of this sort who otherwise might make disparaging remarks, in a completely biased manner, about programs over which they have no control or responsibility. This statement should not be construed as one resenting constructive criticism; rather, it is my strong reaction against those who would cast stones so they may gain.
Sunday, February 28: A day of work at home - outlines for speeches, outlines for congressional statements, catching up on all of the work that had to be pushed aside over the past several days.
Monday, February 29: The staff meeting was rather ordinary. We discussed, too thoroughly, the initiation of a "length of service" recognition program. After we had spent half an hour on the discussion, I discovered that our people had gone ahead and bought the pins anyway so most of the discussion was academic. This happens all too often. At 10:30, Paul Martin of the Gannett newspapers came in and took 40 minutes asking the same old questions we usually get. These include most prominently the familiar, "How far are we behind the Russians and when are we going to catch up?"
At 11 o'clock, Don Harvey and one of his associates from the Civil Service Commission came in to give me some assistance on the search for a man to replace Dick Horner as associate administrator. Dick wants to retire or resign in mid-summer, and it is going to be very difficult to get a man to fill his job in the first place, [80] and particularly so since there will be a change in administration at the turn of the year. The Civil Service roster has turned up a good many names, but most of them are not really suitable for this kind of a job. I doubt that the federal service trains many people who can step in and take over a billion dollar job involving principally research and development with the operations program that goes along with such an enterprise. At ll:30, the life sciences people came in. Dryden, Horner, Randt, and I discussed some of the matters that seemed to be bothering Clark. He wants to get going without delay. Horner, in situations like this, does not seem to grab the ball and run with it. He operates in a very much lower key than I do, and I oftentimes have trouble recognizing whether or not he has the ball.
Lunch with General Persons was put off because of his having developed an infection in his hand that has required him to be hospitalized. I used the time to advantage since I had to go to the District of Columbia building to make my peace with the automobile license people. They had given me a warning because my Ohio tags seem to them to be old. Actually, they do not expire until 31 March. I hope I can avoid buying District tags, and I think my position as a presidential appointee may help me in this regard.
At 2:15, a Project Mercury briefing on the reliability program gave me some needed reassurance. It is quite apparent that the project people have been thoughtful and diligent in making as certain as one can that all elements of the system are being subjected to reliability tests. At 4 o'clock, the dentist - at last we are through. Back to the office for an emergency meeting on testimony required on the Hill tomorrow. This has to do with a number of excepted positions that we need, and it is terribly important that we avoid having the committee tell us that they must all go to von Braun and the Huntsville group. My, how they like to get into the management phases of our business!
A little late, I went to Walter Reed Hospital to talk with General Persons. My concern with him was to lay on a talk with the vice president about the necessity for continuity of management in NASA as this administration draws to a close. I recognize that Nixon may not be the next president but, at the present writing, he is as good a choice as any. Also, I asked Jerry to call a meeting of the Defense Department people, John McCone and myself to set our sights properly on the kind of testimony to be given on the NASA legislative proposals calling for the abolition of the Space Council, the CMLC, etc. Jerry was most happy to agree and I think this is on the rails again. Back home for a brief few moments before going downtown for dinner. I must return early and get myself prepared for the trip to California tomorrow afternoon.
1. A search of standard reference sources turned up no reference to it or Julian Bartolini, but for the radio and TV program, "American Forum of the Air," see the entry in the biographical appendix under Theodore Granik.
2. This refers to a report by Dr. George Kistiakowsky, then Eisenhower's science advisor.
3. Project Rover was a nuclear rocket program. Senator Anderson had a special interest in it, doubtless in part because of the involvement of Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory from his state in its development. On his involvement, see James A. Dewar, "Project Rover: A Preliminary History of the U.S. Nuclear Rocket Program - 1906-1963," 26 Jan. 1971 (Ms. in propulsion subsection of NASA Historical Reference Collection), esp. pp. 96-98. Dr. Dewar expects to publish a revised version of this study with the Smithsonian Institution Press.
4. On the Kety commission report, see Mae Mills Link, Space Medicine in Project Mercury (Washington, DC: NASA SP-4003, 1965), pp. 34-38. As Link reports on p. 38, "In line with the Kety committee recommendations, an Office of Life Sciences was established on March 1, 1960, with Clark T. Randt, M.D., a member of the Bioscience Advisory Committee, as Director." See also the entry under Randt in the Appendix.
5. In fact, on 26 April 1960 NASA awarded a contract for development of the Saturn I second stage (S-4) to Douglas Aircraft Co. Its powerplant consisted of six Pratt & Whitney engines propelled by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. See Ezell, NASA Historical Data Book, vol. II, pp. 56-57.
6. "J.B." was Archibald MacLeish's verse drama based on the biblical story of Job. It opened on Braodway 11 December 1958 and did not close until 24 October 1959 after 363 performances.
7. The purpose of the trip to New York appears to have been to speak with Charles Stauffacher, executive vice president of the Continental Can Co., about serving on the Kimpton committee, on which see note 32 of Chapter I. Stauffacher did agree to serve, as did five other business executives including Elmer Lindseth, mentioned below in the diary. He was president of the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co. (Rosholt, Administrative History, p. 161n. See also the Glennan files in the NASA Historical Reference Collection; they contain correspondence with Stauffacher and others about the Kimpton committee.)
8. Robert V. Fleming (1890-1967), who began with Riggs National Bank in Washington in 1907. He became its president in 1925 and its president and chairman of the board from 1935-1955. In the latter year he became its chairman of the board and chief executive officer.
9. Glennan's children were Thomas (called Tom), who was unable to attend the birthday celebration, Catherine (Kitty, married to Frank R. Borchert, Jr.), Pauline (Polly), and Sarah (Sally). See his letters to Polly and Kitty in his correspondence file for Feb. 1960, as well as the deleted portions of the diary in the T. Keith Glennan file, NASA Historical Reference Collection.
10. Eisenhower visited South America in late February and early March 1960. (Public Papers of . . . Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1960-1961 [Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1961], pp. 202, 282-283.) His proposed visit to Russia in June was cancelled by Khrushchev at the aborted summit meeting in Paris in May (see entry under Khrushchev in Appendix and the sources cited there). Consequently, nothing appears to have come of the proposed cooperation in the area of meteorological satellites, although later in the Kennedy administration there was an agreement with the USSR in this area. (See Edward C. and Linda N. Ezell, The Partnership: A History of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project [Washington, DC: NASA SP-4209, 1978], pp. 46, 47, 56, 128-129 and Arnold W. Frutkin, International Cooperation in Space [Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1965], pp. 4, 89.)
11. On Plum Brook, see Dawson, Engines and Innovation, pp. 155, 156, 184-185, 201, 206, 207.
12. This was the last of several such meetings with the Japanese scientists, laying the groundwork for future cooperation in space, which has since become quite extensive. On the meetings, see A.W. Frutkin, Memorandum to Files, March 7, 1960, in Glennan files, J-Official-Misc., NASA Historical Reference Collection.
13. In the 1950s Rocketdyne had done a feasibility study for the Air Force on a single engine with a thrust of 4.45 million newtons (1 million pounds). Ultimately, the Saturn V - the largest of the launch vehicles used in the Apollo program - employed five of Rocketdyne's F-1 engines clustered together as a first stage, with a combined 33.4 million newtons (7.5 million pounds) of thrust. (Bilstein, Stages to Saturn, pp. 26, 58-59, 192-193, 198-199; Brooks, Grimwood, & Swenson, Chariots for Apollo, p. 47.) The second and third stages of the Saturn V, incidentally, also employed Rocketdyne powerplants, in this case five and one each (respectively) of the J-2, which used liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen as propellants. (NASA Historical Data Book, Vol. III, p. 27.)
14. The War Production Board, created in January 1942, was the World War II counterpart to the War Industries Board of World War I. Both entities converted peacetime manufacturing facilities to wartime production and worked to ensure that scarce resources were allocated in a rational manner.
15. In fact, on 18 April 1960 NASA selected Avco Manufacturing and General Electric to carry out engineering and development studies on an electric rocket engine. Later Avco Corp. became one of NASA's top 100 contractors. (Emme, Aeronautics and Astronautics . . . 1915-1960, p. 122; NASA Historical Data Book, vol. I: NASA Resources 1958-1968, ed. Jane Van Nimmen and Leonard C. Bruno with Robert L. Rosholt [Washington, DC: NASA SP-4012, 1988], pp. 210, 213, 216, 219, 222, 225.)
16. NASA developed skilled craftsmen through an apprentice training program, in which 367 employees were enrolled at about this time. After a minimum of 4 years of classwork and on-the-job training, these personnel received journeymen's certificates. (Third Semiannual Report of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration . . . October 1, 1959, to April 1, 1960 . . . [Washington, DC: GPO, 1960], p. 127.)
17. The Space Act of 1958 gave the NASA administrator authority to appoint 260 scientific, engineering, and administrative personnel who were excepted from Civil Service laws governing appointment and compensation. Of these, 250 had a $19,000 ceiling and the other 10 had a $21,000 ceiling. This compared with a single rate of $17,500 for GS-18s under the Classification Act. With the transfer of what became the Marshall Spaceflight Center to NASA, as Glennan reveals below in part, the agency ultimately requested and received authority from BOB and the Civil Service Commission for only 30 additional excepted positions - 3 with $21,000 ceilings - in addition to 18 high-level positions transferred from the Army. (Rosholt, Administrative History, pp. 56, 140-141.)
18. This organization became the John F. Kennedy Space Center, so-named by President Johnson a week after President Kennedy's death in 1963. It had been the Missile Firing Laboratory of the Army, where that branch of the service had launched its Redstone intermediate-range ballistic missiles. In 1960, it became part of the Marshall Space Flight Center. In 1962, it became a separate NASA installation under the name, Launch Operations Center. Expanding to adjacent Merritt Island, the center was responsible for overall NASA launch activities at the Eastern Test Range, Western Test Range, and its own facilities. The Apollo launch vehicles and the Space Shuttles have been launched from there. Helen T. Wells, Susan H. Whiteley, and Carrie E. Karegeannes, Origins of NASA Names (Washington, DC: NASA SP-4402, 1976), pp. 149-150.
19. This was the third suborbital test of the 100-foot-diameter inflatable sphere later known as Echo. Launched to an altitude of 225 miles from Wallops Station, VA, the sphere reflected radio transmissions from Holmdel, NJ, to Round Hill, MA. (Emme, Aeronautics and Astronautics . . . 1915-1960, p. 120.)