[109] Friday, April 1: It wasn't April Fool's Day, after all! An hour late - but very positively - Tiros I took off from Cape Canaveral and went into orbit. It was about the most perfect launch we have had. I had not bothered to go to the office at 5 o'clock but called in at about 7:00 just in time to hear that the third stage had ignited properly. I was to have breakfast with Dave Wright and Dean Wooldridge at the Carlton at quarter of 8:00. Just before I left the house, the word came that the satellite seemed to be in orbit. Because Jodrell Bank in Manchester, England, was talking with Pioneer V, it could not track the Tiros satellite. While at breakfast, I got the word that it was definitely in orbit and that it should be over New Jersey and that it would be interrogated within 10 minutes. The satellite was supposed to go into a circular orbit of 380 miles above the earth. It actually had an [initial] apogee of 407 miles and a perigee of 378 miles. Its velocity at injection was within 21 feet per second of the desired velocity some 26,600 feet per second. On the first pass, it was apparent that a picture was being transmitted back to the earth. This was sent to us on facsimile and was so good we were a little startled. It was a picture taken obliquely looking westward from New Jersey toward the center of the country and revealed a cyclonic disturbance that was actually in being at that time. Naturally everybody was excited.
I got to the office to share in some of the excitement and to help arrange the press conference set up for 11 o'clock. In the meantime, Dr. Lines of Great Britain came in to tell us of the results of his trip of some three or four weeks around various NASA installations and some of the industrial organizations in the United States. He was really quite amazing in the enthusiasm he displayed. He said he was unable to believe thoroughly the broad scientific base that had been developed to support our satellite space program. He was astounded by the variety of technological approaches being made to various problems we have been encountering. He was absolutely certain that great benefits would come from the satellite program to other technologies outside of the space field. It was a heart-warming session that erased some of the cares from the day, which was already fairly bright.
Just before 11 o'clock, the Italians came in to sign an agreement calling for cooperation in sounding rocket launchings. They are buying six Nike-Asps and will launch certain payloads prepared and supplied [110] by the U.S.1 At 11 o'clock, we had the first pictures we were willing to show to the president, and I called to find that he was in the National Security Council meeting. He asked us to come right over and five of us did. We broke into the meeting and were very well received. I arranged with the president for pictures to be taken later in the day. We got back to the press conference, which I started off with a very brief statement, and everything seemed to be going well. A slight altercation with the United Press International and the Associated Press people occurred when they tried to out-guess us as to whether or not we had satisfactory pictures. I asserted that everything was going well but that we would not state what the pictures were or whether we had them really until we knew. This caused some hard feelings but it was all smoothed over in a satisfactory manner.
I called Albert Thomas to urge him to be liberal with our construction and equipment budget. Word had reached me that he was going to cut out the office building at Huntsville, which would cause great hardship there. In the meantime, Lyndon Johnson and Overton Brooks had received word of the success of Tiros I and were clamoring - and I mean clamoring - for some of the pictures. By this time, we had received a sequence of 4 pictures taken 30 seconds apart that clearly showed the Gulf of St. Lawrence, with the satellite passing over it at some 5 miles a second. These were prepared for a montage negative and arrangements were made with the president for a picture with him at 5 o'clock and a general release to the press at the same time. The pictures were to go to the Hill to Johnson and Brooks at 5:10 p.m. All of this worked out well and I think we managed to get through the day without further damage.
Just to keep our minds on our business, we sat through a source selection board report on the development of the plasma jet engine, which took an hour and a half.2 When that was finished, Dick Horner talked with me seriously about the fact that he has put his house on the market and plans to leave as of 1 July. This puts the problem directly up to me and I must find a man to replace him. I have made note of this before, but the task is always a little more difficult than one wants to admit.
[111] On home to a dinner of pheasant cooked in white wine and a bottle of lovely white wine. Just after reaching the apartment, we went up on the roof and witnessed the successful launching of a 100-foot balloon from Wallops Island. It was a beautiful sight as it rose into the air some 200 miles and then disappeared into a cloud bank as it moved out to sea some 500 miles.3
Saturday, April 2: I stayed home all day working away at a variety of problems. First, I wrote or rewrote a letter to Congressman Quigley that I hope will answer the questions he has been bothering me about. The business of commenting on the statements of General Medaris and Dr. Pickering is not too pleasant but I think I made sense of it.4 In the mid-afternoon, Walter Bonney called to say that he had pictures from the high resolution camera in Tiros I. Naturally, pressures had been applied to the public information office by the newspapers wanting copies of pictures from this camera. The problem is that these pictures cannot be released until it is determined that there is no possibility of the cameras [that took them] being used for a reconnaissance satellite. The boys brought the pictures out and it was so obvious that they were not in the class of reconnaissance cameras that I felt we could release them immediately. I called Allen Dulles and General Cabell to tell them of my decision and arrangements were made for the release. The remarkable thing about this is that none of the pictures were printed. We had satisfied the requirements of the press and it found no significant "sex appeal" in these particular prints.
Sunday, April 3: After a hearty breakfast, I started in on the paper work again. This was broken up in the middle of the afternoon when I took Sally over to the Pentagon parking lot to give her an opportunity to practice driving. When we returned, we found that Polly had called - her plane was very much delayed so that she was not about to get back to Philadelphia from Cleveland. Throughout the rest of the afternoon and evening, I attempted to purchase most of the Bell Telephone Company as we tried to get her cared for. Finally, she put up for the night with the Borcherts and will take a plane to Philadelphia tomorrow.5 We went to the Richmonds' for dinner. It was a pleasant evening but we were glad to get back home. Somehow or other, there isn't much resilience in this old frame these days.
Monday, April 4: Once again, Monday seemed to be a bad day for me. I just don't understand it, but I go in each Monday morning with a scowl on my face and meanness in my heart, apparently. We were greeted by the boys from the Tiros group who had made up a weather map from the pictures taken over Russia, Africa, [112] Europe and the United States. It was really quite a map and correlated well with the standard weather maps presently being distributed. Nevertheless, I felt we should not release it until we had talked with the State Department and with the CIA. We were able to take a copy of the weather map to the Hill; it matched the four pictures printed last Friday afternoon, and these were explained to the House Committee on Science and Astronautics before I began my testimony. I think they did well in the important department of impressing the congressmen. (See photo, next chapter.)
We were asked to come up to the Hill a little bit early this morning so the congressmen could be photographed with a Tiros payload. What a crush! Each wanted his picture taken with the payload and most wanted me in the picture with them. Fame is fleeting - each of us should keep this in mind.
My testimony went rather well and the questions were mild and rather easily handled. All in all, I think it was a good exercise and perhaps we will now get on with the business of having the amendments to the [1958] law [creating NASA] accepted.
During the afternoon there were the usual visits from industrialists such as those from Kaiser Steel who wanted a little bit of an edge on the Saturn launching pad at Canaveral. At 2:30, we went over to the Atomic Energy Commission to meet with John McCone and General Luedecke to discuss the management arrangements for Project Rover. Much to my surprise, they bought it without too much difficulty and indicated that they would immediately present our proposal to the Commission. John was impressed by the results of the Tiros flight. He is really a strange person with whom to deal. He takes strong positions but is willing to change them. I think he takes the positions largely in order to force decisions out of other people. I like him and hope one day to be able to understand him better.
At 5:15, we gathered together the people from State, CIA and other elements of the intelligence community. We told them what we planned to do with the map that had been developed by our people, and they all agreed that it was satisfactory for us to proceed. Thus ended another day, although I managed to spend a good hour and a half at home putting the final touches on my income tax return for 1959. Then to bed after packing for the trip to Houston, Texas, tomorrow.
Tuesday, April 5: To the office for a few minutes before taking off at 10:15 for Houston, Texas. I traveled via Eastern Airlines Electra - not without a little trepidation. We have been involved, to an extent, in the studies of the disasters that have plagued two of these Lockheed Electras in recent months. In this instance, the flight was pleasant though long. We ran into 70 knot headwinds and took about six hours to make a trip which normally would take very little more than four. I was met in Houston by Mike McGuire, who is chairman of the great issues committee at Texas A&M College this year. He had with him two or three cadets who were members of the great issues committee. At the airport in Houston I was met by Mr. O'Leary of the Houston Post who asked me the usual questions. He got the usual answers, which he did not want to believe and thus was admonished to accept what I had to tell him or write his own story. He wrote the story all right - he quoted just those words.
[113] A 35-minute flight via Beachcraft took us to the Texas A&M campus, where I immediately went to a seminar and talked to graduate students for 45 minutes. Then a brief tour to the country club for a drink, back to change my shirt and off to dinner with the president of the college and members of the faculty and student groups. At 8:00, I spoke to a crowd of students and faculty that must have numbered better than 1,500. I was at it for better than 1 hour and 20 minutes and seemed to have satisfied the crowd pretty well. After the speech the students wanted to take me around the campus a bit, so I did walk with them for perhaps 45 minutes before going to bed. It was an interesting day and I was glad to have the opportunity to speak to this particular audience.
Wednesday, April 6: Up at 6:00 to be flown to Houston where I was to take an Electra at 8:00 with a scheduled return to Washington at 1:25 p.m. We had a stop at New Orleans where it was discovered that one of the indicator lights on the propeller feathering mechanism was not working properly. A 4-hour delay ensued and it was 5:30 before I was able to get back to Washington. I went directly home because we were due at Anderson House for dinner with the president of Columbia as guests of Secretary Herter. We donned white tie and tails and evening dress and enjoyed a rather formal evening. A brief statement by Secretary Herter was responded to by President Lleras in a most friendly fashion. Much comment was made about Tiros I and Pioneer V. Success is a wonderful experience in these circumstances.
Thursday, April 7: The staff meeting went off pretty well and we moved from that immediately to the presentation by the source selection board of its recommendations on a contractor for the nuclear rocket project engine nozzle. We have not yet found the right way to handle this situation but I think we are making progress. It appears that it would be best if the evaluation groups and the source selection board acted really as an evaluation body and left recommendation out of their discussion. This would leave the administrator and his immediate assistants more maneuvering room in which to make a judgment.
A number of the boys came in to talk about some of the security aspects of Project Tiros. There is really no problem, but other people are attempting to make one for us. It looks as though we will have to meet with the Central Intelligence Agency and other members of the intelligence community to iron out the problem. After a quick lunch I had a visit from several people from Ford Aeronutronics.6 They were making certain that we understood the urgency with which they looked at some of our problems. I went through my standard discussion of the organizational study we have underway and what I thought it could mean for future contract operations involving industry. They went away, seemingly satisfied.
At 2:15, Harold Goodwin of the USIA came in to talk with me about some of our educational and technical information problems. He seems a very forthright [114] and capable person with plenty of assurance. He does not himself seem to be interested in a job with us. At 3:00, we set up the first length-of-service award ceremony in the USO Auditorium next door. It went very well and I think everyone had a good time. I was not able to stay very long because of the problems with the release of information from Tiros and so returned to the office to meet with six or seven of the top staff. Karl Harr of the White House staff came over to plead that we do nothing that would compromise the Department of State's position in this matter. I suggested he come along with us to General Cabell's office where we had a discussion until about 6:30, ending in an agreement that the pictures from Hawaii would be reviewed and if found to contain no compromising information, the whole matter would be dropped and we could proceed at will. We were so certain this would be the case that I finally agreed to this procedure. Off to the apartment then to get packed for the trip to Cleveland tomorrow.
Friday, April 8: In at the usual time, after packing a dinner jacket and other clothes for Cleveland, to prepare for a visit with the president at 10:45. John Corson and Al Hodgson came in to talk about the program being put together for the first meeting of the organizational advisory committee next week. It seems we are in pretty good shape for the meeting. Jim Perkins had called to say that he needs a bed on Friday night and this has been cared for in our apartment. Over to the White House at 10:45 to visit with the president for a few minutes. This was in the nature of a progress report but I did want to bring him up to date on two or three problems. I gave him a statement on the status of our appropriations and the legislative amendments that are yet to be acted upon by Congress. He was interested in the progress on Pioneer V and Tiros. I told him about the State Department concerns and he approved the actions we had been taking.
I told Mr. Eisenhower about Project Echo and what I hoped for it. In all of these activities, he expressed a great deal of interest. I did talk with him about the unfortunate connotations placed upon Tiros by some of our newspaper friends, in particular John Finney of the New York Times. The president expressed himself strongly on this matter and when I told him that I was to be on "Meet the Press" on Sunday, he said he would think the less of me if I didn't speak out strongly against this sort of thing.
I told him about the problems I was having with John McCone and Senator Anderson on Project Rover. Once again, the president said he would take a hand if it became necessary - he might have to call in John McCone with me. I told him I would do my best to get this settled otherwise. It is obvious that he recalls Clinton Anderson's operation on Lewis Strauss.7 I bade him farewell, hoping that he would have a good weekend. [115] He told me he hoped to get away for a week in Augusta starting next Monday. All in all, it was a good session.
Back to the office for a telephone call from Station KING in Seattle, Washington. I did a 15-minute radio question-and-answer session with a man by the name of Al Wallace. It went reasonably well and I had a good opportunity to express my thoughts strongly about the manner in which the press was misleading the public on Tiros by calling it a reconnaissance satellite. At lunch, I talked with Senator Francis Case of South Dakota and then went off to the television room in the Capitol to make a recording for him. Actually it was a TV and radio simulcast. Immediately following that one, Senator Clifford Case of New Jersey came in to have his picture taken with a model of Tiros and with me.
Finishing that operation, I got back to the office just in time to pick up Ruth and go over to the airport to make the trip to Cleveland. We arrived there in good shape and picked up Sally. After a pleasant dinner, we took off for Sally's school and enjoyed - really enjoyed - a joint concert involving the girls from Hathaway-Brown and the boys from University School. Back to the house for a good night's sleep.
Saturday, April 9: [Discusses some Case business.] Last night, Tom Morrow had called from Detroit via Washington to see if I would see him in Cleveland on Saturday. I had arranged a meeting at 12 noon at the Union Club and drove down to have lunch with him. He simply wanted to make certain that I understood how serious Chrysler Corporation is about the contract for upper stages of Saturn. It was the usual discussion without anything new coming from it. With Ruth who had come downtown with me, I went over to Halle's and bought a topcoat. Back to the house to wait for Mr. Bacome to discuss the furnishing of the seminar room we are building in the basement. Then, a shower and preparations for dinner occupied my time. The meal was a pleasant affair with a great many opportunities to speak with good friends. I did manage to escape as soon as the dinner was disbanded and dashed home to have a bit of rest.
Sunday, April 10: We took Sally back to school and dashed out to the airport where we joined a good group of 12 or 14 NASA people who were on their way to Washington and Langley. The trip back was a pleasant one and we arrived at the apartment shortly before 3:00. I forgot to say that almost as soon as I had reached Cleveland I had a call from Walter Bonney saying that the pictures taken over Russia had turned out much the same as those taken over other parts of the world. This means that we no longer need worry about the screening of these pictures by other agencies.
Walter came out about 4:30 in preparation for my appearance on "Meet the Press." We checked over a few facts and statistics and then started over to the studio. Ruth came along and I guess she enjoyed the experience. I was being interviewed by John Finney of the New York Times, Peter Hackes of NBC and Bill Kines of the Washington Evening Star along with Lawrence Spivak [producer of "Meet the Press"]. This is a strange program in that anybody that takes part in it seems to be [116] quite worried about the questioning. I must say that I was and nothing that happened at the studio before the program gave me any feeling of confidence. It turned out, however, that after muffing one or two questions, I seemed to deal with the rest of them rather easily. I did have a chance to get back at John Finney by giving him a rather cryptic answer to a question he asked. He was once again trying to make something of Tiros as a reconnaissance satellite and started to ask questions about the desirability of agreements being reached between nations about the use of reconnaissance satellites. He asked me if I wouldn't be indignant at having a Soviet reconnaissance satellite orbiting over United States territory. I said that there was no real reason for the Russians doing this, all they had to do was read John Finney's newspaper and they could get all the information they desired. This stopped that part of the questioning.
Monday, April 11: We started out the day with a brief discussion of the Centaur Project.8 I was anxious to understand what was being done and was given a discussion by Ostrander and Milt Rosen.
At 11:00, General Luedecke of the AEC came in with General Ostrander. We discussed the problems of attempting to arrange our management affairs so that the Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy would be satisfied and we would be able to get on with the job. John McCone is out of the country and I have just found that Senator Anderson is leaving tomorrow for the west coast. I decided I would have a chat with Anderson and try to correct the misimpression he has about the qualifications of Harold Finger, whom we have selected to head the office of space reactors.
Later in the day, we had quite a discussion of television programs but came to no decisions. It is becoming increasingly apparent that I cannot continue with Bonney as the responsible person in the entire field of public information and other areas of education and technical information. Late in the afternoon, Wexler and Reichelderfer of the Weather Bureau plus several of our people came in to discuss the proper handling of public information on Project Tiros. The Weather Bureau people are apt to be a little enthusiastic - more than enthusiastic - about the prospects that are available to us with Tiros. They all agreed, finally, to play down these stories and to be as factual as possible in their discussion of Tiros.
Tuesday, April 12: At 10:00, Dryden, Horner and Bonney came in to discuss a proposed exhibits program. This was again a very unsatisfactory discussion. I cannot accept the recommendations that Bonney brings me - part of it is just an antipathy towards him because of my lack of confidence in his ability to plan.
[117] The rest of the day was not too exciting although we did have a good discussion with the Columbia Broadcasting System people at 3:30. Sig Mickelson, president of one of CBS's divisions, came in to talk about doing a series of programs with us. I finally agreed that we would wait a month for their development of story lines, etc. At 4:30, I spoke for an hour and a half to a group of Holyoke and Amherst seniors and juniors. They are studying political science and were spending their Easter vacation in Washington. It was an interesting question and answer session - I hope the kids learned something of value.
Wednesday, April 13: This was another rather full day. Starting off at 8:30 with General Ostrander coming in to discuss with me the qualifications of Harold Finger for the space reactors branch job, I had a few minutes with a Dr. David Abshire who seems to be a member of the staff of the House Republican Policy Committee. It wants from us two or three statements relating to our accomplishments in space and the basic policies we are attempting to follow. Presumably, these will become part of its store of speech materials. I think we can provide some help.
At 9:30, I visited Senator Clinton Anderson in the new Senate Office Building to discuss with him the problem of setting up an effective organization for nuclear rocket development. He spent 15 minutes going over his arguments with Lewis Strauss, almost in an apologetic fashion. He told me how he happened to become embroiled in the argument over the confirmation of Strauss. He now states that his reason for running for the Senate again in the State of New Mexico is that Strauss had threatened to put a quarter of a million dollars behind Anderson's possible opponent. I had taken with me a set of charts outlining the division of responsibility between the AEC and NASA for the development of a nuclear rocket system. I then told him what we were planning - jointly with the Atomic Energy Commission - in the way of a management structure. He seemed to accept all of this but was concerned about the eagerness with which Finger would tackle the job. Apparently, someone has been talking negatively about Finger, and Anderson, while unwilling to identify any such activity, said that he had gained a very bad impression of Finger's enthusiasm in the course of one brief statement made by Finger at a Joint Committee on Atomic Energy hearing. I finally said, "Clinton, I am asking you to take my word in this matter. Finger is a good man and will do a good job. He will be in no position to do the program any harm and is the best man we can select for the post." Anderson turned to me immediately and said, "I will take your word," and we shook hands on it. I moved immediately to the Capitol and did a 10-minute telecast recording with Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona. Goldwater seemed almost shy although he is one of the most outspoken of the Republic senators.
Back at the office I called together Ostrander, Dryden and Phillips to tell them of my discussion with Senator Anderson and set about drafting a letter to confirm our discussion. At 11:45, I met Morse Salisbury at the Statler for lunch.9 [118] I was seeking his advice on the organization of the public information and technical information services. Our activities in these areas have never been adequately handled and a much more significant effort is to be required. I have spoken earlier in these pages of my dissatisfaction with and lack of confidence in Walter Bonney for the overall job. Morse, a very quiet and unimpressive man of long experience in a variety of governmental agencies, suggested Shelby Thompson, his deputy, as a possible top man for us. Much to my surprise, Morse suggested that he himself might be interested. I am going to set up meetings for both of them with others of our top staff.
A brief meeting with Gleason, Horner and Dryden to review the legislative program resulted in my decision to fight to the best of our ability the cuts proposed by Albert Thomas. We have just learned that he has cut some $38 million from our request for $915 million. It seems a little silly to be arguing about that sum within such a large sum, but we are already over the proverbial barrel through our lack of experience in estimating sufficiently conservatively to cover the constantly-rising costs in this business. A meeting at 2:00, with a variety of people involved, considered the matter of source selection board criteria. This is a subject that is taking up a great deal of our time these days. The business of trying to be completely fair and objective in the selection of companies to do business with our organization, and the problems of keeping a complete and open record of all deliberations, is not an easy one with which to deal. I suppose all of us are a little scarred by the memories of the "executive privilege" hearings.
At 4:00, I called together the top supervisory staff to read a mild bit of the "riot act" because of the obvious lack of enthusiasm in planning for the joint Federal Crusade for International Agencies and the National Health Fund campaign. None of these are activities about which one can wax very enthusiastic, but they are part of the business of living in a democracy. Each of us has responsibility in these matters and leadership must be provided. I felt the response from the staff was very favorable even though I was a bit brutal in my discussion.
This was the evening on which James "Scotty" Reston and Milo Perkins and their wives were to come to dinner. Ruth and I had been looking forward to the evening with a great deal of pleasure. Scotty Reston is the head of the Washington Bureau of the New York Times and one of the most highly regarded of the Washington correspondents. Milo Perkins is a "hold-over" from the New Deal days who, with his wife, now indulges in making economic studies for other nations for a handsome fee. They seem to keep quite a staff of people operating at their ranch in Arizona and spend a fair amount of their time in South America. Milo and his wife came early - or Scotty and his wife were late. In any event, we had an opportunity to talk with Milo and Karen for about forty minutes before Scotty came in. This was pleasant enough although not terribly exciting. When Reston came in we began to get down to business and discuss politics, leadership or its lack, foreign policy, and a particular concern with Latin and South America. As usual when one anticipates the pleasure he is going to take from an evening, we were somewhat disappointed. Perkins talks a great deal and seems genuinely interested in the work [119] he is doing. He is an uplifter of better than average quality although I wonder a little how dedicated he would be if he could not afford it. On the other hand, Reston is a serious person who seems to labor over every thought he has and every attempt to express a thought. Ruth suggests that he writes so much that he finds it difficult to express himself orally with ease. I lost none of my respect for him in the course of the evening, and we were both happy to know Mrs. Reston. All in all, it was a good evening.
Thursday, April 14: The staff meeting this morning was nothing out of the ordinary. I do believe these meetings are serving an excellent purpose, however. At 10:00, Mr. Paul Mellon and Mr. Hughes of the Mellon Institute in Pittsburgh came in to see me. I had been alerted by Warren Johnson and by Bill Baker of the Bell Telephone Laboratories that they wanted to talk to me about the possibility of my accepting the presidency of the Mellon Institute in Pittsburgh. This is a very well-paying job - somewhere in the neighborhood of $60,000 base salary - with excellent pension and fringe benefits. It is a job that carries with it high respectability and a substantial position in the community. It was obvious that they were serious about this matter and that they would want an answer shortly. I told them that there was little chance that I could be interested - that I had already said to my board at Case that I would return there. There was just a slight chance that the full board would find difficulty in accepting the conditions under which I have said I would return. These conditions were accepted enthusiastically by the executive committee but I have asked Kent [Smith] to place them before the entire board. There is nothing unusual in them. I simply want the board to know it is in for some tough times during the next five years; that it will be involved in raising large sums of money; that I believe strongly in [Vice President for Academic Affairs] John Hrones and will support his desires to build a strong graduate school; that the alumni situation must be straightened out.
I will let the Mellon people know next week about my decision. I talked with them about the possibility of their being interested in Dick Horner. I think Dick would do a good job, although his experience in dealing with community affairs is almost wholly lacking. However, I think my first responsibility is to Case.
At 2:00, we had a source selection board presentation on Project Sunflower.10 Thompson-Ramo-Wooldridge won the competition. These are interesting exercises that take a good bit of time but are very necessary. Following that session, Dryden, Horner, Siepert, Ulmer and Keyser came in to talk about the effect of the budget cuts. I asked that material be prepared for me so that I could move into this situation immediately after the weekend. At 4:00, Tim Shea came in to spend an hour discussing some of my problems and telling me of his own plans. Much to my surprise, Tim is planning or at least would like to plan to leave the Western Electric Company a little ahead of his retirement date. He is now 62 and thinks that [120] he could make a greater contribution by having a part-time association with some organization and then spending a good bit of his effort in community and national affairs. I agree that this would be a good thing for him to do - perhaps I can help.
Friday, April 15: This was the day our advisory committee on organization started its deliberations. The committee was prompt in attendance and all members were present. It is chaired by Chancellor Lawrence Kimpton of the University of Chicago and its members are Elmer Lindseth [president of the Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co.], Charles Stauffacher of Continental Can, Fletcher Waller of Bell & Howell, Nathan Pearson of T. Mellon and Sons, Morehead Patterson of American Machine & Foundry, and Jim Perkins of the Carnegie Corporation. We had set up a full day of briefings for them so that they might get a look at the total program and at the people who had principal responsibility for its administration. I thought all of our people did very well and the committee seemed to gain in interest as the day wore on.
I have asked them to look at our organizational setup for the following reasons:
Among the issues and problem areas that have bothered me are the following:
It was a full day but nobody wanted to quit. We had dinner together at the Carleton Hotel and then Jim Perkins came out to the apartment with me. He spent the night but before going to bed we had a long discussion of some testimony he is planning to give to Scoop Jackson's Government Operations Committee.
Saturday, April 16: We were up early to have breakfast at the apartment with John Corson. Jim Perkins had asked me to sharpen up my problems, and I thought we'd best have a talk about it before revealing to the committee exactly what was in my mind. I think Perkins does this sort of thing rather well, although at times his type of questioning is bothersome to a person like myself. He is an excellent member of any committee. Ruth gave us a good breakfast and I was able to organize my thinking in a sensible manner.
Back to the office at 9:00 for another full day of discussions - at least, the staff and I stayed through the noon hour while the committee carried on until about 3:00 in the afternoon. It was obvious that they were getting increasingly interested and recognized more and more the seriousness of the problems I was posing for them. Elmer Lindseth stopped by after finishing and he came out to the apartment with me for a visit before going to Waynesboro, Virginia, for a weekend with his married son. During the course of our conversation, it became apparent that I should have stayed a little longer with the group. They had become very much concerned over the program planning and program management aspects of the problem. Apparently, John Corson had not indicated to them the manner in which we were building our long-range program. I was able to convince Elmer that we were very much better off than he thought, but then I had to turn around and say that I was concerned about the organizational mechanics we have in this area. I'll have to get at this on Monday. I am very much satisfied with the beginning of this exercise.
Sunday, April 17: Up at 6:00 o'clock to go to a Sunrise Service at the Arlington National Cemetery. In many ways, this was a real travesty. I had not realized that the service at Arlington was sponsored and conducted by the Knights Templars of the United States. This is a fine organization of the Masonic faith, I believe, but an Easter Sunrise service ought not to be conducted as this one was. There was no opportunity for the audience to participate other than in standing and sitting. The Army choir and the Marine band were equally bad over the loudspeakers, which were poorly maintained and operated. The sermon seemed to be addressed to the Knights Templars and not concerned with the religious significance of Easter. All in all it was less than a satisfactory beginning to the Easter Day.
Back home for a good breakfast of the things which had been ordered by Polly from her mother. She enjoyed finding her basket in which Ruth had placed a black dress purse. We thought a bit about the other children but there isn't much one can do about it when they're so far away from us. The rest of the day was spent in reading and writing. Polly left for Swarthmore at 5:00 o'clock. Then the apartment became quiet once again.
[122] I should like to put down here another small bit of information about the events of the past week - particularly those involving Senator Anderson. On the afternoon of the day I had talked with him, Jim Ramey, executive director of the Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy, called to say that he had taken the senator to the airport and that the senator had given him a brief review of our discussion. Would I fill him in? I read him the letter I had written to Senator Anderson confirming our discussion and explained as best I could over the telephone, offering to have him come down next week to get a full understanding. I thought his questions were reasonable, although he seemed to be inordinately concerned about Finger. Perhaps he is part of the "plot" to get Finger.
On Thursday morning, bright and early, I had a call from New Mexico. It was Senator Anderson, who had just heard from Jim Ramey. Jim was very much disturbed over the arrangements he thought I had concluded with Senator Anderson. I replied by reading my letter to the senator. Anderson said, "Well, now this doesn't sound so bad; this is exactly what we had agreed to, except that I wish you would change one or two words." I patiently explained again that Finger was a good man - that it was absolutely necessary that he take this job with the support of Anderson, and that unless this could be accomplished, we would have to seek some other solution - in my opinion, one not so satisfactory. Anderson again said he would rely completely on my assurances and that he would call Ramey to tell him so. This is an example of the manner in which staff members of congressional committees cause trouble and misunderstanding. This sort of thing happens all too often in Washington. The executive director of one of the important committees of the Congress must have an inordinate sense of power. He has no responsibility, is neither elected nor appointed, but is a hired hand. Yet, he wields an uncommon amount of power. Some are excellent, most are mediocre, and some are downright sinister.
During the week, I notified the staff that I would be away for 10 days in May and 10 days at the end of July. The first holiday will be in Florida at the home of Don and Eleanor Adams, where Ruth and I will be alone and completely quiet, I hope. The second, a less restful but equally rewarding experience, will be a stay of 10 days at the Bohemian Grove in California.
Monday, April 18: This morning wasn't as bad as the Mondays usually are. I felt rather relaxed going to the office, but this didn't last long. Apparently, Tiros I and Pioneer V continue to operate satisfactorily. Six thousand pictures have been received from Tiros I, and it is becoming almost impossible to cope with the tremendous amounts of data being received. I had spent a good bit of time yesterday attempting to write a letter to Lyndon Johnson to give him the information he wants in order to make some important news next Thursday. He wants to announce some coming event in the space business in such a manner as to indicate his great interest in the program. I am happy to do this with him because he has been most helpful. This morning, then, was spent with a variety of people checking over the various words I was using and getting the whole operation lined up. This included coming [123] into agreement with the staff of the Senate Space Committee, including Lyndon Johnson's executive assistant. It went well, everything considered.
I have been having a good bit of difficulty bringing into focus the kinds of arguments that may be used on the floor to counter the cut recommended by the House subcommittee on appropriations. It is said to be a losing game to attempt to beat Thomas on the floor and that it is very much better to argue the point with the Senate and then bring the two bills back together for conference treatment. I am inclined to go along with this - especially since the Senate Legislative Committee seems to be intent on giving us authorization for $50 million more than we have asked.
The morning went rapidly and I took lunch quickly at the White House with Hugh Dryden. I took off at 1:15 in a small Air Force plane to fly to Harrisburg, where I was being met by a car that would take me to the Hershey Hotel in Hershey, Pennsylvania. It was a really rough trip both ways but not too long. I spoke in Hershey to 40 or 50 editors and editorial writers of the Scripps-Howard newspapers. Louis Seltzer introduced me in very glowing terms. It was an exceedingly useful trip and I think I made some good friends among the editors of the Scripps-Howard papers. I came back home about 7:00 p.m.
Tuesday, April 19: At 9:00 o'clock, John Corson of McKinsey and Company, his associate Jack Young, Horner, Dryden and Hodgson came together to discuss the results of the first meeting of the advisory committee on organization and of the planning for the meeting to be held in Huntsville on 6 and 7 May. All agreed that a good start had been made but it seemed apparent that some confusion had arisen out of the fact that we had not given the group a proper briefing on the planning function, which has taken up so much of our time this past year. I had left the meeting to allow them to carry on in an executive session. I think this might have been a mistake - at least, questions were asked by two or three members of the committee that could have been answered in such a way as to avoid their proceeding under misapprehensions. One does not want to stifle suggestions, comment, criticism or expressions of concern. Nevertheless, it is desirable to avoid misconceptions on which may be based later investigations that are apt to be of very little value.
I asked Corson to come back with a plan to provide a chronology dealing with our planning activities and to lay on a session that would detail the activities we have been undertaking in this area. Associated with this presentation would be one on the program management plan just now under development. With this presentation, I think we can get the study back on the track. Indeed, it seems to be necessary if they are to listen intelligently to the statements that will be made by Pickering, von Braun and Goett. I want them to get the full import of the concerns that will be expressed by these men who are in charge of our field development centers. However, I want them to have this against an understanding of our program planning and management.
At 10:00, I listened to the presentation of the Saturn source selection board. This is apt to be one of the most controversial and difficult of the source selections that I have to make. It actually covers the contracting for the so-called S-IV stage of Saturn. This is a four-engined, 80,000 lb. thrust, liquid hydrogen-liquid oxygen stage that [124] will find use in all of the various models of Saturn. The company winning this competition is assured of some reasonable edge in subsequent competitions for other stages for this launch vehicle system. Presently, Convair in San Diego has an edge since it is our contractor on the Centaur stage. This unit, being developed for use with an Atlas, is also to be the top stage for the Saturn.11 It is the first unit in this country to make use of liquid hydrogen as a fuel.
A lunch with Dr. York for the purpose of discussing his viewpoint with respect to Joe Charyk and others who might be candidates for Dick Horner's job or ultimately for my job. He brought up the name of Rube Mettler of Space Technologies Laboratories, of whom we had not thought. He would be a really fine man if we could get him.12 York seems to think Charyk a good man. I told him of Tommy White's interest in the job.13 His response was less than entirely enthusiastic but indicated the desirability of some consideration. Herb York is desirous of going back to a university on some basis such that he can undertake a substantial amount of consulting so he may build up a backlog of funds over a period of five or six years. He then wants to come back into public service. He is a genuinely dedicated person with great ability. He has done a tremendous job - one that seemed almost impossible and perhaps still is - without doing more than acquiring the usual amount of enemies. I am glad he is coming to Case for the commencement. Ruth deserves the credit for this suggestion.
Back to the office for a meeting with Gleason, Johnson and Nunn on the legislative amendments we have before the House committee. The staff has asked for our judgment and drafting assistance on several provisions they think the committee is going to insist upon. The real issue is whether or not my intention to appoint a general advisory committee to me and the actions we already have underway to establish an activities coordinating board with the Department of Defense should be cast in concrete in the law. The committee is probably going to insist upon it. Actually, in the very early drafts of our proposals last November and December, I had included sections in the law to do just this. The White House staff had insisted they be taken out on the basis that authority to appoint advisory committees and coordinating boards already existed - there was no need to write it into the law. I agreed on our providing to the committee staff language that would be satisfactory to me. I insisted that the DOD have a chance at this language before the House committee put it into print. We will, however, bypass the budget bureau and the White House since we are acting in an unofficial manner on this particular problem.
[125] We had a meeting at 3 o'clock on Pioneer V, for the purpose of attempting to determine at what point in time and space we would turn on the 150-watt transmitter. I have been worried that the scientists would push the 5-watt transmitter much too far and would, one day, find themselves without the ability to turn on the 150-watt transmitter. There seems to be no real probability of this but, in order to establish a proper time for reviewing the situation again, we agreed that the higher-powered transmitter would be turned on at the ten-million-mile mark or when the signal had reached a minus-155-decibel level.14 I hope the scientists were reasonably well satisfied, but I doubt it.
By this time, I had missed a date I had made at the National Science Foundation to look at some more films prepared by the Educational Testing Service for use in high schools. This evening we had dinner with Admiral Bennett and his wife and Admiral James Russell [vice chief of Naval Operations] and his wife. It was a pleasant evening without too much excitement.
Wednesday, April 20: For some reason this day was a busy one without too much to show for it. Will Mickle, editor of the Huntsville Times, had a date with me at 10:00, which he did not keep. He had had trouble finding a room the night before through some mix-up involving hundreds of students visiting the great city of Washington. I was able to say hello to him but not to give him any time when he did come in.
At 11:00, Arthur Hermann, education columnist for the Gannett newspapers, came in to talk with me about the changing scene in education. I hope I gave him an encouraging story. I had a chance to speak of Case and its forward-looking program and I am anxious to see how the column will appear in the papers of this particular chain. At noon, I went over to the luncheon of the Advertising Club, which was held in honor of Leland I. Doan, president of Dow Chemical Company. It was pleasant to see him and to listen to the tributes paid to him. Apparently, this is the beginning of a week of promotion involving the use of Dow products by the Hecht Company.
A hurry-up trip to the Pentagon found me meeting with Dick Horner and Phil Taylor, assistant secretary of the Air Force. We were there to try to get a bit of background on the engineering and manufacturing load presently facing Convair and Douglas. This has to do with the decision we must make about the Saturn S-IV stage. The balance of the afternoon was spent in attempting to study the Saturn problem properly. I went home for a few minutes and returned to the Hecht Company with Herb Rosen to be on time for the television program on which I was to appear along with Lee Doan and others. This was about the most mixed-up operation I have ever seen. I had written a short piece - about five minutes - to use on the program, and I must say it was the only part of the program that had been prepared. There were many nice statements made about it; I hope it had some value.
[126] Thursday, April 21: Both Horner and Dryden were away and the staff meeting went off with a good bit of useful discussion. We finished up the staff paper on research advisory committees. The exchange of information was useful and pertinent. Immediately following the staff meeting, Johnson, Gleason and Nunn came in with the final revisions of the text for the House committee staff. Once again, I insisted that the Defense Department have a chance to look at the text. At 11:00, Jim McDonnell of St. Louis came in to report on Project Mercury. At least, that's what he told me he wanted to do. About three or four minutes was taken up with that aspect of the visit and the balance was a low pressure sales talk on the capabilities of the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation and the competition for the Saturn S-IV stage. Almost all of the competitors have now been in to see me under some pretext or other.
Immediately after lunch, Golovin, Rosenthal and Lilly came in to discuss the administrative personnel ceilings at Huntsville for the balance of this fiscal year. We have been able to set aside 100 positions but the people at Huntsville say it is a wholly impossible task - that they will need 500 plus positions before 1 July. This is the first inkling we have had of any difficulty of this sort. I suggest that there has been some bad planning at some point in the past.
At 6:00, I went over to the Washington Hotel where I was the recipient of the "Man of the Month" Award of the National Aviation Club. A great many people came in - only a few of them known to me. Most of them seemed to know me, but that is not unusual in Washington. A very short ceremony accompanied the presenting of the plaque and I responded in kind. It was a pleasant affair and I imagine it must do some good. I feel a little silly accepting awards of this kind, which supposedly single out a person who has done something unusual. Perhaps the fact that I have stayed in Washington this long on this trip is unusual. Back home for a visit with Ruth and a pleasant and light supper.
Friday, April 22: Will Mickle came in on time this time, and we had a few minutes together. It was obvious he had nothing particular on his mind - at least he was disarmingly clear in his avoidance of any questions that might make headlines in his newspaper. He simply wanted to assure us of his assistance at any stage of the game. At 11:00 Jim Gleason came in to talk over the legislative schedule for the next two or three weeks. It is obvious that I must get up on the Hill and do a little bit of "politicking". I'll get started on this Monday.
I called Dick Harkness and was able to get him to have lunch with me at Jack Hunt's Raw Bar. Dick had to do a radio commentary on the arrival of President de Gaulle but this was to take place ten minutes before 1:00 within two blocks of the restaurant. I saw the very large crowd - avoided it - and arrived at the restaurant in time to get a good table. Dick soon appeared and we had a pleasant lunch. Ruth and I have eaten here several times but have never seen Jack Hunt. Shortly after Dick had come in, a heavy-set man in what appeared to be work clothes stepped up to the table and said, "You are Dr. Glennan and Richard Harkness, aren't you?" He went on to say that he was Jack Hunt and "wouldn't we be his guests?" He was really very pleasant and seemed pleased that we had [127] come in. Dick Harkness has some problems with his youngster who wants to go on for graduate work in physics but is having a little difficulty gaining admittance to the two or three schools he has selected on the basis of their reputations. Apparently, his academic record is good but not exceptional.
At 2:30 John Corson and Don Stone came in to interview me on the organizational advisory committee's program. I don't think I helped them much, but we did clarify a few problems. It seemed to me that they were striking at some rather unimportant targets and I spared no words in telling them so.
At 4:00 Shelby Thompson came in and we had a talk about the possibility of his joining up with us as head of our public and technical information activities. This is the job about which I have been worrying for several weeks. He is going to think the matter over - he is under a severe mental strain because of the serious illness of his wife.
Saturday, April 23: This was a really busy day. We got up rather leisurely and had a good breakfast; then I attempted to do a bit of work. Most of it had to do with trying to get started on a speech for the Foreign Policy Association in New York on 11 May, but I managed to get a good letter written to Vannevar Bush. I hope he will respond in kind. [After a visit to the farm of friends near the new Chantilly airport,] we dashed back to the apartment and prepared for a call at the French embassy where we were invited - along with two thousand other persons - to a reception for President de Gaulle. This turned out to be a pleasant affair and was exceptionally well handled. I did not know too many of the people there, but we enjoyed a couple of glasses of champagne and some of the very excellent French pastries.
Leaving there, we dashed back to the apartment and changed again - this time into black tie - for a dinner with Deputy Secretary of Defense Jim Douglas and the administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, Pete Quesada. This was a dinner given for several of their friends - perhaps fifty in all - preceding a concert of the Air Force music organizations. This was a benefit performance for the Air Force Wives' Association fund. It was a hot night - the thermometer had stood at 91 during the day. The auditorium was not cooled and everyone suffered accordingly. What a day! Ruth had a chance to change her dress four times and we managed all of our engagements without excessive strain. I did not get much work done, but I think that's not too bad an idea for this weekend.
Sunday, April 24: Again, we had a leisurely breakfast and then set out for the airport, where I was to find my dinner jacket that had been left there some two weeks before. I had needed it last night but was able to "make do" with a white dinner jacket and the trousers of my full dress suit. We drove on to Huntlands where we spent the day with George and Alice Brown and his brother Herman and his wife. Being with the Browns is a real joy. They are very relaxing and make one feel completely at home. I am sure that we will enjoy using the house during the summer and for once, I have no compunctions about it. They are so genuine in their desire to have us make use of the facility that I think it would be an affront if we had the opportunity and did not accept.
[128] Back at the apartment finishing up this recording and trying to clean up the desk. I did forget to tell the tape about a really interesting situation that happened this past week. When Congressman Albert Thomas desires to do something on the floor of the House about a bill he is presenting, he seems to go into cahoots with Congressman Gross. At least, it appears that way, for Congressman Gross is continually raising "points of order" on particular items of particular bills. When our 1961 appropriation bill was being presented, it contained $10,000 for extraordinary expenses - these being entertainment expenses for specific and proper purposes. This represented a cut of $10,000 from the amount we had asked. It so happens, the Senate has not as yet passed the authorization legislation. Thus, a point of order could have been raised to stall the entire appropriation action within the House of Representatives. Gross this time raised a point of order only about the $10,000. Thomas admitted that the point of order was valid and the chair sustained it. Actually, this action had the effect of restoring the full $20,000 due to a legalistic twist in the legislation.
It seemed wise to call Thomas and bring this to his attention - in fact, to invite his suggestion that we act in good faith and operate at the $10,000 level if at all possible. When I asked the question of him he stated that our people were completely wrong - that Gross' action had stricken the entire amount from the bill. I said, "Well, then Albert, I guess we will have to go and attempt to get it back on the Senate side. Will you be willing to assist in this?" Albert responded in the affirmative. Next episode - I ran into Thomas at the concert on Saturday night. He stopped me and said, "You know, Doctor, your budget man is legally exactly right but, morally, he is entirely wrong." I should like to have exclaimed, "the pot calling the kettle black!"
Monday, April 25: I was a little late getting in this morning and arrived to find that Johnson, Gleason, Horner, Dryden and others were waiting for me to discuss the draft bill prepared by the House Legislative Committee. We agreed that it did no violence to any of our principles. I think that Johnny Johnson has done an excellent job in containing what might otherwise have been a difficult situation. His advice is always sound - at least, it seems that way to me. A little bit late, we listened to the source evaluation committee's report on a lunar hard landing capsule project.15 This is one of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's responsibilities. JPL presented a good report and it does not seem that it will be difficult to accept its recommendation - at least its evaluation.
At 11:00, Maurice Taggert came in to urge consideration of his request for a job. He is the man who has been recommended to us by John McCormack. He [129] is a Boston Irishman without formal education who has worked his way up in the civil service to grade 15. He is now in the Boston office of the Internal Revenue Service; he wants to change again and come back to Washington at his same grade level. He is so certain of his own capabilities that it was difficult to talk with him, but I hoped I discouraged his anticipation of any early decision. This is one of those problems that I will have to see John McCormack on and hope that he is a little bit more reasonable in this one than he has been previously. Politics may be the art of compromise but it is also the art of influence.
At 11:30, von Braun, Horner and Ostrander came in with Hugh Dryden to deal finally with the Saturn S-IV stage competition. I gave my reasons for selecting the Douglas Company as the winner and found, to my satisfaction, that all present agreed with me. This is not an easy decision to reach - the competitors, Convair and Douglas, were quite close together. The over-riding concern is that of providing an opportunity for some semblance of competition.
Rube Mettler of Space Technology Laboratories came in at noon for lunch with me. I was trying to interest him in taking on Dick Horner's job. Mettler has made close to a million dollars out of his association with the Space Laboratories but he has so committed himself with his superiors and with Dr. Louis Dunn that it is only reasonable to expect that he must respect those commitments. He did not have any particular suggestions that would be helpful in this situation. Hence, we must look to the next man.
Having swallowed my disappointment on Mettler, I repaired to the Pentagon to visit with Joe Charyk. He is deputy secretary of the Air Force and seems to enjoy his experiences here in Washington. He has been strongly recommended for the Horner job. Once again, he has accepted so many responsibilities in connection with his present job that he believes he should not leave it until the end of the current administration. I cannot argue with a person in this situation - he has spent the better part of a year getting to the point where he now believes he can make real progress. To change at this time seems unwise. Once again, we must look elsewhere.
I have been having difficulty in securing clearance in the matter of the AEC- NASA relationships. Attempting to avoid a clash with Clinton Anderson and some of the committee members on the Joint Congressional Committee on Atomic Energy seems almost a full-time job. I was able to get hold of Norris Bradbury [director of the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory] today and he confirmed my impression that we are in complete agreement on the pace and course to be followed in the Rover Project.16 I will now try to get John McCone on the line and attempt to clarify and then crystallize the management picture. Norris says that he has as [130] much trouble with McCone as I do. The ways of important men are often difficult to fathom.
Horner has had his center directors in today and we are going to his house for buffet supper tonight. I am looking forward to this.
Tuesday, April 26: The dinner at Horner's house was very pleasant last night. He built the house two or three years ago. It is situated in a very attractive location, is air-conditioned and well suited for modern living. I should think he might be a little unhappy about leaving it. We did not stay overly long but had good conversation while there. I had called a meeting at 8:30 this morning to deal with the award of the Saturn S-IV stage contract and the lunar hard-landing capsule contract. Von Braun and Pickering were added to the group so that they might, in effect, be a part of the decision-making process - at least they could protest if they so desired. In this instance they were both happy with the decisions I had made. Having established this fact, we got on with the business of determining who would carry out what part of the program set up for notification of the winning contractor, the organizations that had lost in the competition, the interested congressmen, the press, etc.
I had asked Bonney to prepare draft stories for our review this morning. Really, it is almost unbelievable that such inadequate releases could be prepared. I don't want to be unreasonable but one wonders what is necessary to develop a sense of responsible reporting in an office such as our Public Information Office. We did a bit of drafting at the table and were able to build on the framework given us so that a reasonably satisfactory release was available in each instance. I had to call Donald Douglas and I asked Horner to call the Ford people about the lunar capsule. Marvin Stone, a new Washington correspondent for the U.S. News and World Report, came in to see me. He is a friend of Senator Hartke's and seems a responsible person. I had to cut the visit short and take him down to see Bonney because I had to be up on the Hill to do a little "politicking."
In rapid succession, I saw Congressman Anfuso, Congressman Roush, and Congressman Dave King. I was attempting to get them to understand why it seemed unwise to me and to NASA to include in the legislation sections relating to the establishment of a general advisory committee and the aeronautics and space activities coordinating board. These could be covered adequately by strong statements in a report prepared by the committee to accompany the proposed legislation. The real problem, of course, is that the committee wants to have some hand in the draftsmanship and it is improbable, therefore, that we will have our way. I called Congressman King out of the executive session of the committee to talk with him. This was a mistake - or was it? Almost immediately, word was sent out from the committee room asking me to appear. I found myself on the witness stand for almost an hour. It was a good session. The committee was in good spirits and I enjoyed the debate. As a matter of fact, I found out later that they accepted my strong recommendation on the general advisory committee but I did not win on the activities coordinating board.
[131] Anfuso, Roush, and King all gave me strong support. The value of maintaining a good relationship with these people is demonstrated over and over again. At 11:30 I hastened over to the Senate television recording studio to do a 15-minute program with Senator Saltonstall. He is a pleasant fellow and I think doing these TV recordings with people of this sort has real value for myself and the agency.
For the first time, I really used the automobile telephone to good advantage. I was late but wanted to get Donald Douglas on the telephone in California before going to lunch. By the time I had returned to the office, he was on the phone and I was able to tell him the good news for his company regarding the Saturn S-IV stage.
Lunch at the Army and Navy Club with Admiral Chick Hayward. He has been criticizing our lack of attention to research and development in the aeronautical field. I shamed him into agreeing to make the trip to Langley with me on Thursday. At 1:30, I went to the Federal Council on Science and Technology where we heard John McCone speak about the high energy physics program of the nation and raise some questions about the materials research program. In the first instance, it is clear that the high energy physicists have an inside track but it isn't quite far enough inside. Actually, the country is facing an expenditure in excess of $200 million a year in this field, and this expenditure will continue as far as one can determine into the future. When he came to the materials program, John stubbed his toe. Only his agency has failed to pick up its responsibility in this matter. I hope he got the point. The council had had a request from the National Security Council to make a series of studies. As we looked them over, we asked that the NSC reconsider its request. There is just too much to be done between now and the end of this administration to make a bunch of studies - particularly, if the studies are not to be carried out by the people who have responsibility at the present time.
At 5:30, I was asked to be over at the White House at 5:50. Getting to the White House a few minutes early, I was able to talk over my problems with General Goodpaster. It was interesting to see that the office was kept advised by radio-telephone of the progress of President Eisenhower from Burning Tree Golf Club clear into the White House. I did have about a half an hour with him and discussed the probability of giving him a sound proposal for a cooperative project with the Russians. He asked some searching questions, expressed himself strongly about Khrushchev's recent public utterances and then said, "Go ahead and get this prepared - I think it's a good idea." I told the president about the long distance repair job done by one of the Space Technology Laboratory people on Pioneer V.17 He was delighted. Back home for a good dinner with a feeling of satisfaction at the results of the day's work.
[132] Wednesday, April 27: For some reason, I misplaced a piece of paper on which I had made a list of a good many things that I wanted to accomplish today. Search as I will, I cannot find it. I'll make short work of the record of this day's work because it wasn't too impressive. At 9 o'clock, I took a look at a movie made by the Air Force entitled, "A Survey of Astronautics." It was a pretty good description of the NASA program. How does one keep ahead of the military in matters of this kind. The implication, of course, was that all space activities were to be undertaken by the Air Force - therefore, join the Air Force.
Over to the White House to talk to Goodpaster about the necessity for clearing with a number of people on the cooperative proposal for the Russians. This will be done through the Operations Coordinating Board. Frank Phillips takes on that job and I am sure it will be done well. A quick lunch while listening to the recording of the president's press conference and then off in a hurry to the Senate TV recording rooms again to record a 15-minute tape with Senator Hruska of Nebraska.
From this session, I went directly to Goddard Space Flight Center where I took part in a ceremony commemorating the first anniversary of the establishment of the laboratory and awarded several service pins.
Back to the office to visit with a man Jim Gleason wants to hire. He seems like a good man and I approved this transaction. At 4:30, Horner, Dryden and others got together with me to review several problems. High on the list was the nuclear rocket program. I hope one day we get this settled. Now it is 10:30 and I have been at work practically continuously trying to get the desk cleared up and all of the paper work done so that I can leave for three or four days without a feeling of work incompleted.
Thursday, April 28: We took off from Butler at 8:30 for a day's visit to Langley. Ruth went along with me and was entertained by two or three ladies from the Langley Research Center who took her on a tour of some of that part of the country. Accompanying me were Abbott, Admiral Hayward, Capt. Keene of the Navy Bureau of Weapons and Capt. Myers of the Office of Naval Research. I had wanted to make this trip to have a look at the aeronautical research being carried on by NASA. Admiral Hayward had been critical of our activities - stating, out of ignorance mainly, that we were dropping the ball with respect to aeronautical research. The day was a successful one and the boys at Langley gave a good account of themselves. Discussion was had of our work in the VTOL/STOL type aircraft, structures, Mach 3 configurations and a variety of allied subjects.18 I have had a note from Admiral Hayward admitting his ignorance of the true facts. It is still not clear that we are doing as much as we should in this field, however.
At 3:10, Ruth and I took off for Boston in the NASA plane. We were to spend the night with General and Mrs. [James] McCormack. The flight was a good [133] one although we were unable to land at the Boston airport because of fog. We did land at Hanscom Air Force Base at Bedford. This was only 40 minutes away from Boston and caused us no inconvenience. We had a pleasant evening with the McCormacks and General James Doolittle who was in Boston for the same purpose as I - namely, a meeting of the MIT visiting committee on sponsored research. The dinner was as lovely as Mac's dinners always are and the wine was superb.
Friday, April 29: The day was taken up entirely with the activities of the visiting committee. In the morning, we spent most of the time at Lincoln Laboratories. There, in contrast to the situation I had noted two years ago, there has been developed a fine program of basic research with perhaps 50 percent of the effort of the entire group given over to this activity. There is an atmosphere of competence and academic quality about the entire operation. They have transformed themselves from a burgeoning project-oriented group to one in which stability of personnel and quality of research are the principal themes. Much of the responsibility for this must go to Carl Overhage and, I expect, to Jay Stratton. In any event, there is credit enough for everyone in this situation.
Late in the morning we drove to the Instrumentation Laboratory, which is headed by Stark Draper. Draper is the most knowledgeable man in America if not in the world in guidance equipment. Most of the gyro-stabilized and inertial reference guidance equipments now in use or in development stem from his original work. He knows this and, while he was not in attendance on this particular occasion, most of his audiences know it before he is finished. I gained the impression that the Instrumentation Laboratory had really run its course as an academically associated laboratory. I say this in spite of the fact that a good deal of educational activity seems to be going on there. The entire operation appears to be that of a factory, however. I am sure that the income to MIT is substantial - I believe it's in the neighborhood of $2 million a year. In spite of this, however, I and my associates would recommend limiting its growth and allowing it to phase out gradually as personnel attrition begins to occur. I hope that our report to the corporation will state this rather clearly.
After a quick lunch at the Instrumentation Laboratory, we visited several other laboratories including the Computer Laboratory, a biological element of the Institute on Communication Sciences, the Physics Research Group, and an Icing Phenomena Laboratory. We were not particularly impressed by the last of these - it would fit better into an industrial organization's operations. After having completed our visits, we repaired to the Algonquin Club for a drink, dinner and some discussion. It was during the course of this discussion that we agreed that relatively harsh words should be said about the Instrumentation Laboratory. Much of this was centered about the fact that Stark Draper is an individualist - one who has never been willing to concern himself about his successor. I added my own strong convictions about the nature of the task being done as one that stretches the concept of an academically-associated research activity.
Returning to Mac's home, I found Ruth, Eleanor and Mac still out at dinner. They came back; we had a nightcap and were off to bed. Once again, I found myself thinking over a day at MIT as an experience of real significance. This is a [134] truly great institution - it needs to watch the course of its growth if it is not to fall into bad habits with respect to its extra-educational activities. It has the same standing in its field as Harvard, Yale or Princeton in the large university field and Swarthmore, Pomona, Oberlin, etc. in the small college group. It commands respect as few institutions do. How to continue to warrant this respect without becoming supercilious on the one hand or bowing to crass materialism on the other is going to be a problem.
Saturday, April 30: We were up early, had a nice breakfast with the McCormacks, accepted a gift of a couple of bottles of wine, and were off to the airport and to Cleveland. We landed at 11:45 and, picking up a car from NASA, drove directly home. Alter picking up Sally, I had a brief lunch and prepared for a meeting with Kent Smith and Fred Crawford.
1. The Nikes were early U.S. guided missiles developed primarily for defense. With other rockets added to the solid-propellant version of the Nike, various sounding rockets became available. The Asp (atmospheric sounding projectile) was a sounding rocket in its own right, first tested in 1956. Combining it with the Nike increased the weight it could lift from 13.6 kilograms (30 lbs.) to 27 kilograms (60 lbs.) and the height it could reach from 40 kilometers (25 miles) to 260 kilometers (160 miles). (William R. Corliss, NASA Sounding Rockets, 1958-1968: A Historical Summary [Washington, D.C.: NASA SP-4401, 1971], pp. 24, 32, 80.) Using the Nike-Asp and also the Nike-Cajun, in 1961-1962 the Italian Space Commission measured the upper atmospheric winds through ground photography of illuminated sodium vapor released from the rocket. (Frutkin, International Cooperation in Space, p. 56.)
2. A plasma engine used a heavy gas such as nitrogen, compressed and accelerated in a cylindrical magnetic field. There, molecules were broken into electrons and positive ions, with the flow constricted to a thin cylinder at the axis of the electrodes to emerge as a jet of extreme temperature passing through the engine's nozzle. This appears to have been the concept involved in two contracts NASA awarded on 18 April 1960 to Avco Manufacturing and General Electric for a one-year competitive project to develop a laboratory model of a 30-kilowatt arc-jet (electric-propulsion) engine. (Emme, Aeronautics and Astronautics . . . 1915-1960, p. 122; NASA, Third Annual Report in the Fields of Aeronautics and Space, 18 January 1961, p. 19.) Throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s, Lewis Research Center investigated several types of electric rockets, including an ion (electrostatic) thrustor, an electro-thermal thrustor, and electromagnetic or plasma accelerators, but the projects seem to have ended in the 1970s, although related efforts revived again in the late 1980s or early 1990s. ("Electric Propulsion" folders, NASA Historical Reference Collection.)
3. This was the fourth suborbital test under Project Shotput of the 100-foot-diameter balloon later called Echo, which in this test rose to an altitude of 235 miles and successfully inflated. (Emme, Aeronautics and Astronautics . . . 1915-1960, p. 121.)
4. As Glennan understood it, "each [of the two men] would employ but a single agency to carry out both military and non-military activities in space," with Medaris choosing the DOD and Pickering, NASA. Glennan showed the drawbacks of both proposals in his letter and argued that "we are well on the way to achieving a satisfactory management-level coordination that will work." (T. Keith Glennan to James M. Quigley, House of Representatives, 4 Apr. 1960, Glennan subsection, NASA Historical Reference Collection.)
5. On the Borcherts see note 9, Chapter 3. Below in the diary, the Richmonds were friends in Washington.
6. In the summer of 1959, NASA had contracted with the Aeronutronic Division of Ford Motor Co. to perform a computational study of radar and trajectories for tracking and data acquisition purposes. Later, Ford Aeronutronics provided the lunar capsule subsystems for Ranger 3 through Ranger 5, all failed attempts to collect data about gamma rays and the Moon itself, although later Ranger missions, as discussed below, were successful and important. (NASA Historical Data Book, Vol. II, pp. 314-316, 560.)
7. Senator Anderson had led a fight against President Eisenhower's appointment of Admiral Lewis Strauss to be his secretary of commerce. Admiral Strauss (U.S. Navy, Reserve) served as chairman of the AEC from 1953-1958 but declined reappointment because of the hostility of Senator Anderson, who as a member of the congressional watchdog committee for the AEC had frequently clashed with Strauss. Then in 1959, Anderson and other senators succeeded in defeating Strauss' appointment to be secretary of commerce, much to the president's chagrin. Long before the confirmation fight began on 17 March 1959, Strauss had taken his oath as secretary of commerce on 13 November 1958. He served in that capacity until the final vote against him, which did not occur until 19 June 1959. (Dwight D. Eisenhower, The White House Years: Waging Peace, 1956-1961 [Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1965], pp. 392-396; Ambrose, Eisenhower the President, p. 530.)
8. The Centaur rocket was an upper stage, used with the Atlas booster to launch the Surveyor lunar probes (1966-1968) and other scientific satellites. Originally intended for earlier Mars and Venus spacecraft (1962-1965), the Centaur experienced launch development problems and was not available until 1966. It was the first American launch vehicle using liquid hydrogen as a propellant, which explains some of its early problems, the result of heat transfer between liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen fuel tanks, causing evaporation of the liquid hydrogen. (NASA Historical Data Book, vol. II, pp. 42-44.)
9. Morse Salisbury was then assistant to the general manager of the Atomic Energy Commission.
10. Sunflower was a project to develop a spacecraft solar powerplant. NASA announced on 19 April 1960 that it had awarded the contract for the project to Thompson-Ramo-Wooldridge. (Emme, Aeronautics and Astronautics . . . 1915-1960, p. 122.)
11. As things turned out, the Centaur (developed by Convair Astronautics Division of General Dynamics Corporation) was not the second stage for the Saturn I but did provide a basis for the development of the RL-10 engines (by Pratt & Whitney) that were used in the S-IV stage of that launch system. (For this complex evolution and its further details, see Bilstein, Stages to Saturn, pp. 131-140, 188-190.)
12. Ruben F. Mettler (1924- ) had been a division director for Hughes Aircraft Co., a special assistant to the secretary of defense, and an assistant general manager for Ramo-Wooldridge Corp. before becoming president and director of Space Technologies Laboratories, Inc. in 1958.
13. Thomas D. White (1901-1965) was an Air Force general who served as chief of staff of the Air Force from 1957-1961.
14. Pioneer V had two transmitters for sending data back to Earth, with the 5-watt one acting as the driver. On ground command, the power could be increased to 150 watts. (A Record of NASA Space Missions since 1958, Alfred Rosenthal, comp. [Greenbelt, MD: Goddard Space Flight Center, 1982], pp. 26-27.)
15. This was evidently a reference to Project Ranger, in the early years a troubled program of lunar exploration but one that was highly successful in its last three flights, serving to provide information on the lunar surface that was essential for the later Apollo program and helped to further scientific study of the Moon. (R. Cargill Hall, Lunar Impact: A History of Project Ranger [Washington, DC: NASA SP-4210, 1977].) At this particular meeting, Dr. Glennan selected the Aeroneutronic Division of Ford Motor Co. to develop and produce the first survivable capsule for landing instruments on the Moon. (Emme, Aeronautics and Astronautics...1915-1960, p. 122; R. Cargill Hall, Project Ranger: A Chronology [Pasadena: JPL/HR-2, 1971], p. 168.)
16. In the joint NASA-AEC Project Rover to develop a nuclear rocket, the AEC was responsible for reactor development and NASA for "integration of the reactor into engines and vehicles." (Undated article by Harold B. Finger, "Nuclear Energy for Advanced Space Missions," in "Nuclear Propulsion: Project Rover" file, NASA Historical Reference Collection.) The Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory had primary responsibility for AEC's mission in the project to develop a rocket reactor. (NASA, Third Annual Report in the Fields of Aeronautics and Space, 18 Jan. 1961, p. 31.)
17. On 24 April 1960, NASA announced that Robert Gottfried of Space Technology Laboratories, Inc., had successfully compensated for a faulty diode by working out a new translation code for a telebit channel that collected information from sensors before transmitting it back to Earth. Dr. Glennan congratulated Gottfried "who reached 5.5 million miles into space to clear a trouble that threatened the continuing performance of Pioneer V." (News Release, Apr 24, 1960, in Pioneer V folder, NASA Historical Reference Collection.)
18. VTOL and STOL are acronyms referring to "vertical takeoff and landing" and "short takeoff and landing," respectively. They refer to capabilities of aircraft other than helicopters to take off and land either vertically or on a very short runway. Mach, of course, refers to velocity in relation to the speed of sound in a given medium (e.g., about 741 mph in dry air at 32° F. and at sea level).