Manned Space Flight 1966

8/8/2019 Manned Space Flight 1966

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George E. MuellerNational Aeronautics and Space Administrat ion

This pamphlet is based on material presented by Dr. GeorgeE. Mue!!er te The Egsicess C a ~ n c i ! r! Washington, D. C.;on February 17, 1966. Dr. Mueller, Associate Administratorfor Manned Space Flight, has been a member of the Wash-ington staff of NASA since September 1, 1963. He is re-sponsible for the Gemini and Apollo programs, the studiesof advanced manned missions and the institutional directiono f field centers in Houston, Texas, Huntsville, Alabama andCape Kennedy, Florida. Before joining NASA he was pro-fessor of electrical engineering at Ohio State University andthen vice president of Space Technology Laboratories,Redondo Beach, California.


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MANNED SPACE FLIGHT 1966The U nited States is ca rrying on a great nationalendeavor to achieve pre-em inence in space and t odemonstrate that leadership before the end of thisdecade by landing men on the moon and returning

them safely to earth. To achieve thi s goal, theUnited States wil l have developed a broad base ofequipmen t, trained m anpower and ind ustr ial supportthat is capable of c arrying out space missions otherthan the manned lunar f l ight.This pamphlet wil l report on the program by cov-ering five topics:The status today,The investment,The returns to date,What else can be done and why that might beDecisions that need to be made now.desirable, and


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COMPETITIONThe com petition is keen. On February 3, 1966,the Soviets reminded the world of their intentionsin space by land ing a spacecraft soft ly on the moon.On March 1, 1966, a Soviet spacecraft struck theplane t Venus. The Soviet investm ent in space is of

the same order as that of the Unite d States. Thepace of the Soviet program almost doubled in 1965,including the launching of a new booster, used toorbit th e Proton spacecraft, a bout a ton heavier thananything placed in orbit by the United States.The indus tr ial, scienti fic and enginee ring com -munit ies in Europe have become increasingly con-cerned about th e technical leadership they believeis accruing to the Uni ted States and th e Soviet Un ionas the result of the space programs. France haslaunched two satel l i tes from its Sahara Desert basesince November, 1965. Japan has disclosed plansto launch a sate l li te i n the near future.Now, where are we today? The Space Age beganon October 3, 195 7. From an area east of the AralSea in Soviet Kazakhstan, the fir st artific ial sate lliteof the earth was placed in orbit . The Soviets cal ledit Sputnik. It weighed almost 200 pounds.Three months later, the United States placed itsf irs t satel l i te in orbit . Ours weighed th ir ty pounds.Today, we are able to boost payloads w eighing 1,000t imes the f i rst Amer ican sate l l i te , Explorer I. Nextyear, we w il l be able t o boo st payloads 10,000 t imesthe weight of Explorer I. Thus the pace of our pro-gram is increasing.U p to now, four d if ferent cra ft have been used in


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space. The firs t was the on e-seat Soviet Vostok,which carried men five t imes and a woman once.Then there was our one-man Mercury, which placedmen in orbit four t imes. The next Soviet spacecraftwas the Voskhod, f lown twice-the f irs t t im e withthree m en and the second with two. Then there wasour two-m an Gemini, wh ich has been flown six t imeswith men. The latest spacecraft, which has no t yetf lown men, is our three-ma n Apollo. The Apollo con-sists of three separate units-the comman d mod ulein which the astronauts r ide on takeoff, the lunarmodule, w hich lands two men on the moon and l i f tsthem off again, and the service module, which sup-plies propu lsion that f ina lly retu rns th e crew to earth. 'i0MANNED SPACECRAFT ,

GEMINI7.000 LBS APOLLO95.000 LBS.(US.)SOVIET) (U.S ) (SOVIET) ( U S )


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STATUSThis last year has been particularly successful forthe United States, both in manned and unmannedflight. Last Ma rch, for instance, we saw pictures l ivefrom the moon just before the Ranger spacecraftimpacted on the lunar surface.In July, we received the firs t p ictu res taken fro mclose to Mars. We saw craters, very m uch li ke thosewe saw on the moon. We learned that the Martianatmosphere is less dense than had been expected.Altogether, dur ing 1965 , the National Aeronauticsand Space Administrat ion launched spacecraft on

28 missions. Of these 23 were successful for a rec-ord of 82 percent success. This pu blic atio n wi l l con-centrate the bulk of i t s attent ion on the mannedspace f l ight program.Du ring 1 965, the Gemini spacecraft was f lown sixt imes, once unmanned in addit ion to the f ive t imeswith men. The missions increased in duration byregular amounts, from a day and a half by GordonCooper in the f inal M ercury f l ight in 196 3 to four teendays by the end of 1965. Perhaps the most s igni f i -cant result of the Gemini program to date is that inevery case, the men returned in excellent health,both physical and mental.Jim Mc Divit t and Ed White were up four days inJune. Cooper f lew again in August, this t ime withCharles Conrad, for eight days. Frank Borman andJames Lovell were in orbit two weeks in December,about twice as long as a f l ight to the moon and back.From the m edica l point of view, the f l ights showedtha t w ell- trained men can l ive and work in space for

Astronaut Ed White, June 3, 1965


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Mars craters vi a Mariner IV , July 14,1965

weightlessness does not appear to cause any seriousafte r effects. The astronauts heart rates, for ex-ample, were m easured continuously durin g f l ight andafter their re turn. The heart rates tended to slowdown sl ightly the f irst few days of f l ight an d then s ta-bilized a t a new lower level. After return to earth thepilots heart rates returned to their prefl ight normin a day or two. When the duration was extendedto four, eight and then fourteen days, the recoverytime did not signif icantly change. So far as ourmedical people can determine at this t ime, f l ightsof a m onth or more in dura tion are feasible. Alto-gether, in Gemini last year 1,299 hours in spacewere logged, % of a man-year on the job.

A signif ica nt event of 1965 was Ed Whites twenty-two m inute tr ip outside the spacecraft. White provedthat man can do useful work in space. He showedthat man is able to move about in space with ahand-held compressed-oxygen maneuvering unit.White was alert and effective throughout the t imehe was outside, and there was no disorientation.Finally, rendezvous was achieved. There wastrouble in October when the Agena target vehiclefa i led to reach orb i t . Consequently, our plans hadto be changed. W ithin the hour afte r Lovell andBorm an took off on the ir two-week f l igh t in Gemini 7,people were at work around the clock, sett ing upanother vehicle on the same launch pad.Gemin i 6 l i f te d off eleven days later with WallySchirra and Tom Stafford. They carr ied out a com-plex series of maneuvers for f ive hours. Then at anal t i tude of 185 miles above the Pacif ic Ocean the


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On March 16, 1966, in the Gemini 8 mission,astronauts Nei l Armstrong and David Scott achievedactual docking of their spacecraft and an unmannedAgena target vehicle.Many people deserve credit for these outstandingaccomplishments. A broad-based government-indus-try team ca rried out the work. McDonnell of St.Louis bu i l t the spacecraft . Other f l ight hardware wasprovided by the Air Force and i ts industrial partner,M art in of Balt imore, as well as many other concernsthrough out the coun try. The Navy recovered al l ofthe spacecraft f ro m the ocean after they came down.The NASA and A i r Force people at Houston and CapeKennedy are responsible for managem ent and opera-t ions. The astronauts were magn if icent.Another aspect of Gemini is worth not ing. A yearago, the program was behind schedule and we wereconcerned about the possibi l i ty of cost overruns.Through management act ions and a new contract i nwhich the prof i t of the contractors engaged in theGemini program is t ied to thei r total performance,schedules have been accelerated and costs are un dercontrol. I think the operat ion of these contracts hasconst i tuted one of the f inest examples of the properwork ing of the free enterprise system.We have also m ade progress in the Apollo p ro-gram, w hich is the largest research and developmentprog ram th is country has ever undertaken. Apol lorequires us to develop two major launch vehiclesand a three-part spacecraf t , to assemble a nat ion-wide go vernm ent- industry team, to construct a com-

c c

Love11 and Borrnan return after 14 days in spaceDecember 18. 1965


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Apollo spacecraft on special transport plane

ten f l ights of the Saturn I, ten were successful. Thisis an unprecedented record of success in rocket de-velopment. Mu ch of the technology req uired for thelater Saturn launch vehicles to be used in themanned Apollo f l igh ts was proven out in the Saturn Iprogram. The guidance system was developed. Th econcept of clustered rocket engines was validated.And the program supplied experience in using l iquidhydrogen as rocket fuel. Liquid hydrogen is impo r-tant because it provides double the fuel economyof earlier fuels-that is, about twice as ma ny mile sper gallon. However, before it could be used it wasnecessary t o learn to store it at temperatures m orethan 400 degrees b elow zero.On February 26, 1966, we successfully fl ighttested the u prated Saturn launch vehicle, the SaturnIB. The f l ight was unmanned. With this vehicle laterth is year, we wil l place some 35,000 pounds in orbit ,overtaking the Soviet 1965 achievements.In the February flight, we introduced a new con-cept in our f l igh t test ing procedures. We call it the"a l l up" concept. Bo th stages of the launch vehicle,a complex instrument uni t , and the command andservice modules of the spacecraft were flown to-gether for the f irst t ime. This method enables ust o get more test results on a single fl ight. However,it also represents some increase in risk.The Apollo program is on schedule. The Februaryf l ight was the major milestone we needed to accom-pl ish in 1966. The next major milestone wil l be amanned f l ight with this system, scheduled for 1967.


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PAYLOADIN POUNDS50,000

45.000

4 0 ,0 0 0

35 .000

30.000

25 ,000

20,Ooo

15 .000

10 ,000

5.000

1957 / 1958 1 \ 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965EXPLORER I PIONEER II ATLAS (SCORE)


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manned lunar landing by the end of this decade.Durin g 19 65, excellent progress was made in thedevelopment of the Saturn V launch vehicle and thespacecraft to be used on the lunar f l ights.All three stages of the Saturn V vehicle were fired

in ground tests. The five engines of the f irst stagegenerate a total thru st of 7,500,000 pounds, theequivalent horsepower of a l ine of 1966 automobiles,bumper to bumper, f rom New York to Los Angeles.The second stage combines 1,000,000 pounds ofthrust with the fuel economy of l iquid hydrogen.The third stage is the same as the second stage ofthe Saturn IB. The instrument uni t is the same.The spacecraft, as noted earlier, consists of thecommand module, the serv ice mo dule and the lunarmodule. The th ird stage, the instru me nt unit , thecommand module and the service module weretested in !!ight fo r the f irst t ime in February, 1966.Hardware is being assembled for a 19 67 f l ight testof the lunar module.The men are also being trained. Tw o-thirds of

our astronauts are occupied with the Gemini pro-gram . Bu t ten have already been assigned to Apollo.They are making intensive studies of lunar condi-t ions and the lunar terrain. A l l are undergoing thenecessary scientific training . And the first scientistastronauts are in training.With respect to the status of the Apollo program,the required Government-industry team i s in placeand working, the program is on schedule, a scheduleset when the program began, and if progress con-


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Test firing, Saturn V first stage

INVESTMENTNext, what have we invested in this program?When I say we, I mean both the government andindustry. The tota l is almost four bi l l io n dollars.About two and a half bi l l ion dollars of funds appro-pria ted to NASA have been used to acq uire fac ilit iesand their equipment. We have been able to makeuse of ground faci l it ies and p lant wor th $7 60 m i l l ionestablished by the Department of Defense for missileand other programs. Beyond this, American indus tryhas invested some $650 mil l ion of i ts stockholdersfunds in new faci l it ies and equipm ent required to doth is job.For example, at the Marshall Space Flight Center,Huntsville, Alabama, headed by Dr. Wernher von

Braun, we manage the work of industry in the de-velopment of launch vehicles and the integra tion ofexperimental devices in spacecraft.At the Michoud Assembly Facil i ty in New Orleans,we have a very large instal lat ion where indus tr ialcontractors, Boeing and Chrysler, m anufacture Sat-urn booster f irst stages.Forty miles from Michoud, we have convertedMississippi delta swamp land to another large faci l -i ty, where f irst and second stages of the Saturn Vare test f i red pr ior to acceptance f rom the manu-fact u er.An example of the uti l izat ion of industry invest-ment in the potent ia l of space is the Douglas Ai r -craf t p lant a t Huntington Beach, Cali fornia, wherethe f inal stages of the Saturns are manufactured.Douglas has invested more than $ 45 mi l l io n there.At Hous ton, Texas, i s the M anned Spacecraft Cen-


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Huntsvil le , Alabama

New Orleans

Mississippi

Huntington Beach, Cali fornia

Houston, Texas

tha n three years. Here we manage the work ofindu stry in the development of spacecraft, we tra infl ight crews, and we support manned space fl ightope rat ons.When al l of the f l ight equipment is manufacturedand tested a t these various facil i t ies, it is shippedby barge, helicopter or special aircraft to the Ken-nedy Space Center in Florida, headed by Dr. Kur tH. Debus.The e nt i re Apol lo Saturn V vehicle stands 360 feethigh. It is put together in vertical posit ion insidethe Vehicle Assembly Bu ilding , which in total volumeis the largest on earth. The vehicle stands on a plat-form about twice as large as a baseball diamond.When the vehicle is ready, the doors of the buildingopen and a crawler transporter carries it, st i l l invertical posit ion, onto a special roadway and travelsto the launch pad, more than three miles away. Onth e trip to the moon, the spacecraft wil l leave theearth a t a speed of seven miles a second. However,on t h i s pa r t of the journey, the speed l imit is on emile per hour.After the craft is launched into space, the missionis controlled from the Mission Control Center a tHouston.These manned space fl ight facil i t ies are spreadacross much of the United States-governmentinsta llation s in Florida, Alabama, M ississippi, L ouisi-ana, Texas and New Mexico, and plants used by in-dustry in California, New York, Wisconsin and M inne-


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Moonport , Complex 39, Kennedy Space Center, Florida

Vehicle Assembly Building exterior Vehicle Assembly Building interior


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MANNED SPACE FLIGHT TEAMI NASAHEADQUARTERSFOR MANNED SPACE FLIGHT

LOWER-TIER SUBC

Management is carr ied out by a geographical lydispersed program off ice whose directive structurepenetrates directly through the functional organiza-t ions of the f ield centers and the prime contractors,to the subcontractors and vendors.The technique s of m anagement of large scaleresearch and development employed in this o rgan i-zat ion may in the long run prove to be the mostvaluable asset derived fro m the en tire program . Oneof the fundamentals of this system is the identif ica-t io n of discrete manageable work packages. In add i-t ion, we have to assign individuals, both in govern-ment and industry, wi th c lear respo nsib i l i ty forcarry ing out the work on t ime, wi th in cost and tospecification. It is necessary to ma intain open chan-nels of communication between these people andthose doing related work bu t located elsewhere. Andwe must see to it that the status of the program iscontinually visible to everyone concerned.In manned space f l ight we have arr ived a t ourmanpower peak of 300,000 people. However, th eCivil Service component is only about 5 per cent ofthe tota l . Suppo r t ing these people is a group of con-trac tors who assist in the operation of our f ield cen-ters. With the rapid completion of the necessaryfaci l i t ies, cons truction manpower is phasing out. Thebulk of the manpower is engaged in research anddevelopment carr ied out by industr ial contractors.So far as our overal l manned space f l ight man-power is concerned, we have passed our peak inengineering, we are reaching our peak in manufac-tur in g, a nd we are at our peak in tota l manpower

1


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MAN YEARS SATURN 16 MANPOWEROne of the most strik ing anomalies of the spaceprogram i s that we must begin to "go out of busi-ness" before we f ly our f i r st operat iona l vehicle. Ou rexperience in the program to develop the Saturn IBvehicle i l lustra tes this si tuat ion. The decl ine in man-power employed on this phase of the program hasbeen under way since 1965, especial ly in the workon the f i rs t s tage. But the f i rs t f light did not takeplace unt i l February, 1966, and the f i rs t mannedfl ight was st i l l a year away. By the t im e mannedfl ights begin, the employment level wi l l be down toabout half the level at the peak.The same anomaly characterizes the overal l pro-gram . The f l ights of the Apol lo Saturn V wil l beginnext year after the program has begun i ts decl ineand the manned f l ights wi l l not take place unt i l1968, when this decl ine wi l l have been under wayfor some t ime.There are three points that should be made re-garding the investment in manned space f l ight.First, and perhaps most important, there existsan organizat ion consist ing of a government manage-ment s t ructure of 15,000 people and a pr ime con-t ractor s t ructure of 1 35,000 people. These, com-bined wi th the subcontractor s t ructure, m ake a totalo f 300,000 people trained and established in specialfaci l i t ies for manned space f l ight work.Second, the program is under control , work ingtoward clearly establ ished program goals, withintotal cost est imates establ ished a t the program in-cept on.Thi rd, the t ime has arr ived for a dec is ion as to

CY1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970

MAN YEARS MANNED SPACE FLIGHT MANPOWER


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RESOURCESNow what about the resources commit ted to thespace program?We are most fortunate to l ive in an economy thatis growing rapidly enough to permi t the country todo w hat is being done in Viet Nam and elsewhere.Despite increa sing totals of Federal expenditures,

the share of the gross nat ional product representedby these expenditures has been relat ively stable-close to 1 5 percent in the last several years.One way to v iew our nat ional commitment tospace act iv i t ies is to look at that set of relatedact iv i t ies encompassed by Federal expenditures forth e D epa rtmen t of Defense, the Atomic Energy Corn-miss ion and NASA.Twelve years ago, when the gross n at ion al prod uctwas $362 bi l l ion, the expenditures for nat ional de-fense, atom ic energy and the Nationa l Advisory Co m-mittee for Aeronautics (NASA's predecessor) totaled$47.1 bi l l ion. This was 13 percent of the grossnat ional product .In the current f iscal year, the projected total is

$62.26 bi l l ion, down to 8.9 percent of the grossnat ional product of $700 bi l l ion. In f iscal year 1 967 ,i f the gross nat ional product grows as ant ic ipated,the to ta l cos t o f $66 .12 b i l l i on for defense, a tomicenergy and NASA wil l represent only 8.8 percent .T h u s 2 i s c l ea r tha t t he s hare of our nat ional wealthrepresented by the costs of these related act iv i t ieshas been dec l in ing over the last decade and wi l lcont inue to d ec l ine in the c om ing fiscal year despi tesubstant ia l expendi tures for Viet Nam.In v iew of th is , I believe the nat ion can af ford to

I


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PERCEM

FEDERAL EXPENDITURESDEFENSE, ATOMIC ENERGY AND SPACEAS A PERCENTAGE OF THEGROSS NATIONAL PRODUCT

1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967FISCAL YEARS

FEDERAL ADMINmSTRATIVE BUOGET EXPENDINRESNATIONAL DEFFNSE. ATOMIC ENERGY AND SPACE

COMPARED WITH GROSS NATIONAL PWDU CT ( IN BILLIONS OF DOLLARS)GrossFiscal Defense &Defense Atomic NationalYear Related Energy NACA.NASA Total Product Percentage

1954 45.09 12.5% 1.895 0.52% 0.090 0.02% 47.1 362.1 13.0%1955 38.84 10.3% 1.857 0.49% 0.074 0.01% 40.8 378.6 10.8%1956 39.07 9.6% 1.651 0.40% 0.071 0.01% 40.8 409.4 10.0%


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RETURNSNext, let us examine the returns from this sub-stantial national investment, in addit ion to the ac-com plishm ent of progress goals. Many examplescome to mind . The use of com puters is prevalentthroug hou t American indus try and government. Com-puters make it possible to produce m ore at less cost.This frees people from routine, t ime -cons um ing workto use to the fu l lest their abi l i ty to th ink and create.Microminiatur ization has revolut ionized elec-tronics.Some segments of American industry can nowproduce valves that do not leak and radios that wil loutl ive the automobiles in which they are instal led.Space communication is a commercial enterprise

being carr ied out by the Comsat Corporation.Weather observation is being conducted f romspace on an operational basis.All-weather navigation service is pro vided to thefleet by satellites.Photographs taken from space have increasedAnd medicine has improved its understanding of

the w orkings of the human body, part icular ly thewell human body.

man's knowledge of the earth. Transistor radio circuit on the head of a pin


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MOON

OPTIONSBut let us return to the manned space f l ight pro-

gram. What comes next? W ith the accom plishmen tof the Apol lo program in this decade, we expect tobegin the explorat ion of the moon.However, the Apol lo system is not l imited tomann ed lun ar exploration. We can carry out a widevariety of f l ights in orbit about the earth, about themoon or to the moons surface. For example, it i spossible to place a spacecraft over any point of theEquator so t ha t it can maintain i ts posit ion above af ixed p oint on the ground. To do this, we m ust place

A second class of missions would be to developthe procedures of resupply for a space stat ion andto learn to t ransfer crew and mater ia ls between twospacecraft. Usin g the same techniques, it wouldalso be po ssible to m ake rendezvous with a Pegasusunmanned satel l i te now in orbit detect ing meteor-oids. The sensing panels could be returned to earthfor analysis.A thir d type of mission would place the spacecraftin orbit about the m oon for two weeks. Cameras andother sensing equipm ent could be used to survey the


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of the equipment lef t behind on the prev ious f l ightand to stay on the moon for several days.Now the question is why is it desirable to f ly suchmissions? What are the potent ial appl icat ions ofbenefi t to men on earth?With th e w eigh t-l i f t ing capab i l i ties avai lable, itwould be possible to place both large antennas andpowerful transm itters in stationary orbits. Mannedwith technicians, these stations are capable of oper-at in g over long periods of time. With such equ ip-ment, it would be possible to bring l ive television toal l countries of the world and to receive it on ord i -nary hom e receivers. W ith th e Syncom s atell ites nowin service we already provide direct comm unicat ionswith the batt lefront. With a space stat ion, though,the soldiers walkie-talkie can connect him with co m-mand headquarters or with any point in the U nitedStates.An excit ing related appl icat ion is in the earlyestabl ishment of control towers in space, both foraircra ft and for ocean-going ships. From such van-tage points it is possible to provide com mu nicat ionsand al l-weathe r navigat ional systems over wide areasnow unavai lable to earthbound control systems.An ent ire group of potent ial appl icat ions is basedon the use of observations and actions by humanoperators in space to make ful ler use of the re-sources of the earth, considered on a planet-widebasis. These resources consist, of course, of theland, the oceans, and the atmosphere.The use of photography and other forms of rem otesensing can supply agriculture with the information

Remote sensing and p hotogra phy from space canalso f i l l the need for information on water suppl ies,the resources that can be extracted from the oceans,and mineral reserves. For example, on his Mercuryf l ight Gordon Cooper photographed a potent ial oi l -bear ing area in n orthern Tibet.Another appl icat ion i s to the weather. As MarkTwain observed, everyone talks about it and nobodydoes anything. In January, 196 6, a group estab-lishe d by th e National Academy of Sciences-a veryconservative group, I m igh t add-issued a rep ortindicat ing that the t ime may wel l have come to dosom ething about the weather. In February, 1966,President Johnson recommended to the Congress a

long-range program to accompl ish weather mo di f ica-t ion. The Apol lo-Satu rn f l ight hardware is capableof as s is t ing i n th is ef fort.Final ly, there a re th e appl icat ions to science. Atme etings last summer in Woods Hole and Falmouth,Massachusetts, scient ists associated with the Na-t ional Academy of Science and other leaders recom-mended the explorat ion of the moon and the plac ingof large telescopes and other astronomical instru-ments in space. The rep orts from these studies ex-pressed the bel ief that the presence of m an in space,c lose to these inst ruments, can g reat ly improve theabi l i ty of science to increase knowledge about theor ig in of l i fe and the his tory of the earth, the sun,the planets and the universe around us.Now who are the potent ia l users? There are theusers of world commun icat ions. There are the ai r-l ines. There are the people concerned with wo rld


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scient i f ic community, with i ts special interest inastronomy, the explorat ion of the moon and l i fesciences in space. Finally, there is the cont inuin ginterest of the Department of Defense in new tech-nology and new ways of doing things.But it is important to emphasize that the f i rs ttask to be performed, before benefi ts can be pro-vided to pote nt ial users, is to learn to operate effec-tively and effic ien tly in space. Before we can deliverpeople an d equipm ent to th e place where this workis to be done, we mu st invest igate the condit ions andthe problems associated with operat ions in theweightless, vacuum environment. And we can learn

tc! operate effectively in space only by doing-byspending t ime in space.Colum bus voyage to America dram atized the be-ginning of a great age of explorat ion even thoug h hewent to the wrong place and found a land and apeople qu ite dif ferent than he had antic ipated. Yetthe real contribut ions which this new continent wasto make were certain ly wel l beyond even the wi ldestimaginat ion of men of that t ime. It was not unt i lmany ships had regularly traveled from Europe toAmerica that, in fact, man real ly began to exploreand exploit this cont inent.So I th in k that men wi l l have to l ive and work inthe space env i ronment for some t ime before theycan begin to make ful l use of this new resourcebecom ing avai lable. The Apol lo-Saturn f l ight equ ip-ment wi l l enable us to mu l t ip ly our present man daysto man years of f l igh t experience. In the period im-

DEClSlONBut there is a problem which is characterist ic ofgovernment programs. The budget for the comingf iscal year pe rmits NASA to hold open the opt ion

for a program to procure addi t ional f l ight vehic lesbeyond those now programmed, so as to employ theApollo hardware and capabi l i t ies at least through1971. If we do not exercise this opt ion in the deci-sions for the budget for the f iscal year beginningJuly 1, 1967, we wil l have to begin a phase downof the manned space fl ight a ct iv it ies and the moth-bal l ing of some of our faci l i t ies. The opt ion in thisbudget would also permit us to extend to threemonths the t ime the spacecraf t could remain inorbi t. The t ime to exerc ise this opt ion wi l l comein the fal l of 196 6, when the decisions wi l l be madeon the budget to go to Congress for the next f iscalyear.One of the aspects of government budget pro-cedures is the ir long lead-t im e nature. We mustmake our preparat ions wel l in advance to permitthe Bureau of the Budget to do i ts work. We arerequired to submit our prel iminary est imates four-teen mon ths before the beginning of the f iscal year.In summ ary, therefore, NASA is holding open theoption for another year, to employ Apol lo f l ighthardware and capabi l i t ies beyond the manned lunarlanding, and to extend the capabi l i ty of the Apol lospacecraft. Missions are available t o make use ofthe equipment for f l ights in earth orbi t , in lunar


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Finally, I would l ike to cal l a t tent ion to a fewfacts. The Wright B rothers f irst f l ight at Kitty Hawkdramat ized the possib i l i ty of f l ight , but it was notunti l airplanes were numerous and barnstorminghad given way to commercial f l ight that profi t begant o come from aeronautics. The history of the air-plane is interesting for a nother reason. Althoughthe Uni ted States was f i rst in i ts invent ion, it re -mained for the Europeans to adopt it for pract ica luse, so that this nation was forced to borrow Brit ishand French designs for use in World War I and infact no American-designed plane f lew in comba t.The subm arine was invented by an Ame ricannamed Holland but f irst exploited by Germany. Rob-ert Goddard of this country proved that a rocketwould work in a vacuum, but the Germans used theprinciple to build bal l ist ic missi les, and the Sovietsf irs t achieved space f l ight.I hope that we are perceptive enough to profi tf rom history and that we do ful ly use and exploitthese machines we have developed at such a heavyinvestment of resources, and that we do allow our-selves the t ime and freedom to realize their-andour-full cap abilit ies in space.


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Date post:	10-Apr-2018
Category:	Documents
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Manned Space Flight 1966

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