NASA-DOD Review

In this context, on October 5, 1963, senior officials from NASA and Department of Defense (DOD), including James Webb and Robert McNamara, met at the Pentagon with McGeorge Bundy. Bundy told them that the White House wanted a comprehensive review of the space program and that as part of that review, the two agencies would be asked several ques­tions:

1. “What are the minimum elements of the space program essential to the lunar landing program?”

2. “What are the minimum elements of the space program essential to clearly specified military requirements?”

3. “What are the minimum elements of the space program essential to user requirements in areas common to military and commercial users (e. g. communications satellites, weather satellites, etc.)?”

4. “What are the elements essential to or desirable for scientific objectives in space?”

Bundy informed the officials that the NASA and DOD efforts in response to this set of questions would not only be used to rationalize the overall national space program to balance civilian and national security space efforts, to minimize duplication of effort, and thus to contain costs. They would also be inputs into a second review in which a task force headed by the director of the Bureau of the Budget (BOB) would “determine, in light of the FY1964 and FY1965 budget pressures, what should be set forth as the goals of the U. S. space program and what the nature and pace of the program should be.”4 The continuing commitment to a lunar landing before the end of the decade was very much a part of this second review.

In response to this directive, NASA and DOD in October and November first conducted a series of separate studies on the various elements of their individual programs. Then, during November and December, they carried out five joint studies in the areas of launch vehicles, manned Earth orbital activities, communications satellites, geodetic, mapping, and weather satellite programs, and various ground facilities. These studies were not completed until January 1964, and with one important exception discussed below, did not lead to major changes in the already planned NASA and DOD space efforts.5

As the White House-mandated review was underway, Nikita Khrushchev on October 25 made a statement reported by The New York Times with the headline “Soviet Bars Race with U. S. to Land Men on the Moon.” A few days later, well-informed Times reporter John Finney suggested “for months the Administration had been trying to back away from the idea of a lunar race.” Even so, suggested Finney, for the United States “the question is not whether to go to the moon or not,” but rather “the pace at which the lunar expedition should be pursued,” particularly, as Khrushchev had seemed to suggest, if the Soviet Union was not engaged in a competitive lunar effort. Finney’s conclusion was that “the United States will not abandon the lunar expedition, but it will be pursued with less competitive zeal and at a more leisurely pace.”6

It seems clear that indeed there was White House consideration being given at this point in time to carrying out Apollo at “a more leisurely pace.” In preparation for an October 31 presidential press conference, Charles Johnson of the National Security Council staff had suggested to McGeorge Bundy that there was “some merit in trying to unhitch ourselves from the idea of going to the moon in this decade as a hard proposition and focusing public attention on the critical period 1966-1967 when we will know if we have achieved adequate booster power” with the first launch of the Saturn V rocket. Bundy appears to have been sympathetic to such a suggestion; in September, he had told Kennedy that “the obvious choice [with respect to the future of the lunar landing program] is whether to press for cooperation or to continue to use the Soviet space effort as a spur to our own,” and that his preference was for cooperation, since “If we cooperate, the pressure comes off, and we can easily argue that it was our crash effort on ‘61 and ‘62 which made the Soviets ready to cooperate.”7

Charles Johnson’s suggestion of focusing on demonstrating the supe­rior booster power of the Saturn V launcher rather than achieving a lunar landing by the end of the decade was in line with the thinking of some top people in NASA. The NASA assistant administrator for public affairs, Julian Scheer, sent to the White House both an initial statement issued by the space agency the day after Khrushchev’s October 25 remarks and a fuller statement reflecting “thoughts developed by the Administrator, Associate Administrator and the Assistant Administrator for Public Affairs.” The October 26 statement said: “We will continue to conduct our own program according to our own needs” and the U. S. program “has a brake and a throttle.” The fuller statement noted that “as a practical matter, the time for a decision on whether to speed up or slow down a space program such as the program we have developed and is now underway cannot be made at this time.” This was because “technology comes from passing certain criti­cal points. One of these is booster power and we will not pass this critical point until 1965-66 when we should equal or surpass the Russian booster launch vehicle power.”8

NASA was concerned, however, that the White House not make a pre­mature statement suggesting significant changes in the end-of-the-decade goal, even if that possibility was under active consideration. On October 30, Seamans, who was acting NASA administrator because both James Webb and Hugh Dryden were absent,9 tried to reach Bundy to voice NASA’s con­cerns with respect to what the president might say at his October 31 press conference. He was unsuccessful in contacting Bundy and so relayed NASA’s concerns to budget official Willis Shapley. He told Shapley that “it seems to NASA extremely important that the President not indicate at this time that there is any vacillation in the executive branch with respect to the manned lunar program.” He added that both NASA and the White House would find themselves in an “extremely awkward position. . . if it were to be indi­cated by the President or any other official administration spokesman that the current objectives of the manned lunar landing program are likely to be relaxed or abandoned” before the ongoing White House reviews were com­pleted. Seamans told Shapley that “NASA’s present strong recommendation is that we should keep going” with the planned program “at this time,” so the country would “not lose the benefit of the near-term objectives (e. g., launch vehicle development, further manned space flight experience with Gemini) . . . even if it is subsequently decided not to press on to a manned lunar landing attempt as now planned.”10

These various activities and press reports in preparation for the president’s news conference strongly suggest that there was at the end of October 1963 serious consideration being given within the White House to significant changes in Project Apollo, and that these developments were seen by NASA as threatening the integrity of its efforts. NASA on October 30 also told the White House that it “did not want to suggest any new lines for consid­eration because NASA is committed to a policy of maximum effort directed towards a lunar landing in this decade.” The space agency reported to the White House that during the preceding 48 hours it “had received important expressions of support for the present program and timetable—some of this support is from unexpected sources. There is reason to believe that there is a reaction in the country of ‘don’t quit when you are ahead.’ ”n (Who these sources may have been is not clear from the historical record.)

President Kennedy was very likely aware of the arguments among his associates for and against slowing down the pace of the space buildup. At his October 31 press conference, Kennedy said, when questioned about Khrushchev’s statement that the Soviet Union did not have a lunar landing program, “I think that we ought to stay with our program. I think that is the best answer to Mr. Khrushchev.”12