Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in ... - The Black Vault

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Project Apollo: Americans to the Moon
7. J.P.L. is presently investigating the problems of conducting
experiments to obtain direct design data for Apollo. They will investigate [3]
launch vehicle capabilities to implement the investigations and report their
findings to NASA Headquarters about February 8, 1962.
Owen E. Maynard
Spacecraft Integrating Branch
Document II-23
Document Title: Letter to the President from James E. Webb, 13 March 1962.
Source: John F. Kennedy Presidential Library, Boston, Massachusetts.
In this letter, NASA Administrator Webb asks the president to assign the highest national
priority to Project Apollo. Such a priority meant that Apollo would get preferred treatment in
the allocation of scarce resources. President Kennedy approved this request.
The President
The White House
Washington, D. C,
My Dear Mr. President:
R 13 1962 [stamped]
Programs that enjoy the highest (DX) national priority attain this stature
only on approval of the President. In order to meet the objectives of the Nation’s
space program as stated by you and endorsed by the Congress, I consider it
essential that Project Apollo -- to effect a manned lunar landing and return in this
decade -- receive such a priority.
Accordingly, I hereby recommend that the highest national priority be
assigned to Project Apollo and in order to assure that you have the advice of the
National Aeronautics and Space Council, I have addressed a memorandum, copy
attached, to the Vice President asking the Council to consider this matter.
Respectfully yours,
James E. Webb
Administrator
Attachment
[2]