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

Exploring the Unknown 589
III-13). The White House called a 21 November meeting in the Cabinet room to try to
understand exactly what was going on at NASA. Like some other White House meetings
during the Kennedy presidency, this meeting was secretly recorded; the John F. Kennedy
Presidential Library released a copy of the recording in 2001, and space historian Dwayne
Day later prepared a transcript of the tape. 1
As he left the 21 November meeting, President Kennedy asked James Webb to prepare a letter
summarizing Webb’s view on the appropriate position that the White House should take
on Apollo and the NASA program overall. Webb did so, and sent Kennedy the letter on 30
November (Volume I, Document III-14).
Kennedy’s interest in accelerating the date for the first lunar landing continued even after
the 21 November meeting and Webb’s response. During an 8 December visit to Los Alamos
National Laboratory, he asked his science advisor Jerome Wiesner to look again into the
potential for a lunar landing earlier than NASA was planning.
Document II-32
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
Office of the Administrator
The President
The White House
Washington 25, D.C.
Dear Mr. President:
Washington 25, D.C.
October 29, 1962
In accordance with the request you made during your recent tour
of selected NASA installations, a preliminary analysis has been completed to
determine the feasibility and the resources implications of accelerating the
manned lunar landing program in order to establish a target date for the first
landing in late 1966, one year earlier than the present target.
The late 1967 target date is based on a vigorous and driving effort, but
does not represent a crash program. A late 1966 target would require a crash,
high-risk effort. The nature of a development program such as the manned lunar
landing, however, makes the possibility of achieving target dates set this far in
advance no better than fifty-fifty. In contrast, the odds that we can accomplish
the landing within this decade are excellent. You might, therefore, think of this
matter of target dates as one in which we fix a date which is difficult, but not
1. The tape of the meeting can be found at John F. Kennedy Library, President’s Office files,
Presidential recordings collection tape #63.