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

Exploring the Unknown 739
Document II-75
Document Title: Letter to Robert R. Gilruth, Director, Manned Spacecraft
Center, from George E. Mueller, Associate Administrator for Manned Space
Flight, 3 September 1969.
Source: Folder #18675, NASA Historical Reference Collection, History Division,
NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.
The managers of the Apollo program at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston were
primarily from an engineering background, and tended to view the Apollo missions as
engineering achievements rather than expeditions driven by scientific requirements. This led
to continuing tensions between Houston and members of the scientific community interested
in lunar science. This letter reflects such tensions. Ultimately, NASA decided to fly a scientistastronaut,
geologist Harrison “Jack” Schmitt, on the final Apollo mission, Apollo 17.
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
Sep 3, 1969
Dr. Robert R. Gilruth
Director
Manned Spacecraft Center
Houston, Texas 77058
Dear Bob,
To the public, the success of Apollo 11 is an historical fact. However, to your Center
in particular, and to many of the rest of us, the mission is not yet completed and
will not be for some time to come. As we have discussed informally, completion
of data analysis, posturing solutions for the minor, yet important anomalies which
occurred in flight, and, provision for adequate and continuing support of the
science effort are items of priority. The latter item, science support, is of particular
concern at this time.
Over the past couple of years we have taken steps both here at NASA Headquarters
and at MSC to establish a science management, administration and support
capability for the Apollo Program. This has been done with significant sacrifice
to other program areas within a steadily reducing total Manned Flight and NASA
personnel ceiling. During the pre-Apollo 11 time-period the workload of this
group increased steadily and it was difficult to obtain a commensurate increase
in the number and appropriate types of personnel to do the many jobs involved.
Now, with operating experiments on the lunar surface returning data and the
return of Apollo 11 lunar samples for analysis, the workload has increased many
fold. The resulting increased interest and direct participation of the scientific
community in Apollo is taxing our capability to the limit. Despite this, we will