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

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First Steps into Space: Projects Mercury and Gemini
Laboratory, Johnsville, PA. Copies of typical vertical reentry histories of V,
g, h, and oscillation have been sent to NMAL for their further study.
[Signed]
Paul E. Purser
Aeronautical Research Engineer
Document I-5
Document Title: Maurice H. Stans, Director, Bureau of the Budget, Memorandum
for the President, “Responsibility for ‘Space’ Programs,” 10 May 1958.
Source: Folder 18674, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History
Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington DC.
Document I-6
Document Title: Maxime A. Faget, NACA, Memorandum for Dr. Dryden, 5 June
1958.
Source: Folder 18674, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History
Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington DC.
Document I-7
Document Title: Clotaire Wood, Headquarters, NACA, Memorandum for Files,
“Tableing [sic] of Proposed Memorandum of Understanding Between Air Force
and NACA For a Joint Project For a Recoverable Manned Satellite Test Vehicle,”
20 May 1958, with attached Memorandum, “Principles for the Conduct by the
NACA and the Air Force of a Joint Project for a Recoverable Manned Satellite
Vehicle,” 29 April 1958.
Source: Folder 18674, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History
Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington DC.
Document I-8
Document Title: Hugh L. Dryden, Director, NACA, Memorandum for James
R. Killian, Jr., Special Assistant to the President for Science and Technology,
“Manned Satellite Program,” 18 July 1958.
Source: Folder 18674, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History
Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington DC.
Perhaps the most difficult policy question to be resolved in the first half of 1958 revolved
around the roles and missions of individual governmental entities in the new space initiative.
Virtually every service within the Department of Defense (DOD) sought to control at
least the lion’s share of the human spaceflight mission. The National Advisory Committee