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

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First Steps into Space: Projects Mercury and Gemini
tions require approval of higher authority such approvals will be obtained
from or through the Administrator, National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, or his designed representative.
Document I-15
Document Title: S. B. Batdorf, ARPA, Memorandum for File, “Presentation of
MIS Program to Dr. Glennan,” 14 October 1958.
Source: Folder 18674, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History
Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington DC.
One of the first decisions T. Keith Glennan had to make after taking office as NASA’s first
Administrator was to approve Project Mercury. This decision came on 5 October 1958.
Glennan wrote in his memoirs that, “I am certain that the allocation of such a program to
NASA had been agreed between Dryden, Killian, and DOD before NASA was born,” suggesting
that the briefing to the new Administrator and his decision to support it was more of a
fait accompli than anything else. But Glennan’s reflection on the decision is telling. “As one
looks back, it is clear that we did not know much about what we were doing,” he wrote. “Yet
the Mercury program was one of the best organized and managed of any I have been associated
with.” The decision to invest management of Project Mercury to a Space Task Group based at
Langley Research Center, taken at the same time, proved equally auspicious. The hard-driving
leader, Robert R. Gilruth, provided critical oversight, loyalty to NASA Headquarters, and
technical competence that helped ensure success.
This document describes an early briefing to Keith Glennan about planning for a Man in
Space (MIS) mission. It was written by one of the individuals who had led early planning for
the mission with the Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Planning Agency.
October 14, 1958
MEMORANDUM FOR FILE
INSTITUTE FOR DEFENSE ANALYSES
ADVANCED RESEARCH PROJECTS DIVISION
Washington 25, D.C
SUBJECT: Presentation of MIS [Man in Space] Program to Dr. Glennan
At the rather urgent invitation of Mr. Gilruth, I attended the presentation
to Dr. Glennan of the MIS Program at NASA Headquarters, 9:00 p.m., October 7.
Those present were Dr. Glennan, Dr. Dryden, Dr. Silverstein, and Messrs. Gilruth,
Faget, Low, North, Crowley, and Wood.
At the beginning of the discussion, Dr. Silverstein outlined the history of
the MIS Program and showed Dr. Glennan a copy of the proposed memorandum