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

Exploring the Unknown 177
2. Some members of the panel (and other individuals who have contacted
me privately) believe that the decision by the previous Administration, that the
astronauts should be military personnel, was wrong. They point out that NASA was
created expressly for the purpose of conducting peaceful space missions, and the
orbiting of a military astronaut will be identified by the world in general as a military
gesture, and is sure to be seized upon by the U.S.S.R. for propaganda purposes.
My personal feeling is that any change in status (such as asking the
astronauts to become civilians) at this late date will be recognized for what it is,
an artificial maneuver. Nevertheless, it might be desirable for this Administration
to review the past decision and perhaps lay plans by which astronauts selected for
later manned space programs could be given the option to become civilians. It
would seem to me that the following might be the appropriate group to discuss
the situation: The President, The Vice President, Dr. Bundy, Mr. Webb and
Dr. Dryden, Mr. Murrow, and Secretary Rusk.
/S/
Jerome B. Wiesner
Document I-34
Document Title: “Report of the Ad Hoc Mercury Panel,” 12 April 1961.
Source: Folder 18674, NASA Historical Reference Collection, History Division,
NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.
A special President’s Science Advisory Committee (PSAC) panel, under the chairmanship of
Donald F. Hornig, was formed in February 1961 and charged with reviewing Project Mercury.
By April 1961, the Space Task Group had concluded that Mercury was near the end of its
development phase and that the first human flight could be planned. Several test flights of
Mercury capsules on both Redstone and Atlas boosters were in the process being readied. On 10
April, foreign correspondents in Moscow reported rumors that the Soviet Union had already
placed a man in space. At the same time, the Space Task Group heard rumors that the Hornig
panel was recommending up to 50 more chimpanzee flights before launching a man into
space. This recommendation ultimately did not find its way into the final report of the Ad Hoc
Mercury Panel, although the panel did express concern about the limited information available
about the likely impact of spaceflight on a human. But the same day that the panel submitted
its report, the Soviet news agency Tass reported that Yuri Gagarin had been launched into
orbit and successfully returned to Earth. Apparently, that answered the question of whether a
human could fly in space and return to Earth in good health.
OFFICIAL USE ONLY
REPORT OF AD HOC MERCURY PANEL
April 12, 1961