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

Exploring the Unknown 211
Document I-40
Document Title: Abe Silverstein, Director of Space Flight Programs, NASA,
Memorandum for Administrator, “Use of a Television System in Manned Mercury-
Atlas Orbital Flights,” 6 September 1961.
Source: Folder 18674, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History
Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington DC.
NASA officials recognized the general public’s keen interest in the human spaceflight missions
that took place during Project Mercury. They also recognized the propaganda value of these
flights for the U.S. during the cold war rivalry with the Soviet Union. At the same time, they
were engineers who made virtually all of their decisions on the basis of technical data. As this
memorandum demonstrates, Edward R. Murrow, the most respected journalist in the U.S.
and the new Director of the U.S. Information Agency, had requested a television hook-up from
space for orbital Mercury missions. Murrow’s request reflected a desire to show the world that
the U.S. was second to none technologically, something many non-aligned peoples questioned
at the time. Reviewing the necessary technical components of such a broadcast capability,
NASA’s Director of Space Flight Programs Abe Silverstein concluded that reconfiguring the
Mercury capsule’s power, communications, and weight structures at that time would be
detrimental to the overall objectives of the program. When the Gemini program flew in 1965
to1966 it did incorporate television, and the broadcasts from the Moon during the Apollo
program became legendary.
In reply refer to:
DM (RJW:vr)
SEP 6 1961
MEMORANDUM for Administrator
Subject: Use of a Television System in Manned Mercury-Atlas Orbital Flights
References: (a) Memo frm AA/Romatowski to D/Silverstein
Dtd 9/5/61, same subject
(b) Ltr frm USIA (Murrow) to A/Webb, dtd 8/29/61
1. In accordance with the request made in reference (a), I have prepared the
following comments to be used as a basis for a reply to reference (b).
2. The use of a television system in the Mercury capsule has been studied
throughout the history of the project. Initially, the weights involved were
prohibitive; now, light-weight television systems are considered feasible.
As a result, within the last few months the question of a television system
for the Mercury capsule has again been raised.
3. Studies of present television systems indicate that a complete system
(camera and transmitter) for the Mercury capsule would weigh less than
twenty-five pounds. The corresponding power and antenna requirements,