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

Exploring the Unknown 283
Document I-59
Document Title: E. C. Welsh, National Aeronautics and Space Council,
Executive Office of the President, Memorandum for the President, “Space
Rescue,” 21 May 1965.
Source: Folder 18674, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History
Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington DC.
Document I-60
Document Title: Bill Moyers, Special Assistant to the President, The White House,
Memorandum for James Webb, Administrator, NASA, and Robert McNamara,
Secretary of Defense, 29 May 1965, with attached: Joseph A. Califano, Jr., Special
Assistant to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense, Memorandum for Mr.
Valenti/Mr. Busby, Special Assistants to the President, 29 May 1965, with attached:
Cyrus Vance, Office of the Secretary of Defense, Memorandum for Mr. Bill Moyers,
The White House, “Comments on Need for Space Rescue,” 29 May 1965.
Source: Folder 18674, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History
Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington DC.
Document I-61
Document Title: James E. Webb, Administrator, NASA, Memorandum to the
President, “Space Rescue,” 2 June 1965.
Source: Folder 18674, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History
Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington DC.
The safety of the astronauts in orbit has long been a critical concern. In 1941, science fiction
author Harry Walton wrote about a rescue vehicle—calling it a “lifeship”—in his novel Moon
of Exile. In 1946, science fiction scion Arthur C. Clarke published a version of a space rescue
mission in his first short story, titled “Rescue Party,” in which aliens on a survey of the solar
system try to evacuate humanity from Earth in the face of the Sun exploding. Such dramatic
space rescue stories sparked serious concern among advocates as the Space Age dawned. In the
1950s Wernher Von Braun advocated the building of a space station in Earth orbit, and with it
individual protective return capsules for its crew. In his scenario a parachute with steel-wire mesh
reinforcements and solid rocket booster brings the crewmember to Earth, and a radar beacon would
signal the landing location. But when NASA began its human spaceflight programs in earnest in
1958, none of them had the capacity for a rescue of a stranded astronaut in Earth orbit. Concern
that this was the case led to the following exchange of correspondence on the subject. In the end,
NASA decided to build as much reliability as possible into the system and accept the risk, which
its officials believed was minimal. The first true space rescue capability developed by NASA for its