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

Exploring the Unknown 289
astronauts, NASA operational activities, and recovery received considerable exposure. Each
astronaut also enjoyed media hype at the time of their mission. But was such involved
reporting appropriate for the Gemini program? Julian Scheer, NASA’s Director of Public
Affairs, did not think so. He advocated a more routine approach to operations, aimed at
making spaceflight appear more normal than unusual. While NASA continued to enjoy
significant media attention during Gemini, attention to later missions was somewhat less
pronounced than for their Mercury counterparts.
Document I-62
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
WASHINGTON DC 20546
OFFICE OF THE ADMINISTRATOR
MEMORANDUM to Mr. Marvin Watson
The White House
This is in response to your questions about astronaut activities.
May 24, 1965
During the Mercury program and on into the first manned Gemini flight, space
flight was new to this nation and we found a new group of heroes created by
the American people. Each flight was a “first” of some kind, we were behind the
Russians and our flight program was smaller and more understandable. Both US
and Russian space flyers’ names became well known.
As a result, New York City always wanted a ticker tape parade and the White
House showed, on behalf of the American people, its appreciation of the work
the astronauts had done.
We are now entering a new phase of our program. We expect to have gained
2,000 or more hours of space flight between now and the end of the decade when
we expect to reach our goal of placing two men on the moon. Each flight, of
course, will have new and different elements, but, generally speaking, these are
long duration flights of two men (Gemini) and earth orbital Apollo flights.
The image that is, perhaps, best for this nation is that of a nation with this capability,
a nation that goes about its work in an orderly and well-planned manner. We
will fly these flights as best we can and put these flyers right back into the flight
schedule for a future mission.
[2]
We feel that any build-up of personalities resulting from these flights should be
spontaneous, based not on the fact that the astronauts flew, but what they accomplished
in flight or difficulties they overcame or obvious skills they demonstrated.