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

Exploring the Unknown
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concurrence; incidentally 8 May was the day on which Alan Shepard came to
Washington to celebrate the success of his Mercury mission.
The Webb-McNamara report called for an across-the-board acceleration of
the U.S. space effort aimed at seeking leadership in all areas, not only dramatic
space achievements. As its centerpiece, the report recommended
our National Space Plan include the objective of manned lunar
exploration before the end of this decade. It is our belief that manned
exploration to the vicinity of and on the surface of the moon represents
a major area in which international competition for achievement in
space will be conducted. The orbiting of machines is not the same as the
orbiting or landing of man. It is man, not merely machines, in space that
captures the imagination of the world.
A very expensive undertaking such as sending humans to the Moon was justified,
according to Webb and McNamara, because “this nation needs to make a positive
decision to pursue space projects aimed at enhancing national prestige [emphasis in
original]. Our attainments are a major element in the international competition
between the Soviet system and our own. The nonmilitary, noncommercial,
nonscientific but ‘civilian’ projects such as lunar and planetary exploration are,
in this sense, part of the battle along the fluid front of the cold war.” (II-11)
After a quick review of the report’s recommendations by the White House
staff, Kennedy approved them. He announced his decisions at the end of an
address to a joint session of Congress on 25 May 1961. He told the assemblage,
and the nation, “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the
goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him
safely to earth.” (Volume I, III-12)
Congress quickly and without significant opposition approved the $549
million addition to NASA’s FY 1962 budget that was needed to get started on the
accelerated program; this amount when added to the increase already approved
in March represented an 89 percent increase of the previous year’s budget. With
this initial approval in hand, NASA could begin to implement Project Apollo.
Getting Started
Locating the Facilities
It was clear from the start of planning for Apollo that NASA would need a
major new installation to manage the effort and new facilities for launching the
Apollo missions. Prior to the Apollo decision, NASA had planned to move the
Space Task Group, which was managing Project Mercury from its base at Langley
Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, to the Goddard Space Flight Center
in Greenbelt, Maryland. The thinking was that all NASA missions, human and
robotic, could be managed by a single Field Center. But a project of the scope of
Apollo would overwhelm other activities at Goddard, and there was high political