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

424 Project Apollo: Americans to the Moon
division; if North American did not make such a move, threatened Webb, he
would shift the Apollo contracts to another company. 62
Relations between Webb and Seamans became strained in the months
following the fire, and Seamans submitted his resignation on 2 October 1967.
Mueller stayed on; a change at the top of the manned space flight program would
likely have resulted in unacceptable delays in fixing the problems revealed by the
fire and getting NASA back on track. In Houston, Joseph Shea took the Apollo
fire as a personal responsibility, and his associates began to worry about his
physical and mental condition. He was persuaded to return to Washington as a
deputy to George Mueller, but without significant Apollo responsibilities. By July
1967, Shea decided to leave NASA. In Shea’s place in Houston, George Low took
over the Apollo Spacecraft Program Office in addition to his duties as Deputy
Center Director.
Not only were relations strained between Webb and his senior people within
NASA; there were continuing tensions between him and members of Congress,
and particularly Senator Clinton Anderson. Webb had always prided himself on
maintaining a relationship of mutual trust and personal credibility with senior
Congressmen, and now that relationship seemed at risk. He wrote Anderson in
advance of a 9 May hearing, saying that “I am deeply troubled by your statement
to me last Saturday that members of the committee are not satisfied with our
testimony on NASA’s actions in follow-up of the deficiences [sic] found by the
management review team headed by General Phillips at North American Aviation
in 1965.” He added “your statement that members of the committee believe NASA
is endeavoring to put a disproportionate part of the blame for the Apollo 204
accident on North American Aviation and avoid its proper acceptance of blame
troubles me even more.” (II-51)
Eventually the furor over the accident quieted. There were no serious
suggestions that the Apollo program be halted or the “before the decade is out”
goal be abandoned. Under George Low’s close supervision, North American
set about remedying the deficiencies in the Apollo spacecraft. Grumman was
moving ahead with its work on the lunar module, but continuing to confront
both schedule and weight problems. The Saturn V had its first test launch on 9
November 1967; all test objectives were met successfully. As 1968 began, there
was increasing confidence that the first lunar landing attempt could come before
the end of 1969.
Apollo Around the Moon
By the beginning of 1968, NASA was ready to schedule the first launch of
the redesigned Apollo Command and Service Module; the date was finally set
for 7 October. That Earth-orbiting mission would be the first in a sequence of
62. Murray and Cox, Apollo, p. 231. For an account of this situation sympathetic to Storms, see
Mike Gray, Angle of Attack: Harrison Storms and the Race to the Moon (New York: W.W. Norton, 1992).