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

Exploring the Unknown
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causes of the failures. This was essential, because NASA’s planning called for the
next flight of the Saturn V to carry three astronauts. 65
That mission, designated “D” in NASA’s plans, was intended to carry a
complete Apollo spacecraft, including both the command and service modules
and the lunar module, for a test flight in low Earth orbit. Presuming success of
the “C” mission in October, NASA hoped to launch the next flight before the end
of the year.
However, there was a major obstacle to overcome. The lunar module
scheduled to be flown on the mission had arrived at the Kennedy Space Center
with a number of problems to be solved. As NASA attempted to address them,
it appeared increasingly unlikely that the module would be ready to fly in 1968,
and indeed that the test flight might not be possible until February or March
1969. If that happened, the likelihood of landing on the Moon by the end of
1969 became remote. Faced with this situation, George Low began to consider
an alternative flight sequence: “the possibility of a circumlunar or lunar orbit
mission during 1968,” using only the command and service modules launched by
a Saturn V, “as a contingency mission to take a major step forward in the Apollo
Program.” By 9 August, as problems with the lunar module persisted, he took
this idea to the Director of the Manned Spacecraft Center, Robert Gilruth, who
immediately saw its benefits. The same morning, according to Low’s notes:
I met with Gilruth, Kraft and Slayton. [Christopher Kraft was head of
flight operations and Donald ‘Deke’ Slayton was head of the astronaut
office.] After considerable discussion, we agreed that this mission should
certainly be given serious consideration and that we saw no reason at the
present time why it should not be done. We immediately decided that
it was important to get both von Braun and Phillips on board in order
to obtain their endorsement and enthusiastic support. Gilruth called
von Braun, gave him the briefest description of our considerations, and
asked whether we could meet with him in Huntsville that afternoon. I
called Phillips at KSC and also informed him of our activities and asked
whether he and Debus could join us in Huntsville that afternoon. Both
von Braun and Phillips indicated their agreement in meeting with us,
and we set up a session in Huntsville for 2:30 p.m.
At the afternoon meeting in von Braun’s office, “all present exhibited a great
deal of interest and enthusiasm for this flight.” The meeting ended “with an
agreement to get together in Washington on 14 August 1968. At that time the
assembled group planned to make a decision as to whether to proceed with these
plans or not. If the decision was affirmative, Phillips would immediately leave for
Vienna to discuss the plans with Mueller and Webb (at that time, Administrator
Webb and manned spaceflight head Mueller would be attending a United
65. Bilstein, Stages to Saturn, pp. 360–363.