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

Exploring the Unknown 449
Document II-2
Document Title: George M. Low, Chief, Manned Space Flight, “Manned Space
Flight,” NASA-Industry Program Plans Conference, 28-29 July 1960.
Source: Folder 18675, NASA Historical Reference Collection, History Division,
NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.
On 28 and 29 July 1960, NASA held a “NASA-Industry Program Plans Conference” in
Washington to discuss the Agency’s plans for future programs and to solicit industry interest
in participating in them. NASA announced at this conference that the spaceflight project to
follow Project Mercury would be named Project Apollo. This conference was in many ways
the beginning of what eventually became the most massive engineering project undertaken
since the Manhattan Project. This document is George Low’s presentation to the conference.
NASA-Industry
Program Plans
Conference
July 28-29, 1960
Departmental Auditorium
Constitution Ave., N.W.
Washington, D.C.
[2]
MANNED SPACE FLIGHT
By George M. Low Chief, Manned Space Flight
Introduction
The benefits that might accrue from the manned exploration of space are,
in a large measure, unknown. It is certainly clear that no amount of instrumentation
will tell us as much about the moon, or the planets, as man himself will be able to
tell, once he has visited those dis tant places. Only man can cope with the unexpected;
and the unexpected, of course, is the most interesting.
We should, therefore, state only one broad objective for the manned
space flight program:
“To provide the capability for manned exploration of space.”
With this objective in mind, we have devel oped a program that is broadly
outlined in fig ure 1. [not included] At this point it should be stated that official