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<h2>Forging a National Space Agency</h2>

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<img src = "images/c002a.jpg" width=588 height=403 ALT="Astronauts leave Spacecraft"><p>

<cite>Artist's concepts sketched about February 1959 were used in a
presentation by M. W. Rosen and F. C. Schwenk at the Tenth International
Astronautical Congress in London, 31 August 1959. Above, astronauts
leave the spacecraft to investigate the lunar surface.</cite>

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<img src = "images/c002b.jpg" width=592 height=411 ALT="Spacecraft takes off from moon"><p>

<cite>The return vehicle takes off from the moon.</cite>

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<img src = "images/c002c.jpg" width=586 height=402 ALT="Spacecraft reenters atmosphere"><p>

<cite>The reentry vehicle begins to enter the atmosphere after jettisoning
the propulsion unit.</cite>

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The National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958, passed by Congress in
July of that year, said nothing about the moon or manned space flight.
In its declaration of policy and purpose, however, the general
objectives were to improve and use aeronautical and space capabilities
&quot;for the benefit of all mankind.&quot; If achieving international
leadership in space meant that this nation would have to fly men to the
moon, the Act encouraged that ambition. <a href =
"#source4"><b>4</b></a> Clearly NASA, as the nonmilitary agency of the
United States, would be responsible for furthering the national interest
in space affairs. But the new agency required more than just a charter
before the President and the Congress could turn it loose on a task
requiring a vast acceleration of activity and a large commitment of
national resources.<p>

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<img src = "images/c003.jpg" width=592 height=405 ALT="Glennan visits LaRC"><p>

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<cite>
Space Task Group Director Robert R. Gilruth, left, and Langley Research
Director Floyd L. Thompson, center, welcome NASA Administrator T. Keith
Glennan to Langley Field, Virginia, for a January 1961 tour.</cite>

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Much of the preliminary planning for Project Mercury had been done by
the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA), NASA's
predecessor. NASA's first Administrator, T. Keith Glennan, president of
Case Institute of Technology (on leave), set about organizing and using
the heritage of experience and resources that had carried Mercury from
the planning stage into actuality. His deputy, Hugh L. Dryden (former
Director of NACA), planned and executed policy decisions during NASA's
first few years. Abe Silverstein, who came from NACA's Lewis Flight
Propulsion Laboratory in Cleveland, was assigned by Glennan to manage a
coordinated program for a stable of rocket boosters to suit a variety of
space missions. <a href = "#source5"><b>5</b></a><p>

<p>

The White House had approved plans to develop big boosters, but Glennan
knew that would not be enough. He wanted organizations that had
participated in developing these vehicles, and toward this end he laid
plans for the eventual transfer of the California Institute of
Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and of the Army's Wernher
von Braun team (Army Ballistic Missile Agency; ABMA) into the NASA
family. In January 1959, Wesley L. Hjornevik, Glennan's assistant,
pressed the Administrator to &quot;move in on ABMA in the strongest
possible way . . . because it is becoming increasingly clear that we
will soon desperately need this or an equivalent competence.&quot;
Although JPL came into the fold soon after the agency opened for
business, a year and a half passed before Glennan persuaded the
Eisenhower administration to consign a portion of ABMA and some of its
facilities, later named the George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, to
NASA. <a href = "#source6"><b>6</b></a><p>

<p>

In addition to the oldest NACA laboratory - at Langley Field, Virginia,
across Hampton Roads from Norfolk - and the other two NACA laboratories
- Ames, at the lower end of San Francisco Bay, and Lewis, in Cleveland -
NASA inherited the NACA authorization to build a center for development
and operations. Dryden was well aware of the applied research character
of Langley, Ames, and Lewis. He was anxious to insulate these former
NACA centers from the drastic changes that would come while shifting to
actual development in NASA's mission-oriented engineering. Space
science, mission operations, and, particularly, manned space flight
should, he thought, be centralized in the new facility to be built near
Greenbelt, Maryland. To direct Project Mercury, Glennan established the
Space Task Group, a semiautonomous field element under Robert R. Gilruth.
When the new center was completed, the Mercury team would move to
Maryland. <a href = "#explanation1"><b>*</b></a> In May 1959, Glennan
announced that this new installation would be called the Goddard Space
Flight Center in commemoration of Robert H. Goddard, the American rocket
pioneer. <a href = "#source7"><b>7</b></a><p>

<p>

Besides the NACA personnel, programs, and facilities, NASA acquired, by
transfer, ongoing projects from the Army (Explorer), Navy (Vanguard),
and Air Force (F-1 engine). <a href = "#source8"><b>8</b></a> These were
worthwhile additions to the new agency; to comply with the language and
intent of the Space Act, however, NASA had to plan a long-range program
that would ensure this country's preeminence in space exploration and
applications.<p>

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<p>
<a name = "explanation1"><b>*</b></a> In May 1959, Glennan also
appointed Gilruth Assistant Director for Manned Satellites at Goddard.
Harry J. Goett was named Director of the new center in September.<p>

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<hr>
<p>
<a name = "source4"><b>4</b>.</a> <cite>Space Act of 1958</cite>, pp.
1-2.<p>

<p>
<a name = "source5"><b>5</b>.</a> <cite>Forty-fourth Annual Report of
the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, 1958 (Final
Report)</cite> (Washington, 1959); Senate Committee on Aeronautical and
Space Sciences, Subcommittee on Government Activities,
<cite>Investigation of Governmental Organization for Space Activities:
Hearings</cite>, 86th Cong., 1st sess., 1959. Silverstein, interview,
Cleveland, 1 May 1964. Cf. &quot;Silverstein Memorial Dinner,&quot; tape
recording, Thomas O. Paine, master of ceremonies, University Club,
Washington, 6 Dec. 1969.<p>

<p>
<a name = "source6"><b>6</b>.</a> T. Keith Glennan to Sen. Lyndon B.
Johnson and Rep. John W. McCormick, 21 Oct. 1958; &quot;Army-NASA
Agreement,&quot; joint Army-NASA press release, 3 Dec. 1958; Wesley L.
Hjornevik to Admin., NASA, &quot;Utilization of ABMA,&quot; 20 Jan.
1959.<p>

<p>
<a name = "source7"><b>7</b>.</a> Swenson, Grimwood, and
Alexander,<cite> This New Ocean</cite>, p. 113; Alfred Rosenthal,
<cite>Venture into Space: Early Years of Goddard Space Flight
Center</cite>, NASA SP-4301 (Washington, 1968), pp. 27-29; Samuel B.
Batdorf, memo for file, &quot;Presentation of MIS Program to Dr.
Glennan,&quot; 14 Oct. 1958; Robert R. Gilruth to Assoc. Dir., Langley,
&quot;Space Task Group,&quot; 3 Nov. 1958; Robert L. Rosholt, <cite>An
Administrative History of NASA, 1958&ndash;1963</cite>, NASA SP-4101
(Washington, 1966), pp. 80-81; Esther C. Goddard and G. Edward Pendray,
eds., <cite>The Papers of Robert H. Goddard,</cite> 3 vols. (New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1970).<p>

<p>
<a name = "source8"><b>8</b>.</a> Glennan letters, 21 Oct. 1958;
NASA, &quot;Fact Sheet on the Transfer of Certain Functions from
Department of Defense to the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration,&quot; 1 Oct. 1958, as cited in Rosenthal, <cite>Venture
into Space</cite>, pp. 284-85; Swenson, Grimwood, and Alexander,
<cite>This New Ocean</cite>, p. 99.<p>

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