Project Apollo: The Tough Decisions

by National Aeronautics and Space Administration

The report reviews the major Mercury and then Gemini precursors for the Apollo mission program and its development and mission sequence. But, very importantly, it describes the major and often complex deliberations that encouraged inputs from the broad range of informed internal Agency individuals in order to arrive at the resulting actions taken; it recognizes differences among their various views, including even sensitivities within the leadership of the Agency, and it acknowledges NASA's relationships with the President and key executive branch personnel, as well as the very important and often complex relationships with members of Congress. The process of writing this book was searching and comprehensive. The achievement of the world's first manned lunar landings, after the earlier Mercury and Gemini programs played catch-up to match the Soviet Union's advanced position, clearly established the United States' preeminence in space. Early in the book, Bob describes an extended meeting in the White House in which the President's views and those of Mr. Webb were seriously discussed. Bob tells how, through Apollo's lunar landing, NASA clearly met both President Kennedy's goal to overcome the Soviets' leadership image and James Webb's goal to use Apollo as a major part of his program to demonstrate U.S. technological preeminence. Seamans, Robert C., Jr. NASA Headquarters NASA/SP-2005-4537, LC-2005003682 38353 LUNAR LANDING; APOLLO FLIGHTS; LEADERSHIP; PERSONNEL

Kindle Edition

Published August 20, 2019

About the author

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.

Reviews

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a super interesting look at the administration and funding of NASA during the early years, written by the Deputy Administrator.