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Policy: MOL 

STIC: MOL 

29 October 1965 

MEMORANDUM FOR COLONEL WORTHMAN 

SUBJECT: P/A Guidance on MOL 

Reference the attached proposed wire which we have been holding 

in suspense pending a Sylvester signature. 

Called Colonel Mahoney at 0930 to check its status. 

Colonel Mahoney advised that the wire, per se, is dead and that 

it will be replaced by a memorandum directed to the two departments 

concerned, to the Director, DR&E with info to a Sylvester level individual in USIA., State and NASA. 

The memorandum has been through the loop in draft and essentially 

blessed for final. Very roughly it contains the following key items: 

1. At this point in time no public information on the MOL program 

• will be volunteered. 

2. Certain releases will be promulgated at particular program 

milestones as they occur. 

3. National level press queries will be referred to ASD(PA) for 

action. 

4. Local queries may be answered with information officially 

released to date. Such material is chiefly confined to the 

aggregate of material provided through official channels subseqient to the President's announcement. As of this date, 

official releases include the DOD release dated 25 August 1960 

and the Pentagon backgrounder on the same date. 

5. Speeches and interviews on MOL will not be volunteered. 

6. Speeches and interviews will be cleared with ASD(PA) prior 

to release. 

7. An amplified information plan on the MOL program is in 

coordination. 
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• 

Looks as though we really scored on this one. The guidance is 

very restrictive -- and very much in line with our suggestions. 

Colonel Mahoney will be in touch with us just as soon as this one is 

ready to go. 

Major •Yost 

Note: Colonel Mahoney called at 0955 to ask that I hold on to the copy 

of the "dead" wire since Mr. Sylvester had just signed it. 

Colonel Mahoney has taken it from the message center until the 

confusion is resolved. He will let us know if the memorandum 

or both the wire and memorandum are dispatched. 

• 

Major yost 

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DECLASSIFIED AFTER 12 YEARS. 

. D: 

SPECIAL. INSTRUCTIONS

STRIBUTION 

SECDEF MOD DIR 5200.10 cDef TO: " ' SECRETARY OF THE ARMY 1PASH i .

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SECRETARY OF THE NAVY WASH DC • . ' . ' 

SECRETARY OF THE AIR FORCE WASH DC '• • . 44 4 

. DIRECTOR OF DEFENSE R&E WASH DC ' .' ; . 

CHAIRMAN JCS WASH DC 

'ASSISTANT SECRETARIES OF DEFENSE WASH DC •- . : 

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CONFIDENTIAL 

Mr. Sylvester 

SUBJECT: Public Affairs Policy Guidance for Manned Orbiting 

• -- , . _ 

Laboratory (MOL) Program. 

n 

DATE 

22 — 

TIME 

1600 

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MONTH 

Oct 

YEAR - 

65 4 

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DASD (PA) 

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W 7 TYPED NAME AND TITLE (S4inatur..11 PPPI4014) 

LtCol Daniel C. Mahoney, USAF 

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TYPED for damped) NAME AND TITLE 

Arthur Sylvester 

i PHONE 71311 PAGE 

MR. 1 

H. E OF 

PAGE* E Assistant Secretary of Defense , 

SECURITY CLASSIFICATION R (Public Affairs) . , 

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Public release of information 

of Department of Defense Manned 

gram is not desired, and should 

thorization from OASD(PA).• 

Speeches: Public addresses 

Orbiting 

not be 

be made 

' ' 

and 

Releases 

concerning the Department 

Laboratory (MOL) pro• 

made without specific au- 

 . 

that include comments conwithout specific authori 

, 

by the President, Secretary 

and other key officials 

material should not be used 

unleis approved by this 

place of release. 

concerning the MOL 

to OASD(PA) for approconcerning the MOL pro. • 

Review channels as 

the extensive interagency 

developed to cover 

, 

additional guidance all news 

channels 

is being 

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cerning the MOL program will not 

zation by OASD(PA). 

The text of comments. 

of Defense, Secretary of the Air ..Force, 

--. — 

that have been furnished as background 

in speeches, with or without attribution, 

office including the speaker, time, 

Proposed News Releases: 

program will be submitted through 

val. 

Security Review: Information 

Security 

of 

gram should be forwarded through 

early as practicable in order to permit 

coordination that is necessary. 

Information Plan: -A plan 

.the MOL program. Pending receipt 

SYM$OL 

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,queries regarding MOL program milestones that cannot be 

answered from information contained in the following questions 

and answers will be referred to OASD(PA). 

Q. What is the MOL project? 

- A. A manned space flight project, of a• research and experimental nature, which will put two men into space for periods 

of up to 30 days, in a "shirt-sleeVes" environment, with the 

object of finding out more about what man is able to do in space 

and how that ability might be related to defense purposes. Five 

such manned launches are presently planned, starting in 1968. 

MOL experimentation will run into the 19?0's. 

Q. Who will carry out the project? 

A. The U. S. Air Force, under the direction of the Depart- 

. 

ment of Defense. The Douglas Aircraft Company and the General 

Electric Company will build the spacecraft and plan and develop 

the experiments respectively. MOL flights will be directed by"the 

.,• 

-Air Force Satellite Control Facility, Sunnyvale, California. We 

anticipate that MOL launches will be carried out from both the 

East and West Coast. . 

Q. What kind of experiments will be conducted? 

1 

• A. The project directors will be considering for some 

time yet what defense-related experiments would seem to offer 

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the most promise, but there is interest by the Air Force in building and assembling large antennae for communications purposes, 

and by the Navy in experiments of potential usefulness in antisubmarine warfare. The Army has, not as yet recommended any ex. 

periments. Other representative examples of.defense research 

that might be carried out would be experiments dealing with space 

structures technology, guidance and navigation, and extra-vehicular 

activity and equipment. In addition to defense related experiments, 

scientific experiments devised by NASA may be included. 

Q. What is the relationship between MOL and nuclear wea

i. 

i. 

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pons in space? 

A. There is no relationship whatever. The MOL is a minta.ry program which is peaceful --- i. e. non-aggressive in 

character. MOL will not be a bomb carrier. 

At the same time that he announced the decision to proceed with MOL, President Johnson reaffirmed the U. S. intention 

not to place, weapons of mass destruction in orbit. The President 

said "We continue to live up to our agreement not to orbit weapons 

of mass destruction.and we will Continue to hold out to all nations, 

including the Soviet Union, the hand of cooperation in the exciting 

years of exploration which lie ahead for all of us." 

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By way of background, two years ago the U.S. and 

USSR each stated it would refrain from orbiting weapons of mass 

destruction in outer space or stationing such weapons on celestial 

bodies, The U.S. and Soviet statements were expressly welcomed 

by the 'UNGA in resolution 1884 (XVIII) adopted unanimously Oct. 

17, 1963, as an important step in preventing the spread of an arms 

race to outer space. The resolution calls on all states to refrain fr 

conducting or encouraging such activities. 

Q. Doesn't the MOL approval nevertheless mean that the 

U.S. has embarked on a new pblicy with respect to military activity 

in space? 

A. No, it does not. The MOL fits into and is a logical next 

step in a continuing U.S. military program in space which derives 

. 

from our Space Act. The Act itself makes clear that the U.S., ' 

while seeking to help develop space for peaceful purposes for the 

benefit of all mankind, intends to utilize its space activities in * 

maximizing its defensive capability. 

The MOL was first announced in December, 1963, at. the 

time when DYNASOAR, a military manned spaceflight project dating from the 1950's, was cancelled. DYNASOAR was cancelled 

because it was aimed solely toward the development of advanced 

reentry techniques. MOL began to be studied at that time because 

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it seemed to give promise of being a broader and more useful 

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research and experimental program, focussing, on man himself in ' 

space rather than machinery, equipment, and techniques as such. 

Q. Won't the MOL approval touch off a military space race 

with the Soviets? . 

A. We see no reason to think this. The Soviet Union has for 

some time been carrying out a comprehensive space program in. 

volving manned and unmanned flights of various kinds, and doubtless will continue to do so. The U.S. has no desire or intention to 

engage in a military space race with the USSR. Our only intention 

is to take those measures in space as elsewhere that responsibility 

and prudence dictate in terms of our national security. The decisioa 

to proceed with the MOL is motivated by,the need to do more re. 

search; it is not a reaction to any Soviet space project, program, . 

or statements. 

Q. Why does this have to be a manned operation; couldn't." 

unmanned satellites do the job? 

A. If there were a computer which did not have to be programmed could therefore thinkindependently, and had eyes and hands 

to be put at the service of that thinking ability, the human-element 

might well be taken out of the manned orbiting laboratory project. 

Despite the onrush of automation, this isnot the case now or in 

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for.eseeabie future.. 

still has a unique role to play on the land, sea and in the air for many 

defense and other purposes. The MOL project is a research effort to 

see whether this is true in the new environment of spacd as well. 

. Q. Will the TITAN IIIC as it is now configured be used to 

launch the Manned Orbiting Laboratory? 

A. As previously stated, TITAN III consists of a family of 

vehicles in our building block concept. This family may run from the 

use of the TITAN III core alone to the tirse of TITAN III with 7 segment 

120 inch solid motors, or 2 or 3 segment, 156 inch solid motors. For 

MOL we anticipate TITAN III with the 7 segment 120 inch motor. 

' Q. Why do you need a 7 segment 120 inch rather than 5 segment2 

A. We must be prepared to launch the MOL from the Western 

- Test Range and to do this requires more thrust than that necessary from: 

the Eastern Test Range. 
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RELASE • 1.JULY 2015 

•. • ,•• CHFIDENTIRE 

Q. Are you planning to launch the MOL from the Cape and 

from Vandenberg AFB? 

A. Yes we are. 

Q. What launch will take place out of the Cape and what will 

take place out at Vandenberg AFB? 

A. This will be determined later on basis of experiment 

schedule and orbits desired for each flight. 

Q. Where are the MOL mission control by location? 

A. From Eastern Test Range on the East Coast and the Air 

Force Satellite Test Center, Sunnyvale, Calif. 

Q. Will TITAN III still continue to be launched from Cape 

Kennedy X33611 following the research and development program? 

A. YesPTITAN III will be used for the Initial Defense Communication Satellite Program plus any other payloads assigned to us. 

' Q. Will you build full ITL at Vandenberg AFB and when will 

this be available for the first launch? 

A. We are planning to build an initial launch capability at 

Vandenberg Air Force Base. This consists of one pad where the 

vehicle will be built upon the pad and we antic.ipate'having a launching 

capability in mid-1968; 

Q. Nave you acquired the land for your laulching facility 

at Vandenberg AFB. 

A. No.. 
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1. 

Q. What is meant by a "shirt-sleeves" environment? 

A. An environment spacious enough and safe enough to 

enable men to live, move, and work in it without having to use space 

quits. The MOL was. once described by Secretary McNamara as 

intended to be about the size of a small house trailer; what is now 

envisaged is a laboratory "canister" about 40 feet long and 10 feet 

in diametier, joined to a GEMINI capsule, the whble MX€3.13XXaC thing 

to be launched by a TITAN IIIC‘booster. .Each .man will have about' 

400 cubic feet of space in which to live and work. 

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ASSISTANT SECRETARY 

I WASHINGTON. DC. 20301 . 

• f. oh. . . 

'OCT 

• • 

It is requested that the following guidance with respect to the 

*aimed Orbiting Laboratory program be brought to the attention of all activities and key personnel involved in that program: 

• .;::•%;•'-• 

trf 

At this time it is Department of Defense policy that public state- .:•":;: 

meats with regard to MOL will not be volunteered. Certain 

: releases will be promulgated, as approved by the Assistant 

Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs), as program milestones 

occur. National level press queries will be referred to ASD(PA.).',. 

for response. Local responses to queries will be confined, to thO 

• aggregate of material provided through official channels subsequent to the Presidential announcement August 25, 1965. As of 

this date such material consists chiefly of the Department of 

Defense release regarding the Presidential announcement and 

the Pentagon backgrounder by Dr. Albert C. Hall,: then Deputy__ 

Director (Space), ODDR&E, both of August 25, 1965. Speeches 4.4 

and interviews on MOL, will not be volunteered, and all requests-::,•.' 

for speeches or interviews must be. cleared with ASD(PA) prior.. • 

• to acceptance. • • • . • 

t. • 

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An. amplified information plan for VIOL is in coordination. ,••• ' 

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DOWNGRADED AT 3 YEAR INTERVALS; ., 

DE0LASSIPIED AMR 12 YEARS.. 

DOD DIR 5200.10 

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. . . art,ht;r Sylvestez• 

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: Assistant Secretary of State . for Public Affairs 

Assistant Administrator for Public Affairs (NASA): :. 

Director. U. S. Information lizency ' . . 

•