Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1961-09-10
MOON
Some Look Askonce
At Lunar Program

Continued From First Page

over 100 days ago. About
so days ago Congress re-
sponded affirmatively to
the Presidents call. BY a
vote of 354-59 in the House and
by a voice vote in the Senate,
the lawmakers authorized a
start on his accelerated space
effort.
Last month Congress followed
through with almost all the
money he asked as down-pay-
ment: A fiscal 1862 appropria-
ton for the National Aeronau-
tics and Space Administration
Of about SIS billion. How
many billions more will follow
in this decade is anyone's guess
certainly more than 20.
possibly 40, perhaps even more.
Today engineers, scientists,
craftsmen and cost analysts
in Government plants and
private factories are working
on plans for the rockets and
spacecraft to be used in the
moon journey. Some of the
rocket hardware is already
taking shape in construction
hangers and on drawing
boards from one end of the
country to the other.
So in the 100 days since
Mr.. Kennedy first spoke of the
moon trip there has been a
beginning. 1t is small, to be
sure, but still a beginning
and in the opinion of space
minded Americans long over
due.
Long History
The man-on- the-moon pro-
gram did not spring full blown
from Mr.. Kennedy's brow. 1t
was not invented, as some be-
lieve, in panicky reaction to
Yuri Gagarin's orbital flight.
That flight had its effect on
the American space program,
to be sure, and it made it
easier for President Kennedy
to urge extra effort. But the 7
real groundwork for manned
lunar landings was laid in a
10-year space program outlined I
by NASA in 1860, during the I
Eisenhower administration. Z
The trouble with that pro- :
gram was that it ended in
limbo, with men circling the +
moon but not landing. At some !
indefinite date after 1870" :
men might land on the moon. s
In effect, Mr. Kennedy's :
May rs message compressed
that time-scale by about two I
years, or possibly three. DR.. =
Homer J. Stewart. professor of -"
aeronautical engineering at /
Caltech, was NASA's program r
planning chief when the ;
original program was devised. q
He recalls that manned land :,
ings were not included until n
after 1870 because existing
policies did not permit the
funding of big-rocket develop
ment in time to perfect q
suitable propulsion systems in r
the SOS. a
An Added Ingredient v
Mr.. Kennedy went beyond
simply COMPRISING the time =
scale. He added the vital in
gredient of urgency. President
Eisenhower had never done this;
in fact, many people thought
he was not very interested in
space. He had never acknowl-
edged that a space race existed.
He had never publicly con-
cerned himself with the eff
fects of space on national
prestige. Mr.. Kennedy did both
these things.
The setting of a definite
goal was widely applauded in
the space business. The COM
ment by Donald Douglas, jr.,
president of the Douglas Air
craft Co., was typical:
by setting such a goal he
is setting a lot of other goals
all along the line. 1t is a Won
derful objective because of the
auxiliary benefits it will
bring"
Gen. Bernard A. Schriever,
the Air Forces No. space
expert, said that military serv-
ice had been pushing just such
a proposal for the past three
or four years-"before NASA
was created" as he remarked.
"Our thinking all along was
that we needed a national OBJ
jective such as a lunar land
ing and return" Gen. Schrie-
yer said. This goal Of Presi-
dent Kennedy's focuses our
energies and prevents frag-
mentation of our effort"
Major BreakthrOugh'
NASA's Deputy Administra-
tor Hugh L. Dryden called the
proclamation "a major break
through: The forming of a
national decision"
But while the great bulk of
reaction in the space business
was favorable, few mavericks
had reservations, none anti
space" in nature.
Il felt Kennedy was ill-ad-
vised to imply that we are
going to beat the Russians to
the moon," said A. r.. Hibbs,
space science chief of the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory. Il don't
think we are"
Kraft Ehricke of General
Dynamics -AstronauticS ap-
proved the goal but questioned