page_title: Phillips Report
section_title: Public disclosure and criticism
hierarchical_section_title: Phillips Report / Public disclosure and criticism
caption_attribution_description: English: Seated at the witness table before the Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Services, chaired by Senator Clinton P. Anderson, on the Apollo 1 (Apollo 204) accident are (left to right): Dr. Robert C. Seamans, NASA Deputy Administrator James E. Webb, NASA Administrator Dr. George E. Mueller, Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight Maj. Gen. Samuel C. Phillips, Apollo Program Director
context_page_description: The Phillips report was a document summarizing a review conducted in November–December 1965 by a NASA team headed by Lt Gen Samuel C. Phillips, director of the Apollo crewed Moon landing program, to investigate schedule slippage and cost overruns incurred by North American Aviation, manufacturer of the Command/Service Module spacecraft and the second stage of the Saturn V launch vehicle. Phillips sent a summary of his findings with a strongly worded letter to NAA president Lee Atwood demanding corrective action be taken. North American revised its management of its Apollo contract items, and NASA management considered the matter a normal part of confidential agency-contractor relations.
  But after a fire killed the entire crew of the first crewed Apollo mission Apollo 1 on January 27, 1967, a United States Senate Committee on Aeronautical and Space Sciences hearing overseeing NASA's investigation of the accident, led to the public disclosure of the Phillips Report by then junior Senator Walter Mondale, who was told of its existence by ABC news reporter Jules Bergman, who had seen a copy at NASA's Washington, DC Office of Manned Space Flight headquarters.
context_section_description: Immediately after the fire in 1967, NASA followed its established procedure of investigating and identifying corrections for the cause, with Presidential and Congressional oversight. No one in NASA's upper management expected that the Phillips findings would be printed as a document, but this had been done and on February 13, Bergman was shown a copy at the Office of Manned Space Flight headquarters. He then told a junior Senator on the Aeronautical and Space Sciences Committee, Walter Mondale, about the document, and later reported its existence on ABC. Mondale proceeded to grill the top managers, including Webb who was completely blind-sided (the formal review had not gone above Seamans), about the report's existence. Other Senators, such as Margaret Chase, then questioned Webb about NASA's choice of North American as the Apollo contractor.
  Mondale said he had been told of the existence what he called "the Phillips report", and Seamans was afraid that Mondale might be in possession of a hard copy of the presentation, so he said tentatively that contractors have occasionally been given negative reviews, but that he knew of no such extraordinary report. Mondale raised controversy over the report, despite Phillips' refusal to characterize it as such before Congress, and was angered by what he perceived as Webb's deception and concealment of important program problems from Congress, and questioned NASA's selection of North American as prime contractor. Webb eventually provided a controlled copy of Phillips' memo to Congress. Seamans later wrote that Webb roundly chastised him in the cab ride leaving the hearing, for volunteering information which led to the disclosure of Phillips' memo.
caption: Deputy Administrator Seamans, Administrator Webb, Manned Space Flight Administrator Mueller, and Apollo Program Director Phillips testify before a Senate hearing on the Apollo accident.
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