Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1967 - NASA's History Office

Foreword
The first decade of the Space Age is behind us and now in the hands of the
historians. It was a period of dynamic advance, bringing new appreciations
of our solar. environment and new capabilities to develop and exploit ad-
vancing knowledge and techniques. Since the space challenge of the next dec-
ade is likely to be just as demanding and rewarding as that of the last one,
perhaps we may gain useful perspective by reflecting upon our experiences
even as we contemplate tomorrow.
Ten years ago our planning for the future required the piecing together
and development of the organization and management as well as disciplinary
and technical capability for space exploration. Today our planning for the
future can be based upon well-established and versatile capabilities in science,
engineering, and administration. Reliable space vehicles are available rang-
ing from small sounding rockets to the Titan I11 and Saturn V class vehicles.
The use of automated techniques in space has been demonstrated by the Mar-
iner, Ranger, Surveyor, Lunar Orbiter, Explorer, Geophysical and Solar
Observatories, Tiros, Nimbus, Syncom, the Applications Technology Satel-
lite, and many others. The capability of man himself to function usefully in
space has been,demonstrated in the successes of Mercury and Gemini and
expands rapidly as Apollo proceeds.
Ten years ago we could only assert from intuition and prophecy the value
of space experimentation to science. Now we can point to the profound in-
fluence it has had on the geosciences, on astronomy, and is beginning to have
in life sciences. Thanks to our planetary probes, we have known since 1965 that
the planet Mars has craters like the Moon. Thanks to our lunar probes, a de-
tailed lunar atlas can be prepared.
Ten years ago we could only point forward hopefully to space applications
in meteorology, communications, navigation, and geodesy. Today these are
all operational areas. Global weather photographs are received daily even
in some of the most undeveloped areas of the world. Reliable, live TV broad-
casts bring worldwide historic events and Olympic games into our living rooms
routinely and in real time. Ships in all oceans use signals from satellites to
refine their knowledge of their position; soon aircraft will be doing the same.
Specially instrumented satellites and probes are daily filling in details on the
momentous geophysical discoveries of Van Allen and others.
Ten years ago there was serious question as to whether there would be
enough skilled manpower or public interest to carry out a sustained program
of space exploration. Today great teams of competent scientists, engineers,
and managers are engaged in developing our national space and aeronautical
capability and applying its hard-earned technology to the most rewarding ap-
plications for commercial, industrial, social, and military purposes. Un-
paralleled scientific and technological success in our space venture during the
past decade not only vastly increased our skills and resources but also de-
veloped high confidence in our ability to solve other problems in today’s SO-
ciety. Problems of national defense, oceanography, earth resources, the cities,
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