NRO-MOL_2015

Chapter XIII - AIR FORCE/NASA COORDINATION
133
turnover of NASA Gemini equipment to the Air Force
ceased to be an issue and, by the end of 1966, an
estimated $50 million in space agency hardware had
been transferred, or was scheduled for transfer, to the
MOL program. 21
DoD/NASA Gemini Experiments
When NASA’s Gemini program was completed with
the splashdown of Gemini 12 on 15 November 1966,
USAF Program 631A—a series of military experiments
performed during the flights—also ended. This program
had origins in the McNamara-Webb agreement of
January 1963 which established the Gemini Program
Planning Board, whose mission was “to avoid duplication
of effort in the field of manned space flight’’ between
NASA and DoD. ** In March 1963 the Board formed an
ad hoc study group to review and recommend military
experiments for inclusion in the Gemini flight program. It
subsequently proposed a series of Air Force and Navy
experiments and, on 25 August, an AFSC Field Office
(Detachment 2, SSD) was established at Houston to
manage their integration into the Gemini program. A
technical development plan covering these Program
631A experiments was submitted to DDR&E and
approved by him on 7 February 1964. Funding for the
experiments totaled $16.1 million. 22
Integration of the experiments was done to
specifications developed by the Air Force and Navy
experiment sponsors and SSD personnel as approved
by the Gemini Program Office. Statements of work for
the “Experiments Orders,” written by SSD personnel,
were submitted to the Gemini Program Office. Training,
mission planning, test operations, and data collection
were responsibilities of the Manned Spacecraft Center,
assisted and supported by Detachment 2. However,
in actual practice the detachment’s project officer
performed the dual role of experiment management for
both the Manned Spacecraft Center and the Air Force. 23
One of the most difficult management problems that
emerged after the military experiments began flying—
beginning with the GT-4 mission on 3 June 1965—
concerned NASA’s public information policy. According
to the original ad hoc study group report which set up
the program, military experiments were to be flown with
the understanding that the results would be handled
as classified information. However, prior to the flight
of Gemini 5—which was scheduled to carry a number
of photographic experiments—word was received in
Washington that Houston officials had decided not
to withhold information from the news media about
** See pp. 19-20.
them. Whereupon, a team of USAF officers—including
Major Robert Hermann of the MOL Program Office—
visited the Manned Spacecraft Center to review
NASA’s information planning for the flight. They found
space agency officials determined not to compromise
NASA’s information policy of full disclosure. Although
MSC officials agreed to provide for special handling of
photographs produced by the military experiments, this
arrangement was never implemented.
The result was an upsurge of public criticism during
the flight of Gemini 5 on 21-29 August 1965. When
information was released on the DoD photographic
experiments, “a hue and cry about NASA’s peaceful
image vs the military spy-in-the-sky implications” arose. ††
Part of the trouble according to Lt Col Wallace C. Fry,
chief of the Space Experiments Office, Headquarters
AFSC, was Detachment 2’s failure to brief the
astronauts on security aspects of the experiments. “As
it developed,” he said, “the crew of Gemini 5 apparently
was not cautioned, and the astronaut who operated
the D-6 lens made comments over the space-ground
radio about the superb view and definition through the
Questar telephoto lens. Also, post-flight handling of the
film was open to suspicion and speculation [on the part
of the news media] probably due to poor planning on our
part.” It did not take the Soviet Union very long to react
and to accuse the United States of using Gemini 5 “to
carry out reconnaissance from space.” One result of the
outcry was the withdrawal of the D-6 experiment from its
second planned flight. 24 (For a complete list of the DoD
experiments, see Chart on the next page.)
†† See pp. 134-137.
Figure 53. Gemini 12 Recovery
Source: CSNR Reference Collection