NRO-MOL_2015

Chapter I - Early Space Station Planning
9
Meanwhile, Dr. Kavanau endorsed the proposed Phase
I effort after hearing a new MODS presentation at the
Space Systems Division on 19-20 June. He indicated that
OSD would be receptive to receiving “a solid proposal”
for a space test station and asked the Air Force to
develop and submit its justification. Several weeks later
the Air Staff completed the PCP which, together with a
revised proposed system package plan, was submitted
to the Chief of Staff. He approved the documents on
12 July 1962 and forwarded them to Dr. Brockway
McMillan, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force (Research
and Development). Dr. McMillan later advised that he
believed the $14.7 million requirement was too high and
that half that amount appeared sufficient for program
definition. The Air Staff subsequently revised the PCP in
accordance with this guidance. 26
MODS, Blue Gemini, and the Five-
Year Space Program
During the summer of 1962 other important activities
were underway which greatly affected USAF space
station planning. One of the more important involved a
special task force, headed by General Ferguson, which
in July initiated a two-month effort to prepare a Five-Year
USAF Space Program. In the final program document,
the Ferguson task force described several man-inspace
projects including the military orbital development
system. The MODS proposal was given an especially
strong endorsement by a Scientific Advisory Board subcommittee,
which reported to General Ferguson on 25
September 1962:
It is almost certain that as man’s
conquest of space proceeds, manned
space stations with key military
functions will assume strategic
importance. It is therefore prudent
for the Air Force to undertake R&D
programs to explore the capabilities
and limitations of man in space; to
undertake exploratory development
of special techniques to exercise
military functions from manned
orbital bases, and to program flight
tests of primitive manned orbital
bases with the capability of
rudimentary military functions.
McMillan served as Assistant Secretary (R&D) until 12 June 1963, at
which time he became Under Secretary of the Air Force, succeeding Dr.
Joseph V. Charyk.
Figure 14. Brockway McMillan
Source: CSNR Reference Collection
The SAB recommended that the Air Force utilize NASA’s
Gemini vehicles as a means of initiating the military manin-space
program. 27
The Five-Year Space Program document was reviewed
and approved during September and October by the
Air Council, major USAF commanders, the SAB, and a
scientific advisory group headed by Dr. Clark Millikan.
Prepared in loose-leaf format, it contained separate
PCP’s covering the USAF space projects. Total estimated
costs to implement the program exceeded by far anything
previously submitted to OSD by the Air Force. For fiscal
year 1963 through 1967, it called for expenditures of
more than $10 billion, about $6 billion more than the
estimated costs contained in OSD’s tentative guidelines
for the same period. 28
On 19 October 1962, the Chief of Staff forwarded the
document to Secretary Zuckert and requested approval.
He in turn dispatched it to OSD on 5 November with
a general endorsement. Zuckert advised Secretary
McNamara not to regard the PCP’s in the program