Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1965 - NASA's History Office

ASTRONAUTICS AND AERONAUTICS, 1965 29
January 25: NASA Administrator James E. Webb and DOD Secretary Robert
S. McNamara announced NASA-DOD agreement on the Manned Orbiting
Laboratory (Mol), released in conjunction with FY 1966 budget:
“. . . Planning for the Defense manned orbiting laboratory program
will also consider, in cooperation with NASA, broader objectives of sci-
entific and general technological significance.
“TO determine the essential characteristics of the vehicle that will be
required, the DOD will continue intensive studies and design of experi-
ments and systems aimed at the primary military objectives.
“Cooperative studies, by NASA and Defense, will identify and define
scientific and general technological experiments which might be car-
ried out, with NASA participation, in conjunction with the military
program.
“DOD, with assistance from NASA, will compare configurations of
Apollo which may be suitable for military experiments with the Gemi-
ni B-MOL configuration to determine the complete system that can meet
the primary military objectives in a more efficient, less costly, or more
timely fashion.
“On the basis of these studies, a decision will be made whether to
proceed with full-scale development by Defense of a manned orbiting
laboratory system and what the specific developments and vehicle
configurations are to be. The Defense budget includes $150 million
in FY 1966 for the program. . . .
“Depending upon the manned orbiting laboratory decision, upon the
progress in the Gemini and Apollo programs, and upon the results of
NASA studies, a decision will be made whether to proceed with
modifications to the Apollo system and the nature and timing of neces-
sary specific developments. The NASA 1966 budget includes about $50
million for proceeding with design and pacing developments. . . .”
(NASA Budget Briefing FY 1966)
NASA Associate Administrator Dr. Robert Seamans said during FY
1966 budget briefing: “. . . it is conceivable . . . that the lunar
landing would occur in early 1970 . . . we feel actually greatly en-
couraged at the progress that has been made freezing the design, and
we feel very reassured at the test results we are achieving on our
propulsion systems and with our stages. So that we really feel that
there is more chance that we can get off the flight on an earlier mis-
sion than I would have said a year ago.”
Dr. Seamans said Apollo gave the nation a capability for a wide
variety of scientific and technological flights in earth orbit, in orbit
around the moon, and also for an extended lunar stay time. He com-
mented that the objectives of the current extended Apollo (Apollo-X)
design and feasibility studies were to extend the time of the lunar
mission out to the order of two weeks. He also said that Apollo-X
circumlunar flights, in polar orbit about the moon and taking pho-
tographs of the entire lunar surface, on missions that could involve
staytimes on the moon of up to one or two weeks, all would have great
possibility and would offer great interest scientifically. In comment-
ing on an earlier agreement (1963) with the Pentagon for developing
of a manned orbiting laboratory, Dr. Seamans said: “At the time of