Aug 15 1968
From The Space Library
At closed meeting at Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corp. in July, NASA Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight, Dr. George E. Mueller, had said contractors' disregard of planned delivery dates for Apollo equipment amounted to a "disease" in the project, New York Times reported. Apollo Program Director L/G Samuel C. Phillips was quoted as saying, "The lunar landing next year is within our grasp, but we don't have a hold of it because of the disease Dr. Mueller cited." Project was running two years behind schedule, with first manned Apollo flight expected no earlier than mid-October and earliest lunar landing in a year. Dozens of contractors in $24-million program, urged to meet tough specifications for mission safety and success at same time, were obsessed with checking and double checking all systems as result of Jan. 24, 1967, Apollo fire. Lunar module (LM) regarded as pacing item of project, had undergone only one flight test. First LM for manned flight had developed problems in rendezvous equipment. Dr. Mueller had said rate of changes in LM was three times that of Apollo command module, whose rate of changes, in turn, was four times that of Saturn V rocket. He said changes placed added burden on technicians who should be concentrating on launching operations, not on vehicle modifications. (Wilford, NYT, 8/15/68, 16)
Washington Post editorial saw scheduled MIRY test as threat to success of missile-limitation talks between U.S. and U.S.S.R. "Perhaps it will prove possible to level off the arms race despite MIRV, although it is generally acknowledged that this weapon raises special inspection and stability issues of its own. If talks do stick, however, the Administration must be prepared to bend on MIRV. . . . No one seriously claims that there is any immediate military justification for it; deterrence works without it and the antimissile system it was designed to penetrate evidently is in low gear. It may be acceptable for MIRV to be tested in order to ease the Administration's internal tensions and electoral exigencies. . . . But it would be intolerable to let MIRV spoil the missile talks. They hold more promise of mutual security-the only genuine kind there is-than any new weapon can provide." (W Post, 8/15/68, A20)
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