Dec 9 1957

From The Space Library

Secretary McElroy ordered acceleration of the Polaris program.

The Air Force Scientific Advisory Board Ad Hoc Committee on Space Technology recommended acceleration of specific military projects and a vigorous space program with the immediate goal of landings on the moon because "Sputnik and the Russian ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) capability have created a national emergency."

Thomas A. Sturm, The USAF Scientific Advisory Board: Its First Twenty Years, 1944-1964 (1967), pp. 82-83.