Nov 2 1968
From The Space Library
President Johnson presented NASA Distinguished Service Medal, NASA's highest award, to recently retired NASA Administrator James E. Webb at ceremony in Johnson City, Tex. He also awarded cluster to NASA Exceptional Service Medal held by Apollo 7 commander Walter M. Schirra, Jr., and Exceptional Service Medals to Apollo 7 Astronauts R. Walter Cunningham and Donn F. Eisele. President said U.S. was "ready to take that first great step out into the solar system and on to the surface of the nearest of the many mysterious worlds that surround us in space." Noting that Apollo 7 had logged more than 780 man-hours in space-more than had been logged "in all Soviet manned flights to date"-and had accomplished 56 mission objectives, as many "in this one flight as were accomplished in the first five manned flights of the Gemini spacecraft," he said: "This is not important as either a game or a contest. But it is important because the United States of America must be first in technology if it is to continue its position in the world. I believe today, as I did when we had our original hearings that created the Space Administration, that the United States must be first." President read citation, presenting Medal to Webb for "outstanding leadership of America's space program from 1961 to 1968. . . . More than any other individual he deserves the credit for the great achievements of the United States in the first decade of space, and for helping man to reach outward toward the stars." Webb responded: "The citation and medal . . . should, in my view, be converted into some kind of holographic substance so it could be divided into thousands of parts . . . and each part should really go to an outstanding person in NASA, in our scientific group, working in our universities, and in the great industrial organizations of this country that have really done the work." (Transcript; Citation; PD, 11/8/68, 1568-71)
In Prague newspaper Mlaba Fronta, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences' astronomer Dr. L. Krivsky said "very dangerous" radiation from solar radio storm might have forced premature ending of U.S.S.R.'s Soyuz III mission Oct. 30. He implied, said New York Times, that U.S.S.R. had either been unaware or had failed to consider radio storm forecast for late October. (NYT, 11/3/68, 35)
President Johnson reads citation before presenting NASA'S Distinguished Service Medal to James E. Webb, who retired as NASA Administrator Oct. 7. Medal was given for outstanding leadership of America's space program. • Business Week commented on results of "two bad decisions by agencies of the federal government." Boeing Co. was scrapping swing-wing concept on SST in favor of fixed-wing and "word seeped out of the Pentagon that a real fight has developed over whether to cut back production of . . . F-111." How were such mistakes to be prevented in future? "One lesson that emerges . . . is that the government must learn to avoid premature commitment to any huge-scale project. . . . Another lesson is that in such major decisions, an independent, technologically competent judgment should be brought to bear on the issue. On the F-111, the President's Science Advisory Council did not even look at the dcsign features of the aircraft. On the SST, a Special Presidential Advisory Committee was set up, but it was chaired by [then Secretary of Defense Robert S.] McNamara and was dominated by top Administration officials. Such changes in procedures may not wipe out all mistakes, but they could greatly reduce the chances of astronomically costly blunders. " (Bus Wk, 11/2/68)
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