[TSR] When Senator Walter Mondale went to the Moon

[Orionid]

When Senator Walter Mondale went to the Moon: the Apollo 1 fire and the myths we create
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, March 16, 2020


NASA leadership, including administration James Webb (second from left) testifying at a Senate hearing about the Apollo 1 accident in 1967. (credit: NASA)

In 1999, in honor of the 30th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing, radio station WAMU in Washington, DC, aired a fascinating program about the role of Washington politics in the lunar landing. “Washington Goes to the Moon” was written and produced by Richard Paul and featured interviews with a number of key figures in the story, including CBS anchor Walter Cronkite and former NASA Deputy Administrator Robert Seamans. The program remains an excellent introduction to the subject of politics and Apollo and is worth listening to even 20 years later.

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Source: https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3901/1

[Orionid]

Capsule on fire: An interview with Robert Seamans about the Apollo 1 accident
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, March 23, 2020 [TSR]


The Apollo 1 crew enters their spacecraft in a test in an altitude chamber at the Kennedy Space Center. (credit: NASA)

In January 1967, three astronauts died on the ground in what should have been a routine test. Gus Grissom, Roger Chaffee, and Ed White were slated to launch into space in a few months aboard what was then known as Apollo 204 and would soon become known as Apollo 1. Following the fire, NASA conducted an internal investigation. The US Senate also held hearings and called senior NASA leaders to testify. One of the people at the hearings was NASA Deputy Administrator Robert Seamans, who appeared alongside NASA Administrator James Webb and head of the manned space flight office, George Mueller. They soon found themselves in the sights of a junior senator, Walter Mondale, who knew that there had been a string of problems involving Apollo main contractor North American Aviation.

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Source: https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3904/1

[Orionid]

And that’s the way it was on the way to the Moon: an interview with Walter Cronkite
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, March 30, 2020 [TSR]


Walter Cronkite during CBS News coverage of the Apollo 11 landing. (credit: CBS)

Walter Cronkite was once known as one of the most trusted men in America, a newscaster with a reputation for telling it like it was. Cronkite, who died in 2009 at the age of 92, reported on many subjects during his decades in the news business, including the Apollo program, about which he could not hide his enthusiasm. He was a space buff, clearly relishing the drama and inspiration of the effort to send Americans to the Moon, and getting teary-eyed when Apollo 11 successfully landed on the Sea of Tranquility.

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Source: https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3910/1

[Orionid]

Rashomon’s fire: another perspective on Apollo 1 from NASA official Paul Dembling
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, April 6, 2020 [TSR]


Part of the Apollo 1 capsule seen during the accident investigation. (credit: NASA)

Reality doesn’t happen like the movies. Except sometimes it does.

In January 1967, three astronauts died in a fire on a launch pad in Florida before they ever got the opportunity to reach space. Their spacecraft killed them. Gus Grissom, Roger Chaffee, and Ed White were slated to launch into space in a few months aboard what was then known as Apollo 204 and would soon be commonly known as Apollo 1. Immediately following the fire, NASA conducted an internal investigation that identified numerous problems with the spacecraft. Within a month, the US House of Representatives held hearings on the accident, followed by the US Senate. NASA leaders were called to testify. One of the people who headed up to the Senate—but who was not supposed to testify himself—was Paul Dembling.

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Source: https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3916/1

[Orionid]

Astronauts, guns, and butter: Charles Schultze and paying for Apollo in a time of turmoil
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, May 11, 2020 [TSR]


Charles Schultze, budget director for LBJ, sought to delay the lunar landings into the early 1970s as a budget-cutting measure. (credit: NASA)

By 1966, NASA’s budget had begun to decrease, but was still significantly larger than other major domestic projects. The civilian space program was over $5 billion, compared to the “war on poverty” at $1.8 billion, and approximately $2 billion to improve elementary and secondary education. In early 1966, Charles Schultze, who served as Lyndon Johnson’s Director of the Bureau of the Budget from June 1965 until January 1968, recommended to Johnson that he delay the Moon landing until the 1970s and cancel post-Apollo projects. Schultze had proposed a list of spending cuts to Johnson, and the NASA cuts produced the second-largest savings of the options he presented. But Johnson rejected the NASA cuts at that time.

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Source: https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3941/1

[Orionid]

When Washington went to the Moon: An interview with Glen Wilson
by Dwayne A. Day Monday, May 18, 2020


During the race to the Moon, President Lyndon Johnson had access to American satellite photography nearly as good as this historical photograph, taken from a helicopter, showing two Soviet N-1 rockets on their pads in Kazakhstan. That intelligence information influenced Johnson’s views on the need to continue or slow down Apollo.

Glen Wilson was a Senate staffer and worked closely with Senator Lyndon Johnson in the 1950s, playing an important role in drafting the legislation that created NASA in 1958. He worked in the Senate throughout the 1960s, when NASA and the increasingly expensive race to the Moon was often a focus of the legislative branch. Wilson had a high opinion of Johnson as a master politician, and knew many of the key people in Washington during the Apollo program, witnessing how the Apollo program played out in the back halls of Congress.

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Source: https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3945/1