Source Notes

Chapter 7: The Launch Directorate Becomes an Operating Center

  1. 1. Gen. Ostrander, "Proposed Organization for Launch Activities at AMR and PMR," 6 July 1961; Debus, "Proposed Organization for Launch Activities at Atlantic Missile Range and Pacific Missile Range Due to Proposed Realignment of NASA Programs," 12 June 1961.

  2. 2. Debus to Rees, Dep. Dir. for R&D, MSFC, "Operating Procedures and Responsibilities of MSFC Divisions and Others at Launch Site," 4 Aug. 1961.

  3. 3. Ibid.; see also DDJ, 27 July 1961.

  4. 4. D. M. Morris, Dep. Dir. of Admin., MSFC, to Albert Siepert, Dir., Office of Business Admin., NASA Hq., 6 June 1961; Harry H. Gorman, Assoc. Dep. Dir. for Admin., MSFC, to Seamans, 26 Sept. 1961.

  5. 5. Debus, "A Paper on Launch and Spaceflight Operations," 27 Sept. 1961.

  6. 6. Debus, "Analysis of Major Elements Regarding the Functions and Organization of Launch and Spaceflight Operations," 10 Oct. 1961.

  7. 7. Concurrence by Wernher von Braun, appended to n. 6 reference.

  8. 8. Seamans to Young and Siepert, 13 Oct. 1961; Debus interview, 16 May 1972.

  9. 9. Rees to von Braun, "New Organization Proposals for LOD," 17 Oct. 1961; Debus interview, 16 May 1972.

  10. 10. Debus interview, 22 Aug. 1969.

  11. 11. NASA release 62-53, "Establishment of the Launch Operations Center at AMR and the Pacific Launch Operations Office at PMR," 7 Mar. 1962.

  12. 12. Young to Seamans, "Internal Organization of the Launch Operations Center," 29 June 1962.

  13. 13. Debus interview, 22 Aug. 1969.

  14. 14. "MSFC-LOC Separation Agreement," 8 June 1962, printed in Francis E. Jarrett, Jr., and Robert A. Lindemann, "Historical Origins of NASA's Launch Operations Center to 1 July 1962" (KSC, 1964), app.; NASA release LOC-63-64, 24 Apr. 1963. The transfer of LVOD personnel from MSFC to LOC was completed by 6 May 1963. See James M. Ragusa, "John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC) NASA Reorganization Policy and Methods," (M.S. thesis, Florida State Univ., Apr. 1968), p. 25.

  15. 15. Melton interview.

  16. 16. DDJ, 1 Sept. 1961; Clark interview.

  17. 17. Missiles and Rockets, 6 Nov. 1961, p. 18.

  18. 18. Ernest W. Brackett, Dir., Procurement and Supply, to Dir., Off. of Admin., with enclosure, "Establishment of Launch Operations Center," 15 June 1962.

  19. 19. Clarence Bidgood, "Facilities Office Memo No. 2," 1 Feb. 1962; Spaceport News, 22 Feb. 1963.

  20. 20. Debus interview, 22 Aug. 1969.

  21. 21. Parker interview, 14 Feb. 1969.

  22. 22. By early June 1962, 930 sq m of off-site space had been leased and plans were made to lease 1,400 more by 30 July 1962. Robert Heiser to Rachel Pratt, "Notes from von Braun," 11 June 1962; Gordon Harris, Chief of Public Affairs, to Bagnulo, 1 Oct. 1964.

  23. 23. Hall to Facilities Program Off., "Justification for Leasing Additional Space in CAC Building," 13 Mar. 1963. During the period of limited office space, thought was given toward acquiring a barge from the Navy to be moored at the Saturn Barge Terminal and used as an office. Hall to Bidgood, "Barge Anchorage," 18 Sept. 1962; Hawkins to Hall. "Trailer Request for LC-34," 1 Mar. 1963; Spaceport News, 13 Oct. 1966, p. 6.

  24. 24. NASA General Management Instruction (hereafter GMI) 2-2-9.1, "Basic Operating Concepts for the Launch Operations Center at Merritt Island and the Atlantic Missile Range," 10 Jan. 1963.

  25. 25. House Committee on Science and Astronautics, Subcommittee on Manned Space Flight. Hearings: 1964 NASA Authorization, 88th Cong., 1st sess., pt. 2a, pp. 127, 129.

  26. 26. Bidgood interview, 13 Aug. 1969.

  27. 27. Seamans to Dir., LOC, "General Responsibilities and Functions of the NASA Center Director," 10 Jan. 1963, with enclosure, "General Responsibilities and Functions of a NASA Center Director," 10 Jan. 1963. These documents were circulated in LOC on 18 Jan. 1963; see Office of the Dir., "General Responsibilities and Functions of a NASA Center Director," 18 Jan. 1963. They were subsequently revised and published as attachments to NASA GMI 2-0-3, "Informational Material on Assignment of Responsibilities in the NASA Organization Structure," 3 June 1963.

  28. 28. NASA GMI 2-2-9.1, "Basic Operating Concepts for the Launch Operations Center at Merritt Island and the Atlantic Missile Range," 10 Jan. 1963. A 4 Mar. 1963 plan provided for an "Assistant Director for Program Management" (a title actually adopted in the reorganization of 28 Jan. 1964); a 28 Mar. 1963 plan provided for an "Assistant Director for LOC Programs," as did also a 2 Apr. 1963 plan.

  29. 29. The NASA Daytona Beach Operations was established and designated an integral part of LOC in NASA circular 2-2-9, 23 June 1963, which stated that the Manager would "report to the Director, Launch Operations Center, Cocoa Beach, Florida." See also Debus to George Mueller, "Change in Organizational Structure," 13 Dec. 1963; Debus to staff, "LOC Organization Structure," 6 Aug. 1963, and accompanying manual, "LOC Organization Structure," 2 Aug. 1963; LOC Organization Chart, approved by Hugh L. Dryden, 24 Apr. 1963

  30. 30. Spaceport News, 1 May 1963, p. 6.

  31. 31. Bidgood, who had joined LOG on 1 Nov. 1962, organized a Facilities Office by late 1962 and published his first organization chart on 13 Feb. 1963. Bidgood interview, 14 Nov. 1968.

  32. 32. "LOC Organization Structure," 2 Aug. 1963.

  33. 33. Spaceport News, 1 May 1963, p. 6. For Debus's views on the "development operational loop," see his "Analysis of Major Elements Regarding the Functions and Organization of Launch and Spaceflight Operations," 10 Oct. 1961; also "LOC Organizational Structure," 2 Aug. 1963, p. 9.

  34. 34. C. C. Parker, "Boards, Committees, Panels, Teams and Working Groups," 25 Sept. 1963.

  35. 35. Spaceport News, 30 June 1963.

  36. 36. Hugo Young, Bryan Silcock, and Peter Dunn, Journey to Tranquility (Garden City , NY: Doubleday & Co., 1970), p. 158.

  37. 37. Rosholt, An Administrative History of NASA, pp. 288-89.

  38. 38. The Washington Post, 21 Sept. 1963, p. A-10.

  39. 39. Thomas's letter and the President's reply appear in Senate Committee of Appropriations, Hearings: Independent Offices Appropriations, 1964, 88th Cong., 1st sess., pt. 2, pp. 1616-18.

  40. 40. Fortune, Nov. 1963, pp. 125-29, 270, 274, 280.

  41. 41. Spaceport News, 21, 27 Nov. 1963.

  42. 42. Executive Order 11129, Designating Certain Facilities of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and of the Department of Defense in the State of Florida, as the John F. Kennedy Space Center, 29 Nov. 1963; NASA announcement 63-283, "Designation of the John F. Kennedy Space Center, NASA," 20 Dec. 1963; message SAF 82841, Sec. of the Air Force to Cmdr., AFSC, Andrews AFB, 7 Jan. 1964; "Decisions on Geographic Names in the United States, Dec. 1962 through December 1963," decision list 6303, U.S. Board on Geographic Names (Washington: Dept. of the Interior, 1964), p. 20.

  43. 43. Debus to Mrs. W. L. Stewart, 26 Dec. 1963.

  44. 44. Ernest G. Schwiebert, A History of the U.8. Air Forces Ballistic Missiles, pp. 130, 201-203, 247; Akens, Saturn Illustrated Chronology, pp. 67-68.

  45. 45. OMSF, "Management Council Minutes, 29 Oct. 1963," 31 Oct. 1963.

  46. 46. Rosholt, Administrative History, pp. 289-97. Newell headed the Office of Space Sciences and Applications, Bisplinghoff, the Office of Advanced Research and Technology.

  47. 47. NASA release KSC-10-64, 6 Feb. 1964; KSC, "NASA Organization Chart," 28 Jan. 1964; Spaceport News, 13 Feb. 1964.

  48. 48. "KSC Notes," Petrone to Debus, 29 Oct. 1964.

  49. 49. "Kennedy Space Center Apollo Document Tree," approved by Rocco Petrone, 3 Nov. 1965, Joel Kent's private papers.

  50. 50. Childers interview, 7 Nov. 1972; Gramer interview, 21 Sept. 1972.

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