Space Task Group

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  On the 5th of November, 1958, the Space Task Group opened for business with forty-five staff, eight of them holding the occupational title 'computers.' These were women whose job was to run calculations on mechanical adding machines. The remaining thirty-seven were engineers, most pulled from Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The group's head was Robert Gilruth. At twenty-one, Glynn Lunney was the youngest on staff. How did this compact team come to manage the program that sent Americans to the Moon? And what became of the name 'Space Task Group' once the group itself was gone?

  56

• 2. Gilruth's First Roster

  ›

  Twenty-seven of the engineers came from Langley Research Center, and ten from Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Charles Donlan served as Gilruth's deputy. Max Faget headed engineering. Chuck Mathews and Chris Kraft both worked in flight operations. The public affairs office was the responsibility of John 'Shorty' Powers. Together, this original team managed Project Mercury and developed plans for the human spaceflight programs that would follow. The group's capacity was about to be tested, and the pressure would come from an unexpected direction.

  56

• 3. The Avro Arrow Connection

  ›

  In 1959, thirty-two engineers from Canada joined the Space Task Group. Each had lost their position when the Avro Arrow project was cancelled. Among them were Jim Chamberlin, George Harris, John Hodge, Owen Maynard, Bryan Erb, Rodney Rose, and Tecwyn Roberts. The group now included engineers from both American and Canadian programs. That expansion would prove modest against what was coming. An announcement in the spring of 1961 would change everything.

  43

• 4. Kennedy's Challenge

  ›

  On the 25th of May, 1961, President John F. Kennedy set a national goal before Congress. The charge: land a man on the Moon and return him safely to Earth. The deadline was the end of the decade. NASA administrator James E. Webb concluded that this goal far exceeded what a task group could manage. A new, dedicated NASA center would be required. Webb secured approval from both Kennedy and Congress. In August 1961, he appointed a team to select a site. On the 19th of September, Webb announced the result: Houston, Texas.

  5

• 5. Building Houston

  ›

  Rice University donated the land. Gilruth immediately began planning the transition, mapping his expanded staff's move from Hampton, Virginia to Houston. During construction, the organization operated from twelve temporary leased sites across the city. By September 1962, the move was complete and building was underway. The Manned Spacecraft Center facility was finished in September 1963. The building Gilruth's team occupied would one day be known as the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center. But the name 'Space Task Group' had not finished its work.

  5

• 6. A Name Repurposed

  ›

  The National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 did more than create NASA. It also established a National Aeronautics and Space Council, tasked with advising on both civilian and military space programs. Occasionally this council was called a 'Space Task Group.' President Kennedy persuaded Congress to let the Vice President chair the council in his place.

  As the Apollo program reached its climax, President Nixon directed Vice President Spiro T. Agnew to lead one such group in February 1969. Agnew supported an ambitious Space Transportation System program: reusable spacecraft, permanent Earth and Lunar stations, and human missions to Mars. Nixon knew the mood in Congress would not sustain Apollo-level funding. He cut the plans back to a single program. That program was the Space Shuttle, with a possible Earth orbital space station as the only remaining option. The council eventually took a formal name: the National Space Council.

  5