Space: In Earthly Trouble

Precisely as planned, the 550-ton, eight-engine rocket rose ponderously from its launch pad and thundered into the sky. Last week’s flight from Cape Canaveral was the third faultless test of the mammoth, 162-ft. Saturn, prototype of the giant rockets that the U.S. hopes will carry an American to the moon by 1967 or 1968. But even as Saturn was moving toward success in the sky, the U.S. man-to-the-moon program was in earthly trouble. It stemmed from the clashing personalities and ideas of the project’s two top officials.

The Conflict. One was James Webb, head of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. A former Director of the Budget under Harry Truman, Webb, 56, has a cautious eye where money is concerned. He claims to be satisfied with the progress of the $20 billion moon-flight program. Says Webb: “We have not slipped our target dates.”

But Webb is flatly contradicted by the director of NASA’s Manned Space Flight Program: Brainerd Holmes, 41 (TIME cover, Aug. 10), a brilliant, aggressive electrical engineer with a hard-bitten talent for ramming through tough projects. The moon program, Holmes feels, is already four to six months behind schedule —and the reason is that Webb is dragging his feet. Webb and Holmes have vastly different ideas about the urgency of putting an American on the moon. Says Webb: “The moon program is important, but it’s not the only important part of our space program.” Retorts Holmes: “I don’t agree with him. I think it’s the top-priority program within NASA.”

The Effect. According to Holmes, the moon program ran into trouble in late summer, when various space contractors informed him that the scheduled programs would cost about $400 million more than the original estimates. Since Congress was still in session, Holmes asked Webb to request a supplemental appropriation for the project, which already was funded at $2.2 billion for fiscal 1963. Webb refused, apparently because he figured that asking for that much extra money might anger Congress in a deficit budget year, thereby imperiling the entire space program.

What is more, Webb declares: “I am not willing to transfer millions of dollars from other NASA programs into manned space flight.” Thus, Holmes has no choice but to cut back his program. Last week the signs of that cutback were obvious in space centers across the U.S.: » In St. Louis, at McDonnell Aircraft Corp., makers of the Mercury and Gemini space capsules, strict limits have been set against overtime work. » In Maryland the Martin Marietta Corp. has laid off 225 men who were working on the Titan II booster, the rocket that will launch Gemini. » In Houston, home of the Manned Spacecraft Center, one official declared: “I thought we were in a race. My God, we’ve got guys going out of their minds down here trying to get things going.” » At the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., Saturn Boss Wernher von Braun warned: “We cannot allow things to slow down any more than they have.”

The Dilemma. The White House still wants to push on to the moon with “the utmost urgency,” says one Administration official. But such are the differences between Webb and Holmes that the whole program is in danger of bogging down.