Space: Some Earthier Problems

To the moon-eyed whiz kid from RCA, there seemed no insurmountable challenge in straw-bossing the U.S.’s $20 billion man-in-space program. “I think I’m up to it,” said Brainerd Holmes, 42, when he took over as Director of Manned Space Flight for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 1961. NASA Boss James Webb heartily concurred and said: “He has every quality it takes to get the job done.” And so it seemed. Under Holmes’s guidance, the U.S. launched five successful manned flights, developed detailed plans for a race to the moon and opened the massive new Manned Space Flight Centerin Houston.

But there were other, earthier problems. Webb quickly decided that Holmes (TIME Cover, Aug. 10) attached entirely too much urgency to the moon race and upstaged Webb’s own pet scientific probes as a result. Late last year, Holmes asked an additional $400 million for the moon program. Webb curtly refused to take the request to Congress, and Holmes put up a fuss. After that, Webb began bypassing Holmes and going to other officials for advice in policy decisions.

When argument broke out, after Gordon Cooper’s 22-orbit mission, about whether to continue Project Mercury, Holmes again was ignored. Though Holmes personally opposed another Mercury flight because of the high cost, Webb and other high NASA officials publicly dubbed it “unlikely,” without once consulting him. The astronauts paid no attention to Holmes either, and got in their own high-level politicking in favor of the flight over cocktails with President Kennedy at Cooper’s Washington reception.

Last week NASA made it official—the Mercury program was finished and the space agency would now start concentrating on Project Gemini, the two-man, rendezvous-in-space program. As it did, the Soviet Union took another step of its own toward the moon (see THE WORLD). But the whiz kid from RCA was out of the race. Buried in the middle of a three-page NASA release was the news that “The Office of Manned Space Flight will be realigned to permit Mr. Brainerd Holmes, Director, to return to industry.”