Project Apollo: Americans to the Moon 440 Document II-1 Document Title
440 Project Apollo: Americans to the Moon Document II-1 Document Title: NASA, “ Minutes of Meeting of Research Steering Committee on Manned Space Flight,” 25–26 May 1959. Source: Folder 18675, NASA Historical Reference Collection, History Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC. Within less than a year after its creation, NASA began looking at follow-on programs to Project Mercury, the initial human spacefl ight effort. A Research Steering Committee on Manned Space Flight was created in spring 1959; it consisted of top-level representatives of all of the NASA fi eld centers and NASA Headquarters. Harry J. Goett from Ames, but soon to be head of the newly created Goddard Space Flight Center, was named chair of the committee. The fi rst meeting of the committee took place on 25 and 26 May 1959, in Washington. Those in attendance provided an overview of research and thinking related to human spacefl ight at various NASA centers, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and the High Speed Flight Station (HSFS) at Edwards Air Force Base. George Low, then in charge of human spacefl ight at NASA Headquarters, argued for making a lunar landing NASA’s long-term goal. He was backed up by engineer and designer Maxime Faget of the Space Task Group of the Langley Research Center and Bruce Lundin of the Lewis Research Center. After further discussion at its June meeting, the Committee agreed on the lunar landing objective, and by the end of the year a lunar landing was incorporated into NASA’s 10-year plan as the long-range objective of the agency’s human spacefl ight program.
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