US policymakers confront aerospace doctrine, 1957–59

Abstract

Soviet satellites in 1957 galvanised air force interest in defending and exploiting ‘aerospace’ as an extended realm of operations. The Dynamic Soarer glider programme, catapulted to significance by air force reaction to Sputnik, became the standard bearer for aerospace thought in the late 1950s. Dwight Eisenhower's administration, however, did not see the weaponisation of space as inevitable or desirable. Convinced that public insistence for visible space accomplishments made elimination or cuts to projects politically difficult, Eisenhower's administration used organisational decisions and policy strictures to impede development of the Dyna-Soar and to prevent aerospace paladins from commandeering US space policy.

Notes

¹ Walter McDougall, The Heavens and the Earth: A Political History of the Space Age (New York: Basic Books, 1985), 133.

² David Callahan and Fred I Greenstein, ‘The Reluctant Racer: Eisenhower and US Space Policy’, Spaceflight and the Myth of Presidential Leadership, ed. Roger D Launius and Howard E McCurdy (University of Illinois, 1997), 15.

³ Lt Col Roy Houchin, US Hypersonic Research and Development: The Rise and Fall of DynaSoar, 1944–1963 (New York: Routledge, 2006), 1.

⁴ Houchin, US Hypersonic Research and Development, 2.

⁵ Callahan and Greenstein, ‘The Reluctant Racer’, 40.

⁶ Zuoyue Wang, In Sputnik's Shadow: The President's Scientific Advisory Committee and Cold War America (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2012), 71–99.

⁷ Peter J. Roman, Eisenhower and the Missile Gap (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1995), 28–9.

⁸ Robert Divine, The Sputnik Challenge: Eisenhower's Response to the Soviet Satellite (Oxford University Press, 1993), 3–8; Richard M. Bissell, with Jonathan E. Lewis and Frances T. Pudlo, Reflections of a Cold Warrior: From Yalta to the Bay of Pigs (Yale University Press, 1996), 134–5.

⁹ R. Cargill Hall, ‘Clandestine Victory: Eisenhower and Overhead Reconnaissance in the Cold War’, in Forging the Shield (Chicago: Imprint, 2005), 3; Conrad C Crane, ‘Exerting Air Pressure and Globalizing Containment: War Termination in Korea’, in Between War and Peace: How America Ends Its Wars, ed. Col Matthew Moten (New York: Free Press, 2011), 257.

¹⁰ Hall, ‘Clandestine Victory’, 7–10.

¹¹ R. Cargill Hall ‘Sputnik, Eisenhower, and the Formation of the US Space Program’, Quest 14.4 (2007): 34; Zang, In Sputnik's Shadow, 52–53.

¹² R. Cargill Hall, ‘Postwar Strategic Reconnaissance and the Genesis of CORONA’, Eye in the Sky: The Story of the CORONA Spy Satellites, eds. Dwayne A. Day, John M. Logsdon, and Brian Latell (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998), 87–92.

¹³ Lee Bowen, Threshold of Space: An Air Force History of Space Activities, 1945–1959 (USAF Historical Division Liaison Office, August 1964), K168.01-7, AFHRA, p45; ‘Abbreviated System Development Plan’, 23 August 1957; David Spires, Beyond Horizons: A Half Century of Air Force Space Leadership (Peterson AFB: AF Space Command, 1998), 74.

¹⁴ Hall, ‘Sputnik, Eisenhower, and the Formation of the US Space Program’, 34.

¹⁵ NSC 5520: ‘US Scientific Satellite Program’, http://www.marshall.org/pdf/materials/805.pdf [accessed 23 November 2011].

¹⁶ Dwayne A Day, ‘A Strategy for Reconnaissance: Dwight D Eisenhower and Freedom of Space’, Eye in the Sky: The Story of the CORONA Spy Satellites, eds. Dwayne A. Day, John M. Logsdon, and Brian Latell (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998), 135, 126.

¹⁷ Memo from Larson to Eisenhower, 15 Oct 1957, #2098, declassified 1990 USIA, DDRS.

¹⁸ Note to Larson, 4 Nov 1957, Fldr President's Speeches: Science and Security Background Material used for 7 Nov and 13 Nov 1957 (3), Box 3, Moos Papers, DDEL.

¹⁹ ‘Dyna-Soar Chronology’, 5 May 1960, Dyna-Soar: Hypersonic Strategic Weapons System, ed. R. Godwin (Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Apogee Books, 2003).

²⁰ Telegram, 12 Dec 1957, Fldr Department of Defense Vol. (3) November-December 1957, Box 1, Department of Defense subseries, Staff Secretary Subject ser, DDEL.

²¹ Bowen, Threshold of Space, 1945-1959 (USAF Historical Division Liaison Office, August 1964), K168.01-7, AFHRA, p131–2.

²² Memo from White to AF Sec Douglas, ‘Priority Program Augmentations to Basic 1959 Budget Estimate’, White 3 Oct 1958. Fldr Secretary of the Air Force #2, Box 18, White Papers, Library of Congress.

²³ Letter from Edward C. Bursk to Robert Cutler, 2 Dec 1957, Fldr Department of Defense, Vol. II (3) November-December 1957, Box 1, Department of Defense subseries, Staff Sec Subject ser, DDEL.

²⁴ Letter from Alan Waterman to James Killian, 6 Dec 1957, Fldr Space December 1957 (3), Box 15, Special Asst Sci & Tech, DDEL. Letter from ARS president Robert C. Truax to II Rabi, 6 Nov 1957, Fldr Space November 1957 (2), Special Asst Sci & Tech, Box 15, DDEL; Frank H. Winter, ‘The American Rocket Society Story – 1930-1962’. Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, Vol. 33 (1980): 303-311; http://www.gravityassist.com/IAF1/Ref.%201-49.pdf. [accessed 11 January 2011].

²⁵ ‘Briefing on Army Satellite Program’, Nov 1957, Fldr Space November 1957 (2), Box 15, Special Asst Sci & Tech, DDEL.

²⁶ McDougall, The Heavens and the Earth, 123.

²⁷ Telegram, 12 Dec 1957, Fldr Department of Defense Vol. (3) November-December 1957, Box 1, Department of Defense subseries, Staff Secretary Subject ser, DDEL.

²⁸ ‘Space Flight Program: Report by the Space Flight Technical Committee of the American Rocket Society’, revised 10 Oct 1957, Fldr Space October 1957 (1), Box 15, Special Asst Sci & Tech, DDEL.

²⁹ ‘Preliminary Observations on the Organization for the Exploitation of Outer Space’, memo from SP Johnson to Killian, 21 Feb 1958, Fldr National Aeronautics and Space Administration-National Aeronautics and Space Council (3), Box 4, PSAC, DDEL.

³⁰ Notes of conversation, 7 Feb 1958, Fldr Meeting Notes February 1958, Box 1, PSAC, DDEL.

³¹ Draft of ‘The Scientific Exploration of Outer Space’, 7 Mar 1958, Fldr Space January-May 1958 (4), Box 15, Special Asst Sci & Tech, DDEL.

³² ‘Preliminary Observations on the Organization for the Exploitation of Outer Space’, 21 Feb 1958; Fldr National Aeronautics and Space Administration-National Aeronautics and Space Council (3), Box 4, PSAC, DDEL.

³³ Albert D Wheelon, ‘CORONA: A Triumph of American Technology’, Eye in the Sky: The Story of the CORONA Spy Satellites, eds. Dwayne A. Day, John M. Logsdon, and Brian Latell (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998), 32.

³⁴ ‘Scientific and Reconnaissance Satellites’, memo from Robert Cutler to James Killian, 20 Jan 1958, Fldr Space – Satellites July 1956-February 1960, Box 3, Special Asst Sci & Tech, DDEL.

³⁵ Godwin, ed. ‘Dyna-Soar Chronology’, 5 May 1960, 118.

³⁶ Gordon Gray, ‘handwritten notes of meeting at Augusta, Georgia, 28 Nov 1958 re defense expenditures’, 28 Nov 1958, Fldr Meetings with the President 1958 (4), Box 3, Special Assistant for National Security Affairs, Special Assistant ser, DDEL.

³⁷ Memo from Piland to Killian, ‘Dyna-Soar’, 3 Nov 1958, Fldr Missiles April-December 1958 (3), Box 12, Special Asst Sci & Tech ser, DDEL.

³⁸ Gordon Gray, ‘handwritten notes of meeting at Augusta, Georgia, 28 Nov 1958 re defense expenditures’, 28 Nov 1958, Fldr Meetings with the President 1958 (4), Box 3, Special Assistant for National Security Affairs, Special Assistant ser, DDEL.

³⁹ Memo from Piland to Killian, ‘Dyna-Soar’, 3 Nov 1958, Fldr Missiles April-December 1958 (3), Box 12, Special Asst Sci & Tech ser, DDEL.

⁴⁰ Letter from Quarles to NASA administrator Glennan, 28 Nov 1958, Fldr Space Council (10), Box 24, Staff Sec Alpha ser, DDEL; Letter from NASA Administrator Glennan to Sec Def McElroy’, 1 Dec 1958, Fldr Space Council (10), Box 24, Staff Sec Alpha ser, DDEL; Memo by Goodpaster to Hagerty, 26 Nov 1958, Fldr National Aeronautics and Space Administration September 1958 – January 1961 (3), Box 18, Staff Sec Alpha ser, DDEL; ‘Memorandum of Discussion at the 375^th Meeting of the National Security Council’, 7 Aug 1958, FRUS 1958–1960 Volume III, doc 32, pp. 132–135.

⁴¹ Letter from Quarles to Eisenhower, 7 Aug 1958, Fldr McElroy, Neil 1957-8 (1), Box 23, P AWD, DDEL.

⁴² Kenneth Osgood, Total Cold War: Eisenhower's Secret Propaganda Battle at Home and Abroad (Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press, 2006), 325.

⁴³ Day, ‘The Development and Improvement of the CORONA Satellite’, 52–54.

⁴⁴ ‘Political Action and Satellite Reconnaissance’, 24 April 1959, Fldr Space January-June 1959 (6), Box 15, Special Asst Sci & Tech ser, DDEL.

⁴⁵ Godwin, ed. ‘Dyna-Soar Chronology’, 5 May 1960, 117–118.

⁴⁶ ‘Required Action on Dyna-Soar’, 29 Oct 1959, K140.8636-4, AFHRA.

⁴⁷ Lt Col Benjamin H Ferer, ‘Actions on Dyna Soar – 5 Sept 59 thru 6 Nov 1959’, 10 Nov 1959, K140.8636-4, AFHRA; ‘Cancellation of Dyna Soar Selection’, 9 Oct 1959, K140.8636-4, AFHRA; ‘Dyna Soar Source Selection’, 29 Oct 1959, K140.8636-4, AFHRA; ‘Required Action on Dyna Soar’, 29 Oct 1959, K140.8636-4, AFHRA.

⁴⁸ Memo, White to Charyk, 27 Oct 1959, Fldr Chief of Staff Signed Memos, Box 26, White Papers, Library of Congress; Memo, White to DC/S Development, 28 Oct 1959, Fldr Chief of Staff Signed Memos, Box 26, White Papers, Library of Congress; Memo, White to Wilson, 30 Oct 1959, Fldr Chief of Staff Signed Memos, Box 26, White Papers, Library of Congress.

⁴⁹ Houchin, US Hypersonic Research and Development, 119; Godwin, ed. ‘Dyna-Soar Chronology’, 5 May 1960, 118–119.

⁵⁰ ‘Memo for the President: Responsibility and Organization for Certain Space Activities’, 21 Oct 1959, Fldr McElroy, Neil H. Secy. of Defense, 1959 (1), Box 23, PP AWD, DDEL; Notes from 1 Oct 1959 meeting by Kistiakowsky, Glennan, Horner, Silverstein, Purcell, and Hornig, 2 Oct 1959, Fldr Space January-June 1959 (6), Box 15, Special Asst Sci & Tech ser, DDEL.

⁵¹ Day, ‘The Development and Improvement of the CORONA Satellite’, 52–54, 57.

⁵² ‘Final Draft, US Policy on Outer Space’, 12 Nov 1959, #1141, declassified 1997 WH, DDRS.

⁵³ ‘Editorial Note’, for 12 Jan 1959, FRUS 1958-1960 Volume III, pp. 172–173.

⁵⁴ Memo from James Lay to Gordon Gray, ‘Dynasoar’, 25 Nov 1959, #2953, declassified 1998 WH, DDRS.

⁵⁵ Memo from James Lay to Gordon Gray, ‘Dynasoar’, 25 Nov 1959, #2953, declassified 1998 WH, DDRS

⁵⁶ Memo from James Lay to Gordon Gray, ‘Dynasoar’, 25 Nov 1959, #2953, declassified 1998 WH, DDRS

⁵⁷ ‘United States Air Force Basic Doctrine AFM 1-2AFM 1–2’, (1 December 1959).

⁵⁸ Houchin, US Hypersonic Research and Development, 120–1.

⁵⁹ Godwin, ed. ‘DynaSoar Chronology’, 5 May 1960, 118–119.

⁶⁰ Godwin, ed. ‘DynaSoar Chronology’, 5 May 1960, 118-119